A History of Assam c9.9

c9.9

The scanty accounts of these expeditions throw very little light on the internal condition of the country east of the Karatoya. They prove that that river was still the western boundary of a kingdom of considerable power and extent, but there is nothing to show how far it stretched to the east. For enlightenment on this point we must turn to the *Buranji*s of the Ahoms, who entered the eastern corner of the Brahmaputra valley early in the thirteenth century, and whose appearance on the scene not only changed the whole course of Assam history, but has provided us, from that time forward, with a connected and reliable account of the progress of events there. It appears from these records that a line of Chutiya kings ruled the country east of the Subansiri and the Disang, with the exception of a strip to the south and south-east, where several small Bodo tribes enjoyed a precarious independence. Further west, there was a Kachāri kingdom, on the south bank of the Brahmaputra, which probably extended at least half-way across the Nowgong district. There are no records referring to the time when the Kachāris were the dominant tribe in this part of the country, beyond a few scanty references to collisions between them and the Ahoms in the Buranjis of the latter. They survived, however, as a separate nation until the early part of the last century. Of the latter part of their history, a few scraps of information are forthcoming; and these have been collected in Chapter X. West of the Kachāris on the south bank, and of the Chutiyas on the north, were a number of petty chiefs called Bhuiyās. Each was independent of the others within his own domain, but they seem to have been in the habit of joining their forces whenever they were threatened by a common enemy. The boundary between the tract ruled by these Bhuiyās and the kingdom of Kāmarupa doubtless varied from time to time; a powerful prince would bring many of them under his control, but they would again become independent when the sceptre passed into the hands of a weaker ruler.