The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c41.s19: VII. Reconquest of Kāmrup, 1637—'38
The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v2.c41.s19
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VII. Reconquest of Kāmrup, 1637—'38
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The Ahom war of Shah Jahan's reign was not the effect of imperialistic expansion. It was a war forced on the Mughals for the defence of their district of Kāmrup against the ambitious policy of the Ahom king. An exceptionally able and enterprising ruler had ascended the throne of Assam in 1603, in the person of Susengphā, rightly surnamed Prātap Singh in memory of his splendid victories. His long reign (1603-1641) covers the entire reign of Jahangir and the first half of Shah Jahan's rule before the latter Emperor became involved in those wars in Balkh and Qandahar which diverted all the strength and resources of the empire to the north-western frontier.
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Prātap Singh set himself to strengthening his kingdom by raising a chain of forts at strategic points, building embanked roads (*āli*), and drawing all the neighbouring rajas to his side by war, marriage, friendly alliance, and extension of his protective vassalage over them. His growing power induced most petty chiefs of that corner to save their estates by voluntarily accepting his overlordship and making him their "adoptive father" by a religious ceremony. The expansive force of the new Ahom Monarchy as it spread westwards inevitably came into collision with Mughal power in Kāmrup.
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The younger branch of the Kuch Bihar royal house which ruled over Kāmrup (called Kuch Hājo in the Persian histories) lost their independence with Islām Khan Chishti's capture of Raja Parikshit Narayan in 1613, (see ch. 15 sec. v). The deposed ruler died in 1616. His younger brother Bali Narayan (called Baldev in the Persian accounts) fled to the Ahom king Susengphā, with whose aid he was set up as the tributary Raja of Darrang and given the title of Dharma Narayan. After the Ahom victory over Ābā Bakr (1615, see ch. 16 sec. iv) the Mughals had constantly to fight to maintain their precarious hold on the country west of the Bar Nadi and they occupied Hajo town and a few other forts while disorder and anarchy reigned throughout the rest of the district. (Gait, 106-111). In the years following Shah Jahan's accession, the causes of war quickly multiplied. Every enemy of the Mughals, every rebel or revenue-defaulter in the north-eastern corner of the subah of Bengal, sought refuge in Ahom territory and found asylum with its king. On that ill-defined frontier, disputes about smuggling, the harbouring of run-away subjects, poaching on each other's territories, and even the killing of subjects, accumulated, as the Ahom king haughtily refused to extradite escaped criminals or punish his subjects' alleged crimes. (S. Mahant's Buranji, paragraphs 123, 129. Gait, 112). When Islām Khan Mashhadi, the new subahdār, arrived in Bengal (May 1635), Bali Narayan was instigated by Satrajit the disloyal Mughal thānahdār of Pāndu, to profit by the administrative disorder due to the change of governors and push into Hajo and attack its faujdār, ‘Abdus Salām. Under a rule made in Jahangir's last years, every new subahdar of Bengal was bound to send to the Emperor cash and presents worth five lakhs of rupees once in his viceroyalty as his tribute. This amount was expected to be made up of the tribute payable by the local vassals and landholders to the new viceroy in honour of his arrival. Thus every three years,—the average duration of a subahdari in Bengal,—the screw was turned at the top and the leading men of the province were squeezed for satisfying the throne. As elephants were the main and most acceptable produce of Bengal, this rule pressed hardest on the vassals holding jagirs on the Assam frontier on condition of catching elephants by kheda there. These men had been exasperated by the harshness of Qāsim Khan.
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‘Abdus Salām wrote to Dacca for aid; the governor sent him reinforcements under Shaikh Muhiuddin (a brother of ‘Abdus Salām), Muhammad Sālih Kambu, Sayyid Zain-ul-‘ābidin and other high officers (c. July 1636). But through mismanagement among the leaders and the deceitful reports of Satrajit, the Mughals lost the post at Pāndu. ‘Abdus Salām held Hajo and the outposts near it and sent Zain-ul-‘ābidin eastwards to meet the Ahoms, who were pushed back to their frontier at Srighāt. Desultory fighting continued for some months.
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Fresh reinforcements now arrived from Dacca under Islām Khan's brother Mir Zain-uddin ‘Ali, with 1500 horse and 4000 foot (musketeers and archers), besides the contingents of the Bengal zamindars and abundant supplies and munitions. This expedition failed through the lack of concert among the imperial commanders. ‘Abdus Salām in attempting to fall back from Srighāt to Hajo, was attacked at night by the Ahoms with 500 war-boats. Satrajit fled away with some of the Bengal zamindars and their flotilla, and the imperialists fighting on the sandy island of Majuli were totally defeated; Sālih Kambu was killed, Bāyazid (zamindar of Dacca) was taken prisoner and the Mughal flotilla and stores were captured by the Ahoms.
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Next Bali Narayan advanced from Srighāt and Pāndu and besieged the Mughal force in Hājo. Starvation compelled the defenders to capitulate; ‘Abdus Salām and his brother Muhiuddin were sent as captives to the Ahom Court, but Zain-ul-abidin bravely held out and fell fighting within his trenches, c. Jan. 1637 (S. Mahant’s Buranji, para 132).
