Ahom–Mughal conflicts

The struggle was characterised by repeated advances and reversals rather than an uninterrupted succession of victories by either side. The Ahoms made major gains in Kamrup in 1636, but a Mughal counter-offensive defeated the combined Ahom–Koch forces and re-annexed Kamrup in 1637. In 1662, Mir Jumla captured a succession of Ahom positions and occupied the Ahom capital at Garhgaon, while the resulting Treaty of Ghilajharighat required the Ahoms to cede western Assam and pay a substantial indemnity. The Ahoms recovered Guwahati in 1667, but suffered another major defeat at the Battle of Alaboi in 1669 before defeating the Mughal army commanded by Ram Singh I at the Battle of Saraighat in 1671. The final Mughal position at Guwahati was eliminated in the Battle of Itakhuli in 1682, after which the Manas River again became the western boundary of the Ahom kingdom.

The conflicts comprised 17 recorded military engagements, of which 9 ended in Ahom victories and 8 in Mughal victories. A widely repeated modern narrative inaccurately portrays the conflict as a sequence of "seventeen Ahom victories", a formulation that has appeared in news media and official public discourse despite the historical record including substantial Mughal victories as well.

Overview

The immediate background to the conflict lay in the division of the Koch kingdom and the subsequent Mughal conquest of Koch Hajo. After the division, Lakshmi Narayan ruled the western kingdom of Koch Bihar, while Raghudeva and later Parikshit Narayan controlled Koch Hajo in the east. Mughal intervention in the region culminated in the defeat of Parikshit Narayan in 1613 and the incorporation of much of Koch Hajo into the Mughal province of Bengal. The remaining Koch opposition sought support from the neighbouring Ahom kingdom.

The Mughal advance thereby brought the two powers into direct contact. Ahom support for opponents of Mughal authority in Kamrup, competing claims over frontier territories, and disagreements concerning trade and the movement of people contributed to recurring hostilities. Between major campaigns, disputes also arose over boundary demarcation, elephant-catching operations, commercial intercourse, extradition of political fugitives, and the treatment of subjects moving between the two territories.

Over the following decades neither side maintained continuous control over the entire contested region. Guwahati and the surrounding areas changed hands repeatedly, while major military campaigns were interspersed with negotiated settlements such as the Treaty of Asurar Ali in 1639 and the Treaty of Ghilajharighat in 1663.

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Conflict inception

Following the Mughal conquest of Koch Hajo, disputes developed over the frontier between Mughal-held Kamrup and the Ahom kingdom. Mughal authorities claimed territory towards the Ahom frontier, while the Ahoms supported Bali Narayan and other opponents of Mughal authority in Kamrup.

The first major military confrontation occurred in 1615. Mughal forces under Abu Bakr and Satrajit advanced into the frontier region and initially captured Ahom positions, including Kajali, forcing the defenders to withdraw. The Mughal army subsequently advanced towards the Bharali and Samdhara sector.

The Ahoms reinforced their positions and launched a counter-offensive. Fighting around Bharali and Samdhara eventually reversed the initial Mughal gains. By early 1616 Ahom forces had recovered the disputed positions and forced the Mughal army to withdraw. The first major phase of direct Ahom–Mughal warfare therefore ended in an Ahom victory, although the frontier dispute itself remained unresolved.

Campaigns of 1636–1639

Open warfare resumed after a prolonged period of intermittent hostility. In 1636 Ahom and allied Koch forces launched a major offensive against Mughal positions in Kamrup. They defeated Mughal forces at Sualkuchi, captured important positions and advanced towards Hajo. The offensive initially brought much of Kamrup under Ahom–Koch control. The situation changed in 1637, however, when reinforced Mughal forces launched a counter-offensive. The combined Ahom and Koch forces were defeated and Kamrup was re-annexed to the Mughal Empire in November 1637. Fighting resumed in 1638. Under Momai Tamuli Borbarua, Ahom forces defeated the Mughals in a three-day naval engagement at Duimunisila and recovered Kajali. Neither side was able to establish an uncontested military advantage sufficient to end the conflict, and negotiations followed.

In February 1639 the two sides concluded the Treaty of Asurar Ali. Under the settlement, the Ahom king recognised Mughal authority in Kamrup, while Mughal authorities recognised the independence of the Ahom kingdom east of the agreed frontier. The boundary was fixed approximately along the Barnadi on the north bank and the Kalang on the south bank of the Brahmaputra.

Peace and renewed tensions

The settlement of 1639 produced a prolonged interval without major warfare, but relations remained strained. Boundary disputes, trading disagreements, elephant-catching operations, extradition disputes and complaints concerning the treatment of subjects continued to generate friction between the two powers.

