The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c15.131

v1.c15.131

But though we have these accounts of the conflicts of the princes of the Brahmaputra valley with the Musalmans, we have very few or no records to work out a connected account of the history of Assam from the 11th and 12th centuries onwards. Some light on this period of Assam is however thrown by the *Burañjis* of the Ahoms, a section of the great Shan tribe, who crossed the Patkai hills and settled in and about the Lakhimpur district of Assam in the 13th century. From these it appears that there existed a kingdom of the Hinduised Chutias, a tribe of mixed Bodo-Shan stock, in Sadiya (or Vidarbha). There were frequent wars between them and the Ahoms till they were completely conquered by the latter in the 16th century. The western part of the Brahmaputra valley, the area formerly known as Kāmarūpa, was known as Kāmata, and the only dynasty of which we have any connected account is that of the Khyan or Khen kings. The few representatives of this tribe now claim to be Kāyasthas, and their first king, Nīladhvaja, is said to have overthrown the last degenerate Pāla king of Assam. The last of the Khens, Nīlāmbar, was overthrown by Husain Shāh in A.D. 1498. Their territory sometimes extended from the Karatoya to the Barnadi. After his fall there was a period of confusion, which ended when the Koch ruler Biśva Siṁha established a kingdom with Koch-Bihār (mod. Cooch-Behar) as his capital in about 1515 A.D. King Naranārāyaṇa of this tribe, which is certainly Mongoloid in origin, was a powerful prince, ruling practically over the whole of Assam. During his reign Kālāpāhār, the general of Sulaymān Karnānī, appears to have invaded Kāmarūpa, and advanced as far as Tezpur (*c.* 1568 A.D.). Naranārāyaṇa, according to the local Vaṁśāvalīs, is said to have assisted Akbar in destroying the ‘Pādshāh of Gaur’ (Sulṭān Dā’ūd) about 1576 A.D. There is no reference to this incident in the Musalman accounts. According to the *Ā’īn-i-Akbarī*, on the other hand, Naranārāyaṇa ‘renewed in 1578 A.D. his demonstrations of obedience to the Imperial Throne.’ In about 1581 A.D. the Koch king was compelled to create a principality for his nephew Raghudev by ceding to the latter the region east of the river Sankosh (mod. Gadadhar river?). This led to the foundation of two rival Koch kingdoms, which the Muslims call Koch Bihār and Koch Hājo. The capital of the principality founded by Raghu was probably situated near the modern town of Hājo, a few miles north of Gauhati. The hostilities of these two kingdoms led to the interference of the Musalmans and the Ahoms. In 1638 A.D. the western and the eastern states became vassals of the Musalmans and the Ahoms respectively.¹