A History of Assam c9.20

c9.20

The founder of the Chutiya kingdom is said to have been a chief named Bir Pāl, who claimed descent from the mythical Bhishmak, and ruled over sixty families on a hill called Sonagiri. His son, who is called in the legend Sonagiri Pāl, *alias* Gauri Nārāyan, brought under his yoke the Chutiyas on the neighbouring hills (Rangalgiri, Nilgiri, Chandragiri, etc.). He then turned his arms against a Raja named Bhadra Sen, who ruled in the plains, and defeated him, taking a large quantity of booty and many prisoners of various Hindu castes. He built a capital at Ratnapur and assumed the name Ratnadhvaj Pāl. Subsequently he subdued another chief named Nyāya Pāl and, it is alleged, marched to Kāmatāpur and compelled the Raja of that country to give him a daughter in marriage. He was followed by nine kings of his line, the eighth of whom, Dhir Nārāyan, had a daughter but no son. The girl married a Chutiya lad of low origin, who had beaten all his rivals in the contest prescribed for her hand. Dhir Nārāyan afterwards had a son named Sādhak, and while the boy was still a minor, he made his son-in-law regent and abdicated. The regent, who proved a very incompetent ruler, was attacked and killed by the Ahoms; but they spared the life of the young Raja and gave him an estate in Lower Assam, bounded on the north by the Kobirār Ali, on the south by the Brahmaputra, on the east by the Rota and on the west by the northern Dhansiri of Darrang. Thus far the legends. All that we really know is that Chutiya kings were reigning at Sadiya at the beginning of the thirteenth century, that there were frequent wars between them and the Ahoms, who finally overthrew them and subverted their kingdom in the early part of the sixteenth century. These events will be dealt with in the narrative of Ahom rule.