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This war had very evil consequences for the Mughals in the future. It rudely broke the jealous isolation in which the Ahom people and king had secluded themselves from Bengal and the people of the Mughal empire, and it dispelled the fear which the Mughal arms and soldiery used to arouse so long as they were distant and unknown. It also proved that naval supremacy must dominate any war in Assam.
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In another theatre of war, however, the prospects of the imperialists brightened. The corps under Mir Zain-uddin Ali attacked Chandra Narayan (another insurgent son of Parikshit Narayan) who ruled over Karibāri on the north bank of the Brahmaputra; he fled away (28 Dec. 1936) and the Mughals recovered Karibāri, and subdued places on the south bank of the river. The traitor Satrajit was seized at Dhubri and sent to Dacca, where he was executed.
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Meantime, the Ahoms had pushed on to Jogigophā (near Goalpara) and begun to raise stockades there; but the imperialists advanced from Dhubri and by repeated attacks drove the enemy back beyond the Banas river. The country south of the Brahmaputra was now fully subjugated. The Mughals reached Chandankot and from that base sent out a detachment which was faced by Bali Narayan on the Kālāpāni river near Bishnupur, in the midst of a dense jungle. Both sides now received large reinforcements, and at last in the night of 30th October 1637 Bali Narayan delivered an attack en masse. A long fight followed, in which the Ahoms were defeated and their stockades were successively stormed; they lost several chiefs and over 4000 soldiers killed, and three leading captains captured, besides much armament left to the victors. Similar victories with large amounts of booty and high-ranking prisoners were gained by the Mughals in the following weeks. Pāndu and Srighāt were conquered (Dec. 1637) and the Ahom army was scattered and nearly 500 of their war-boats and 300 guns were captured by the victors. The whole of Kuch Hājo was thus cleared of the Ahoms and the campaign was gloriously closed by the taking of fort Kājali, at the junction of the Kalang river with the Brahmaputra which was the frontier post of the Ahom kingdom. Bali Narayan henceforth led a fugitive’s life till he perished in great distress among the hills.
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During the next three months the whole district was pacified, a revenue settlement was made with the landlords, and Gauhati chosen as the headquarters of the governor. Finding all their resources exhausted by this twelve years’ unsuccessful war, the Ahom frontier governors induced their king to make peace with Bengal through Alayār Beg, the successor of Zainuddin ‘Ali at Gauhāti (Sep. 1638). The Barnadi in the north and the Ashur-āli in the south were fixed as the boundary. (S. Mahant’s Buranji, paras 139-142 ; Abd. Ham. ii. 65-90.)
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VIII. ANOTHER CONFLICT WITH ARAKAN, 1638.
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While the army and navy of Bengal were thus entangled in Assam, a great storm threatened the province from its south-eastern corner, and detained the viceroy at Dacca in defensive watchfulness. A new Magh king of Arakan sent his fleet from Chatgāon to raid the Noākhāli and Dacca districts, but happily the attack was not pushed home.
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After the death of the Arakan king Sri Sudharma-rāj (Thiri Thudhamma Raja, r. 1622-1638), his son and successor was murdered by a servant, the dowager queen’s lover, who seized the throne. The murdered Raja’s paternal uncle, Mangat-rāi, declared himself independent in his viceroyalty of Chatgaon; but his attempt to oust the usurper from the throne of Arakan failed through his naval weakness, and he had to flee to Bengal for safety along with his leading partisans. He marched by land towards Bhuluā and wrote to the imperial thanahdar of the frontier post of Jagdiā for protection from the pursuing Magh fleet. By Islām Khan’s command the thanahdār of Jagdiā drove away by gunfire some 200 Magh jalias which were obstructing Mangat-rāi and ferried him over the Feni river into Mughal territory.
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Taking advantage of the confusion of civil war in Chatgaon, over ten thousand people of Bengal who were being held in slavery there by the Feringis, escaped to their homeland.
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The Feringi settlers and pirates of Chatgaon, who had backed Mangat-rāi in his abortive rising, now abandoned that city, in fear of the Magh king’s vengeance. Most of them migrated to the Portuguese possessions, and a few came over to the Mughals with their families and boats; in the course of time most of the latter embraced Islam and became merged in the local population.
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Mangat-rāi's family and supporters with 14 elephants and nearly 9,000 men (both Arakanese and Tailang), reached Dacca and were welcomed and provided for by the subahdar. Then the Magh king, after some preparation, launched a naval attack. A fleet composed of over 500 jalias, 150 ghurābs and five ships full of munition, entered the estuary between Bhuluā and Sripur. Islām Khan met the threat by advancing from Dacca, some eight miles southwards to Dhapa and rapidly raising four earth and bamboo forts on the two banks at the mohānā of Khizrpur and planting heavy guns on them. This bold front scared away the Magh navy and the attack did not materialise, (end of September 1638). (Abd. Ham. ii. 117-121.)
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The true cause of this escape of Bengal was the defection of the Chatgaon Feringis from the side of the Arakan king; their gunners and sailors were the spear-head of the Magh raids into our riverine tracts, and the Arakanese left to themselves durst not face the Mughal guns by assuming the offensive. Twenty-eight years later, the winning over of the Feringi navy of Chatgaon by Shaista Khan ensured his easy conquest of that port of Arakan.