History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c41.s1.3

v3.c41.s1.3

Closely surrounded in the north, east and south by rugged hills whose slopes are held by savage tribes, Assam is practically impervious to attack from these directions.∗ But it is not so well protected in the west, where it merges in the plains of North Bengal. From the Kuch Bihar side invasions have been easily conducted into the north Brahmaputra valley, and armies have also sometimes marched into Assam from Dacca by following the left bank of the Brahmaputra and turning the extreme western end of the Garo hills. But every hostile army operating in southern Assam must depend for its success, and even for its very life, on the support of a strong flotilla of war-boats. If it loses the command of the water highway, it is crushed between the river in the north and the savage-haunted hills in the south. Dacca is too far-off and the way to it is too circuitous for any reinforcement to be sent up from it by land in time.