Ahom kingdom

Traditionally associated with the arrival of Sukaphaa, a Tai prince from Möng Mao (present-day Dehong, China), it began as a small Tai polity in the upper Brahmaputra valley based on wet-rice agriculture. Guha (1983) characterises the Ahom polity of the late fourteenth century as a “state-like organisation”, rather than a full-fledged state, and identifies the reign of Suhungmung (1497–1539) as the watershed in which it “leaped into statehood”. Major territorial and institutional expansion followed in the early 16th century, particularly through the annexation of the Chutia kingdom, the acquisition of parts of present-day Nagaon then ruled by the Baro-Bhuyans and the Golaghat-Jorhat regions (Dikhou-Dhansiri) under the Dimasa king. The expanded kingdom became multi-ethnic in character, accelerating a process of social change, ethnogenesis, and inter-ethnic interactions under the ruling Ahom dynasty. During the 17th century, the kingdom defeated multiple attempts by the Mughal Empire to expand into Northeast India. The central authority collapsed following the Moamoria rebellion in the late 18th century. Internal conflicts between dynastic claimants led to Burmese intervention, and the kingdom faced multiple Burmese invasions after 1817. British intervention led to the First Anglo-Burmese War, and control of the kingdom passed to the East India Company through the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826.

The kingdom was largely multi-ethnic, with the ethnic Tai Ahom people constituting less than 10% of the population according to the 1872 and 1881 censuses of British India. People from different ethnic groups became a part of the Ahom population due to a process known as Ahomisation. The identity of the Ahom people in the kingdom was fluid, with the king controlling who belonged to it and who did not. The Ahoms initially called their kingdom Mong Dun Shun Kham till 1401 (Assamese: xunor-xophura; English: casket of gold), but adopted Assam in the 15th century. The kingdom maintained close political ties with other Tai states especially with Möng Kawng (Nara) till the end of its rule in the 19th century.

History

According to the conventional Buranji-based chronology, the Ahom kingdom was established in 1228 when Sukaphaa, a Tai prince, entered the Brahmaputra valley after crossing the Patkai mountain range from Möng Mao. In this conventional reconstruction, Sukaphaa began his journey with a small number of followers, but he was supported and joined by other Tai chiefs and common followers along the way and entered Assam with approximately 9,000 persons. His destination was Upper Assam, at the easternmost end of the Brahmaputra valley.

The Ahoms were primarily responsible for converting the undulating, forested and marshy alluvial plains of southeastern Upper Assam into level, embanked fields capable of retaining water for wet-rice cultivation. The Tai migrants brought traditions of wet-rice cultivation, water management and mung-based political organisation, and over time contributed to the extension of reclamation and embankment-based cultivation in areas they controlled. This process, however, did not amount to the wholesale conversion of the region. Saikia(2004) describes the early settlers as occupying selected fertile riverbanks for wet-rice cultivation through competition, war and negotiation with groups such as the Kacharis, who also claimed strategic riverbanks and controlled water supplies. Scholars have further argued from pre-Ahom inscriptional and Buranji evidence that settled agriculture, wet-rice cultivation and embankment-based water management had important antecedents in Assam before the Ahom entry, and that groups like Kacharis already practised wet-rice cultivation when the Ahoms settled in Assam.

The Ahom polity retained Tai forms of kingship and political organisation, including a Lengdon-centred dynastic ideology. Its institutions in Assam, however, developed through interaction with pre-existing political traditions and with the diverse communities of the Brahmaputra valley and adjoining hills. Moreover, the category “Ahom” itself was politically flexible which led to cultural change as well. Brahmanical influence became increasingly important at court from the late fourteenth century, and especially after the early-sixteenth-century expansion, but the Ahom kings were not formally initiated into Hinduism before 1648. The later Tungkhungia kings veered towards Saktism and the persecution of the shudra Mahantas and their laity that began during the reign of Siva Singha led to the Moamoria rebellion and ultimately to the eclipse of the kingdom.

Disputed Chronology of Migration

The foundation of the Ahom kingdom is conventionally dated to Sukaphaa's arrival at Khamjang in 1228. The chronological basis of this date is, however, contested. Daniels notes that, although the Ahoms are reputed to have migrated to Assam during the thirteenth century, "no contemporary source elucidates their early history."

