Biswanath district

The district is created amalgamating Gohpur and most part of Biswanath Sub division on earlier Sonitpur district. The district is bounded by Arunachal Pradesh on north, Golaghat, Brahmaputra River on the south, Lakhimpur district on the east and Sonitpur district on the west. The administrative headquarter is located at Biswanath Chariali. On 31 December 2022, the district remerged with existing Sonitpur district ahead of delimitation process by ECI in the state. However, on August 25, 2023, the Assam cabinet announced the restoration of Biswanath's district status.

History

The major part of Biswanath district formed part of the Chutia kingdom until it was annexed in the 16th century by the Ahoms, following the Chutia-Ahom conflicts. Several historians have reconstructed the western extent of the Chutia kingdom as reaching into the region of present-day Biswanath district. N. N. Acharyya and Shin placed its western extent as far as Viswanath, while Nityananda Gogoi states that the kingdom at times included adjoining territories of the Brahmaputra valley extending "as far west as to the river Bargang near Biswanath". Gogoi cited similar marks on stones found among archaeological remains at Sadiya, on the Buroi River, and at Naxapahar, near the confluence of the Bargang and Dikal rivers, as supporting this reconstruction. Some local traditions associate the western part of the district with independent Bhuyan chieftains, although the Ahom Buranjis do not record the presence of the Baro-Bhuyans in this region. The Adi Charita, which is the source of these traditions, is also considered spurious by various scholars. It is speculated that the border between the Chutia kingdom and Bhuyan principalities was marked by the Dikarai and the Ghiladhari rivers. The Chutia kings built many forts in the region, including Naksaparvat, the Ramghat-Buroi and Pratapgarh. The Ita Fort, another Chutia-era fort, lies to the north of Biswanath Chariali.

The riverine Dihingmukh region immediately south of present-day Biswanath was an important early-16th-century frontier between the Chutia and Ahom kingdoms. The Buranjis describe the Dihing as a frontier between the Chutia kingdom to the north and the Ahom kingdom to the south. After the Ahom victory at Dikhowmukh in 1513, the Ahoms advanced to Dihingmukh and established a forward fort at Mungkhrang. In 1520, Chutia forces attacked the fort, killed its commander Khenmung and recovered the position. The Ahoms returned in 1522, recovered the lost tract and pushed the frontier farther east.

Following the conquest of the Chutia kingdom in 1524 CE, Suhungmung began reorganising the newly acquired territories. In 1526 CE, he appointed Konsheng Dhanudharia Gohain as Bhatialia Gohain or Namoniyal Sandikoi to rule the region and later gave him the title of Barpatra Gohain (Chao-Sheng-lung), in imitation of the earlier Chutia Barpatra title. Similarly, Shengpem Dhanudharia Gohain was made Thaomung Katak and stationed at Phulbari, Lakhimpur.

The Ahom forces crossed the Bharali River in 1527 and 1529 CE and suppressed the Bhuyans of Rauta-Temoni in the modern-day Darrang-Nagaon region, resettling them in the Uttarkula, or north bank of Upper Assam, including the Lakhimpur-Biswanath region. After these appointments, the Ahom forces crossed the Bharali and subjugated the Bhuyans in 1527 and 1529 CE.

The region became an important theatre of the early Koch–Ahom conflicts. In 1546, a Koch army commanded by Chilarai advanced eastwards along the north bank of the Brahmaputra and encountered the Ahom forces at the Dikarai River. The Ahoms were defeated and withdrew, and further engagements took place around Kaliabor and Sala before the Koch advance continued eastwards towards Narayanpur. Nityananda Gogoi identifies the medieval Dikarai with the river system flowing through the present Sonitpur–Biswanath region and identifies Sala or Sola on the north bank with the strategic centre of Biswanath.

The Koches subsequently established a fort at Narayanpur, but the Ahom king Suklenmung cut their communications at Pichala in 1547 and forced their withdrawal. The Koch invasion was renewed in 1562–63; several Bhuyan and other local chiefs submitted to or joined Nara Narayan's forces, which eventually advanced through the Brahmaputra valley and occupied the Ahom capital at Garhgaon.

During the later Ahom period, Biswanath developed into an important religious centre. Ahom kings built a number of temples like the Biswanath temple, Sivanath Moth and Bordol temple. The region also appears indirectly in accounts of the Ahom conflicts with Muslim and Mughal forces. During Suhungmung's reign, the Ahoms are said to have driven an invading Muslim force back to the Burai river, after which a fort was constructed at the mouth of the river and a detachment was posted at Phulbari. In the Mughal period proper, the nearby Bharali river formed an important frontier zone: the Ahoms defeated Mughal forces under Abu Bakr on the Bharali in 1615, an event also associated with the Samdhara inscription of 1616. After Mir Jumla's invasion, the Treaty of Ghilajharighat in 1663 ceded the country west of the Bhareli river on the north bank of the Brahmaputra to the Mughal emperor.

In the early British period, Biswanath served for a few years as the headquarters of the Naduar or Biswanath district before being included in Darrang district in 1835. During British rule, Biswanath Ghat became an important steamer ghat and trading centre in north Assam. Allen's gazetteer also lists Bishnath among the steamer ports of Darrang district.