The political crisis within the Mughal Empire following Shah Jahan's illness in 1657 and the subsequent war of succession weakened Mughal authority on its north-eastern frontier. Taking advantage of the crisis, Jayadhwaj Singha launched an offensive into Mughal-held Kamrup in 1658. The Mughal faujdar of Guwahati, Mir Lutfullah Shirazi, withdrew without offering battle, allowing the Ahoms to occupy Guwahati and other Mughal positions in Kamrup. The Ahom forces advanced westward and expelled Mughal forces from Guwahati and neighbouring territories. They pursued the retreating Mughal troops towards the Manas, effectively reversing the territorial settlement imposed in 1639.

After Aurangzeb consolidated his position on the Mughal throne, the recovery of the lost north-eastern territories became an imperial objective. Mir Jumla II, appointed governor of Bengal in 1660, was entrusted with restoring Mughal authority in Koch Bihar and Kamrup. He advanced from Bengal in late 1661 and entered the Ahom kingdom in January 1662.

Mir Jumla's campaign

Mir Jumla invaded Assam in early 1662 after first restoring Mughal control over Koch Bihar. His forces encountered limited resistance in western Assam and successively occupied Pandu, Guwahati and Kajali. The Mughal advance continued eastward. Ahom forces were defeated at Simalugarh and Samdhara, and the Mughal army penetrated into the central territories of the kingdom. On 17 March 1662 Mir Jumla entered the Ahom capital of Garhgaon, while Jayadhwaj Singha withdrew eastward from the capital.

The occupation of Garhgaon did not end Ahom resistance. Rather than continuously confronting the Mughal army in open battle, Ahom forces carried out raids and attacks on Mughal communications and supply lines. With the onset of the monsoon, flooding disrupted roads and river communications, while disease and shortages created severe difficulties for the Mughal army. The Ahoms recovered much of the countryside while major Mughal detachments remained concentrated around fortified positions. When communications improved after the monsoon, however, Mir Jumla was again able to resume operations. Jayadhwaj Singha eventually sought peace.

The Treaty of Ghilajharighat was concluded in January 1663. Under its terms, the Ahoms ceded western Assam to the Mughals and agreed to provide an indemnity of three lakh rupees and ninety elephants. Members of the Ahom royal family, including Ramani Gabharu, were also sent to the Mughal court as part of the settlement. The campaign therefore represented one of the most substantial Mughal military successes of the entire conflict. Nevertheless, Mughal forces did not permanently occupy the central and eastern parts of the Ahom kingdom, and Mir Jumla withdrew towards Bengal following the treaty.

Ahom recovery of Guwahati

The Treaty of Ghilajharighat did not produce a lasting settlement. The payment of the agreed indemnity became a recurring source of dispute, and Chakradhwaj Singha, who succeeded Jayadhwaj Singha, adopted a policy of recovering the territories lost to the Mughals. In August 1667, a large Ahom force advanced westward under commanders including Lachit Borphukan and Atan Buragohain. Mughal forces in Kamrup were unable to prevent the advance. Ahom forces captured a series of positions and reached Guwahati, where the Mughal garrison was defeated.

On 2 November 1667, the Ahoms captured Guwahati and the fortifications at Itakhuli. Mughal forces retreated westward towards the Manas River. The rapid recovery of Guwahati reversed most of the territorial gains obtained by Mir Jumla five years earlier. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb subsequently appointed Ram Singh I of Amber to lead a large expedition intended to restore Mughal control over Kamrup.

Ram Singh's campaign

Ram Singh reached the Mughal frontier position at Rangamati in 1669. His army included Mughal imperial troops as well as forces supplied by allied rulers. Initial skirmishes around the frontier favoured the Mughals and forced the Ahoms to withdraw towards their prepared defensive positions around Guwahati. The subsequent campaign produced victories and defeats on both sides. Ahom forces won engagements near Sualkuchi and captured the fort at Agiathuti, but Mughal counter-attacks inflicted losses on them.

The most severe Ahom reverse of the campaign occurred at the Battle of Alaboi in 1669. Ram Singh's forces defeated the Ahom army in an open engagement and inflicted heavy casualties. The defeat did not, however, result in the capture of Guwahati. The Ahoms continued to rely on their fortified positions and on the riverine geography of the region, while negotiations and intermittent fighting continued.