Saikia notes that the first and second chronicles of the Satsari Assam Buranji give incompatible sequences: the first places the migration in 1215 and the initial settlement in 1228, whereas the second dates the beginning of the journey to 1248 and the establishment of the first village to 1262. Other Buranji accounts cited by Saikia place Sukaphaa's accession in Śaka 1284 (1362 CE). The textual basis of the early migration narrative is also uncertain. Although Buranji tradition attributes the beginning of official chronicle writing to Sukaphaa, the oldest surviving Ahom text, the Snake Pillar inscription, dates only to the reign of Suhungmung (1497–1539). Modern-day linguistics studies show that the Ahom script developed between the late 14th and 16th centuries.

Saikia attributes part of the difficulty to the Tai-Ahom sixty-year tao singa calendar: where the relevant cycle is not specified, named lakni years cannot be converted securely into Common Era dates. She further notes that some lakni dates inserted in the first Satsari chronicle were wrongly inserted or apparently made up without reference to the Tai-Ahom calendar, and cannot be relied upon to reconstruct chronology. Later attempts to fix the chronology have also produced differing results. N. N. Acharyya used an eclipse reference and reconstructed an early-thirteenth-century chronology, but R. C. Kapoor has challenged his eclipse identification.

Possible synchronisms with rulers independently attested in Chinese sources may also be relevant to the disputed chronology. The Buranjis mentions a Sukhanpha or Sukhranpha in connection with Sukaphaa, a name closely resembling the Tai/Shan name of Si Kefa (Hsö Hkan Hpa, Sa Khaan Pha), who is dated to 1340–1371; similarly, the Ahom Buranji names a Nara/Mongkawng ruler Surunpha during Sudangphaa's reign, who may tentatively be compared with Si Ren-fa (r. 1413–1445) of Luchuan/Möng Mao, who shifted his base to Mongkawng region after his conlicts with Ming China.

Drawing on Dehong Tai chronicles and Chinese sources, Christian Daniels (2023) has argued that the Möng Mao polity associated with Sukaphaa's departure emerged only in the fourteenth century, and identifies 1336/37 and 1348/49 as the most likely alternative dates for the foundation of the Ahom polity in Assam. Related Buranji traditions place Sukaphaa's westward movement in the aftermath of an earlier Nara–Möng Mao invasion of the region, although these accounts do not provide a securely convertible date.

Mong Dun Shun Kham (traditionally dated 1228–1401)

In the conventional chronology, Sukaphaa, traditionally dated to 1228–1268, spent several decades moving between settlements before establishing his principal centre at Charaideo, conventionally dated to 1253. He established the offices of the Dangarias— the Burhagohain (Chao-Phrungmung) and the Borgohain (Chao-Thaonmung). In the 1280s, these two offices were given independent regions of control; partly hereditary and partly elected, the king and the two counsellors held each other in check and balance.

At this early stage, the Ahom polity was a small, clan-centred settlement formation, described as a “loose confederacy of several mungs around a dominant one of the Tai model”, rather than a mature territorial state. Traditional accounts state that Sukaphaa ordered events of his reign to be recorded, a practice said to have been continued by his successors and to have led to the development of Buranji writing, a historiographical tradition rare in India. Modern scholarship, however, suggests that the written chronicle tradition itself developed only from the late 14th–16th centuries onward, after the emergence of the Tai Ahom script. In the late medieval era, the Ahom kingdom was known to be a kaghazi raj (a kingdom with records) just as the Mughal Empire was.

The early Ahom settlement developed within a wider landscape of pre-existing political formations; Saikia(2004) identifies the Chutia kingdom and the Kachari kingdom among the principal neighbouring powers of the Brahmaputra valley. At the time of their advent, the Ahoms entered a region containing both settled communities and established political formations, alongside groups practising shifting cultivation. They brought traditions of wet-rice cultivation to the shifting-cultivation regions and incorporate these stateless shifting cultivators into a common polity. The shifting people were called kha and many such kha people were ceremonially adopted into different Ahom clans, a process called Ahomisation. Sukaphaa befriended those among the Morans and Barahi who were amenable to join him and put to the sword those who opposed him, and in due course, they incorporated many other groups into Ahom clans as well.

At this stage, the kingdom was still not fully sovereign and maintained tributary or allegiance ties with Möng Mao. The polity also had limited military and political capacity. Sukaphaa sent his word of allegiance and tributes to Möng Mao, a practice that was continued by some of his successors till about the early 14th century, when the power of Möng Mao faded to be replaced by the power of Möng Kawng; by the early 15th century, the Ahoms had ceased paying tributes. The Ahoms began to call their domain Mong Dun Sun Kham ("a country of golden gardens"). Though Sukaphaa had avoided the Namdang region mindful of the numerically small Ahom contingent, his son Suteuphaa made the Kacharis withdraw on their own via a stratagem, and the Ahoms expanded into it. No major and sustained territorial expansion followed for roughly two centuries. The political order remained vulnerable to internal disputes: towards the end of the fourteenth century, it experienced regicide, an interregnum and rebellions by subordinate Ahom chiefs. The Ahom kingdom, for most of its history, had been closed and population movement closely monitored—nevertheless, there were two significant contacts. One was a friendly encounter with the Chutia kingdom that turned into a conflict, and the other was a marriage alliance with the Kamata kingdom.

