A History of Assam c7.s2.45

c7.s2.45

Some of the legends which have been mentioned suggest that in the distant past the inhabitants of the country which we now call Assam attained considerable power and a fair degree of civilization; and this view is confirmed by the narrative of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang and by the copper-plate inscriptions which will be referred to in the next chapter. This being so, the question will doubtless be asked why so few memorials of their time have come down to us. The reason is that nature has vied with man in destroying them. The Brahmaputra valley is an alluvial country, and the impetuous, snow-fed rivers which debouch from the Himalayas find so little resistance in its friable soil that they are constantly carving out new channels and cutting away their banks; consequently no buildings erected in their neighbourhood can be expected to remain for more than a limited time, except at a few points like Gauhāti, where rock pierces through the alluvium.