Ram Singh renewed his offensive in 1671. The decisive confrontation took place at the Battle of Saraighat, where the Ahom forces defeated the Mughal army in a combined riverine and land engagement. Ram Singh subsequently withdrew westward towards Rangamati. The victory preserved Ahom control of Guwahati and frustrated the Mughal attempt to restore the territorial position established by Mir Jumla. Mughal forces nevertheless remained established west of the Ahom frontier, and the struggle over Guwahati was not permanently concluded until the following decade.

Mughal reoccupation and Battle of Itakhuli

During a period of internal political instability in the Ahom kingdom, Laluksola Borphukan, the Ahom viceroy at Guwahati, entered into negotiations with Mughal authorities. In 1679, he surrendered Guwahati to the Mughals, allowing Mughal forces to reoccupy the city without a major campaign. The political situation in the Ahom kingdom changed following the accession of Gadadhar Singha in 1681. Preparations were made to recover Guwahati and remove the remaining Mughal presence east of the Manas.

In August 1682, Ahom forces launched an offensive against the Mughal positions at Guwahati. At the Battle of Itakhuli, the Mughal garrison was defeated and forced to retreat westward. Ahom forces pursued the retreating army towards the Manas River. The Mughal defeat at Itakhuli marked the end of sustained Mughal attempts to extend imperial authority into the Brahmaputra Valley. The Manas River became the effective boundary between Mughal-controlled territories and the Ahom kingdom.

Popular representation

A popular, but inaccurate, modern account of the Ahom–Mughal conflicts states that the Ahoms fought and defeated the Mughals seventeen times. The formulation has been repeated in news media, educational material and public discourse. A 2022 article in The Sentinel, for example, stated that the Ahoms had defeated the Mughals "17 times", while The Times of India similarly described the Ahom kingdom as having defeated the Mughals seventeen times between 1615 and 1682. The formulation has also appeared in official public discourse. The Government of Assam's 2022–23 budget speech stated that the Mughals attempted to conquer Assam seventeen times and that "every time they failed".

The chronology recorded in historical accounts, however, includes substantial victories and territorial gains by both sides. In 1637, a Mughal counter-offensive defeated the combined Ahom–Koch forces and restored Mughal control over Kamrup. During Mir Jumla's campaign in 1662, Mughal forces captured Pandu, Guwahati, Kajali, Simalugarh and Samdhara before occupying the Ahom capital at Garhgaon. The resulting Treaty of Ghilajharighat also transferred western Assam to Mughal control and imposed a substantial indemnity on the Ahom kingdom. During Ram Singh's campaign the Ahoms again suffered significant reverses, including the initial fighting at Rangamati and the major defeat at Alaboi in 1669. These setbacks were followed by major Ahom successes, including the recovery of Guwahati in 1667, the victory at Saraighat in 1671 and the final expulsion of the Mughal garrison from Guwahati at Itakhuli in 1682.

Thus, although the prolonged conflict ultimately ended with the restoration of the Manas River as the Ahom kingdom's western frontier, the frequently repeated description of "seventeen Ahom victories" does not correspond to the sequence of victories and defeats recorded in the military chronology. In the chronology tabulated below, excluding the peace settlement at Asurar Ali, seventeen military engagements or campaign entries are listed: nine as Ahom victories and eight as Mughal victories.

The public memory of the conflicts, particularly the prominence of Lachit Borphukan as a historical hero, has also been examined by scholars in studies of the cultural and political mobilisation of historical memory.

List of battles and engagements

References and further reading

Acharyya, N. N. (1992). The History of Medieval Assam: From the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Century.

Barpujari, H. K. (1992). Barpujari, H. K. (ed.). The Comprehensive History of Assam. Vol. 2. Guwahati: Publication Board Assam.

Baruah, S. L. (1985). A Comprehensive History of Assam. Munshiram Manoharlal.

Bhuyan, S. K. Lachit Barphukan and His Times. Gauhati: Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies.

Gogoi, Jahnabi (2002). Agrarian System of Medieval Assam. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.

Nag, Sajal, ed. (2023). The Mughals and the North-East: Encounter and Assimilation in Medieval India. Routledge. ISBN 9781032523040.

Richards, John F. (1995). The Mughal Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521566037.

Roy, Kaushik (2023). "Small Wars, Ecology, and Imperialism in Precolonial South Asia: A Case Study of Mughal-Ahom Conflict, 1615–1682". The Journal of Military History. 87 (1): 1–31.

Singh, Geetashree (2023). "Mughal Wars in North-East India: Analysis of the Ahom Victory over the Mughals". In Nag, Sajal (ed.). The Mughals and the North-East: Encounter and Assimilation in Medieval India. Routledge. pp. 445–464. ISBN 9781032523040.