Assam (1401–1510)

Sudangphaa Bamuni Konwar (r. 1397–1407), born and raised in a Brahmin household in Habung, was identified as a descendant of a past king and installed on the throne by the Burhagohain and Borgohain to end the period of crisis. He established a Brahmin group near the capital, and the Brahmin influence, though negligible, was felt for the first time. A number of rebellions erupted purportedly against this influence but Sudangphaa was able to suppress them and solidify his rule. One of the rebels invited a military expedition from Mong Kwang (called Nara in the Buranjis, the successor state of Mong Mao to which the early Ahom kings used to send tribute) resulting in a clash in 1401—but Sudangphaa defeated the expedition and concluded the conflict with a treaty that fixed the boundary between the two polities at Patkai. This event was significant since it moved the Ahom polity from implicit subordination to explicit sovereignty, and this was accompanied by the transition of the name of the polity from Mong-Dun-Sun-Kham to "Assam", a derivative from Shan/Shyam. Sudangphaa established a new capital at Charagua, broke the clan allegiances that held the Ahom polity together earlier, replacing it with political authority of the king; introduced the tradition of the singarigharutha ceremony (the state coronation of the Ahom kings that symbolised royal Ahom sovereignty, authority and legitimacy) and brought the Ahom kingdom very close to a full-fledged state.

The next hundred years saw the kingdom mostly suppressing rebellious Naga groups, but a conflict with the Dimasa kingdom in 1490 saw the Ahoms, not strong enough to take them on frontally, suing for peace. The Ahom royalty continuously improved their relationship with the Brahmans which enabled them to gain goodwill with the Indo-Aryanized tribal groups and consolidate power.

Full state and expansion (1510–1609)

The Ahom kingdom transitioned into a full state rather dramatically in a short period during the reign of Suhungmung Dihingia Raja (r. 1497–1539). It began first with a consolidation of the militia in 1510, followed by an expansion into the region of Panbari at Habung (a Chutia dependency) in 1512 probably with the help of the descendants of the Habungia Brahmans settled during Sudangpha's time. A clash with the rest of the Hinduized Chutia kingdom began in 1513 and culminated in its annexation in 1523, after which the Ahom kingdom absorbed its nobility, commanders, professional classes, warriors, and technologies. The defeat and annexation of the Chutia kingdom marked a turning point in the political evolution of the Ahoms in Assam. Saikia(1997) argues that the conquest transformed the Ahom polity from “a colony of struggling agriculturalists with pretensions to divine rulership” into a kingdom possessing a more developed royal ceremonial order. She further argues that the Ahoms appropriated from the Chutias a ready-made royal culture and personnel needed for a developing administrative system. Scholars also identify the Chutia conquest as an important stage in the Brahmanisation of the Ahom court. The acquisition of the Chutia territories brought the Ahoms into direct contact with hill peoples such as the Miris, Abors, Mishmis and Daflas. According to Laichen Sun, these connections provided access to metals such as copper and silver coming from China, while the conquest also brought the brine springs of Sadiya under Ahom control. Sun further argues that the spoils obtained in the conquest enriched the Ahom treasury and strengthened its armed forces, which "was of immense help in their subsequent wars with the Muslims".

In 1527, the Baro-Bhuyans ruling in central Assam region of Rowta-Temoni were relocated to the north-bank of Upper-Assam and absorbed into the lower echelons of the growing state as scribes and warriors. It was this formation of the Ahom kingdom that met the aggression from Bengal under Turbak in 1532 and it was able to eliminate the aggressive leadership (with significant loss to itself) and pursue the retreating invaders to the Karatoya river. In 1536, after the series of contacts with the Kachari kingdom, the Ahom rule extended up to the Kolong River in Nagaon. In the Doyang–Dhansiri valley, however, Ahom expansion was more limited. Although Ahom armies advanced up the Dhansiri and twice occupied the Kachari capital at Dimapur, these campaigns did not result in the permanent annexation of Dimapur or the upper Dhansiri valley. Effective Ahom administration on this frontier remained concentrated in Marangi, and the lower Dhansiri valley under the Marangikhowa Gohain.

These expansions created significant changes in the kingdom—the Assamese-speaking Hinduized subjects outnumbered the Ahoms themselves; and the absorption of the Chutia kingdom meant a wide range of artisan skills became available to it increasing the scope for division of labour. To provide legitimacy to the rule of the Ahom kings among the new subjects, Suhungmung assumed the title Swarganarayana (Swargadeo), reinforcing distinctions between the high nobility and commoners, and contributing to the emergence of “class consciousness”. Scholars argue that encounters and conflicts with other communities, particularly the Chutias, also reshaped Tai-Ahom identity during this period. The nature of the kings institutional relationship to the ministers changed with the creation of a new position, the Borpatrogohain, named after a Chutia office; and the creation of the offices of Sadiyakhowa Gohain (frontier region acquired from the Chutia kingdom) and the Marangikhowa Gohain (territories acquired from the Kachari kingdom), both of which were reserved for the Borgohain and Burhagohain lineages. The traditional nobles (Chao) now aligned with the Brahmin literati, and an expanded ruling class developed. When the Ahoms under Ton Kham Borgohain pursued the invaders and reached the Karatoya river they began to wishfully see themselves as the heir of the erstwhile Kamarupa kingdom.

Maturing state (1609–1682)

The Ahom kingdom became more broad-based and took many features of its mature form under Pratap Singha (r. 1603–1641), primarily to meet the sustained attacks from the Mughals. The Paik system was reorganized in 1609 under the professional khel system, replacing the kinship-based phoid system; and paiks could be permanently alienated to non-royal institutions via royal grants. Under the same king, the offices of the Borphukan (viceroy of territories acquired from the Koches and the Mughals), and the Borbarua (the "secretary" of the royal government) were established to increase the number of Patra Mantris to five, along with other smaller offices. The practices of using Brahmins solely for diplomatic missions, the Ahom kings adopting a Hindu name in addition to their Ahom names, and patronising Hindu establishments began with Pratap Singha, though formal initiation of the Ahom kings into Hinduism did not occur till 1648. The Assamese language entered the Ahoms court for the first time and briefly coexisted and eventually replaced the Ahom language. No more major restructuring of the state structure was attempted until the end of the kingdom.

Koch relations

After the division of the Koch kingdom between two branches of the Koch dynasty in 1581, the Ahoms allied with their immediate western neighbor, the Koch Hajo branch, from 1603 to prop them as a buffer against the Mughals who had extended their rule to Bengal by 1576. The collapse of the Koch Hajo power in 1614 resulted in the Mughals coming to power up to the Barnadi River. The Mughals attempted further ingress to the east in 1616 with the Battle of Samdhara which marked the beginning of the Ahom–Mughal conflicts which lasted the till 1682 in the Battle of Itakhuli, when the Ahoms were able to push the Mughals back to the west of the Manas River permanently.

Mughal relations

In the political disorder following the illness of Shah Jahan in 1657 and the withdrawal of Shuja's forces from Bengal, Mughal Kamrup was exposed to simultaneous pressure from the Koches in the west and the Ahoms in the east. In early 1659, Ahom forces under Tangchu Sandhikui occupied Guwahati, Pandu and Saraighat after the Mughal faujdar withdrew from Kamrup. Pran Narayan, the Koch ruler of Cooch Behar, proposed a partition of Mughal Kamrup and an alliance with the Ahoms, but Jayadhwaj Singha rejected the proposal. The Koch forces were defeated and withdrew west of the Sankosh; the Ahoms subsequently occupied Kamrup and Dhubri, while Jay Narayan was installed under Ahom protection at Ghila Vijaypur.

In 1662, Aurangzeb to bring the lost tracts and to punish the rebel elements in that quarter, launched an invasion under his chief lieutenant Mir Jumla II. In this invasion, the Ahoms could not resist well, and the Mughals occupied the capital, Garhgaon. Unable to keep it, and in at the end of the Battle of Saraighat, the Ahoms not only fended off a major Mughal invasion but extended their boundaries west, up to the Manas River. The western border was fixed at the Manas River after the Battle of Itakhuli, and remained unchanged until the annexation by the British. Following the Battle of Saraighat, the kingdom fell straight into ten years of political disorder. During this period, the nobles exercised immense power, and seven kings were put on the throne and deposed. In the meantime, Kamrup went back into the hands of the Mughals for a few years.

Tungkhungia regime (1682–1826)

Gadadhar Singha (r. 1682–1696) established the 'Tungkhungia rule' in Assam, which continued to remain in power till the end of the kingdom. In 1682, the Mughals were defeated in the Battle of Itakhul, and Manas river was fixed as the western boundary. Gadadhar Singha came in conflict with the Vaisnava Satras who began commencing immense power and influence over the state and people, and started a wide–spread persecution of the Vaisnavites.

The rule of Tungkhungia Ahom kings was marked by achievements in the Arts and engineering constructions, the Tungkhungia regime witnessed a relative time of peace and stability till the Moamoria rebellion, also festering internal conflicts that tore the kingdom asunder. According to Guha (1986) Ahom Assam continued to flourish till 1770. The Tungkhungia regime witnessed a relative time of peace till first half of the 18th century, where the population increased, trade expanded, Coinage and monetization made headway. New arts and crafts, new crops and even new style of dress were introduced.

Rudra Singha alias Sukhrungphaa (r. 1696–1714), under whom the Kingdom attained its zenith. He subdued the kingdoms of Dimasa and Jaintia. He had made extensive preparations to extend the boundary west–towards, attempted to make a confederacy of Hindu kings of eastern India against Mughals. But he died right before he could execute his plans in 1714. Rudra Singha had re–instated the Vaisnava Satras, he himself had taken initiation of the Auniati Gosain (the most influential Brahmana Sattradhikar) but later in his life he got inclined towards Shaktism, considering it to be more suitable for a monarch, he invited a famous Sakta Brahmana from Bengal–Krishnaram Bhattacharya alias Pravatiya Gosain. From his death bed he expressed his will that, all his five sons to be kings in an executive manner and advised them to take initiation of Parvatiya Gosain

Siva Singha alias Sutanphaa (r. 1714–1744), he dropped his father's plan to invade Benagal. He took the initiation of Parvatiya Gosain and established him 'Nilachal mountain' with extensive land grants and paiks. Siva Singha was very much under the influence of Brahmanas and astrologers, 1722 it was predicted by the astrologers that his reign would soon come to a end owing to the evil influence of Chatra–bhanga–yoga. Therefore, he transferred the royal umbrella and throne to his wife Phuleshwari who was given the title of 'Bar–Raja' on the advice of Pravatiya Gosain. Phuleswari melded too much with the religious affairs, she had caused the insult of the Shudra–Mahantas. After the death of Phuleswari, two other wives of Siva Singha were set on the position of 'Bar–Raja', namely Ambika and Sarbeswari. Siva Singha reign was peaceful, except an expedition sent against the Daflas, he had caused the erection of many temples and made numerous grants to the religious sites and brahmanas. He died in 1744, and his younger brother Pramatta Singha was set up on the throne setting aside the claims of Siva Singha's son.

Pramatta Singha alias Sunenphaa (r. 1744–1751), nothing of importance is recorded during his reign. He had erected the Rang Ghar with masonry and built the Sukreswar and Rudreswar temples in North–Guwahati. During his reign, Kirti Chandra Borbarua gained much of his political influence. In 1744, he received an ambassador from the king of Twipra. He died in 1751.

Rajeswar Singha alias Supremphaa (r. 1751–1759), he was put on the throne by Kirti Chandra Borbarua by setting aside the claims of seniority of his elder brother Barjana Gohain. Rajeswar Singha had erected the most number of temples among the Ahom Kings, he was an orthodox Hindu and took initiation of Nati–Gosian (a relative of Pravatiya Gosain). In 1765, he sent an expedition to Manipur whose king Jay Singha made an appeal to the Ahom king to recover his country from the Burmese occupation. The first expeditionary force had to be routed off, which was sent through 'Naga Hills', in 1767 another force was despatched through the old Raha route. The second expedition was successful and achieved its objective in recovering Manipur. Kirti Chandra Borbarua who was the most influential noble in the Ahom court, had caused the burning of Buranjis. Rajeswar Singha's reign marked the end of Ahom supremacy and glory, the signs were decay was already visible during his reign. He was succeeded by his younger brother Lakshmi Singha alias Sunyeophaa (r. 1769–1780).

Downfall

The Ahom kingdom by the mid-18th century was indeed an over-burdened hierarchical structure, supported by a weak institutional base and meagre economic surplus. The Paik system which in the 17th century had helped the kingdom to repulse the repeated Mughal invasions, had become extremely outdated. The later phase of the rule was also marked by increasing social conflicts, leading to the Moamoria rebellion were able to capture and maintain power at the capital Rangpur for some years but were finally removed with the help of the British under Captain Welsh. The following repression led to a large depopulation due to emigration as well as execution, but the conflicts were never resolved. A much-weakened kingdom fell to repeated Burmese attacks and finally after the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, the control of the kingdom passed into British hands.