Dikhow River

Historical course

Historical accounts indicate that the lower course of the Dikhow has changed considerably. Early Buranji narratives describe Dikhowmukh as a point on the main Brahmaputra–Lohit river system from which the Dikhow could be entered and navigated upstream, while accounts of the seventeenth century describe a later configuration in which the Dikhow discharged into the former Dihing channel south of Majuli.

In the migration narrative of Sukaphaa preserved in the Ahom-Buranji, Sukaphaa is said to have left Habung and proceeded downstream along the Tilao (Lohit) until reaching Dikhowmukh, from where he travelled upstream along the Dikhow to Dilimukh and the interior of the present Sivasagar region.

Dikhowmukh was also an important military position during the early sixteenth century. In 1513, during the Chutia-Ahom conflicts, the Ahom-Buranji records that the Chutia king Dhirnarayan advanced against the Ahoms and established his position at Dikhowmukh. Other Buranji accounts of the conflict describe the Chutia forces as retreating eastwards from Dikhowmukh towards the Dihing and subsequently towards Dibrumukh and Sadiya.

The Dikhow also appears as a territorial boundary in accounts of the early sixteenth-century Ahom–Kachari conflicts. An Assamese Buranji records that, after an Ahom force attacked Shital-Negheri in the Dergaon region, the Kachari king protested that "from the south bank of the Dikhow is my land". Satsari Assam Buranji preserves a similar Kachari assertion that their kingdom extended from the south bank of the Dikhow. The same narrative subsequently records the Kachari ruler encamping beside the Dhansiri in 1448 Saka (1526 CE), followed by Suhungmung's capture of Shital-Negheri, his crossing of the Dhansiri and the capture of Marangi.

Accounts of the Koch invasions in the sixteenth century likewise describe Dikhaumukh in relation to the main Brahmaputra–Tilao channel. During an invasion in 1562, the Ahom-Buranji records that the Koch forces proceeded upstream along the Tilao to Dikhaumukh, where the Ahom commanders assembled to oppose them; after fighting there, the Koch fleet withdrew downstream to the mouth of the Handia. In the following campaign, the Koch king again advanced upstream along the Tilao and constructed a fort on the mouth of Dikhow (Sup-Nam-chao), on the other side of the Tilao, while the Ahoms constructed an opposing fort and stationed forces at the mouth of the Dihing (Sup-Nam-Jin). The same narrative subsequently records the devastation of the province of Marangi by the Koch forces.

The location of Dikhaumukh near the Brahmaputra (Tilao) is also apparent in an itinerary recorded for 1648. The Ahom-Buranji states that the Ahom king travelled downstream along the Dihing to Bholatali and then proceeded by the Tilao to Manipur, halting at Kara (rendered Hara in Barua's English translation). He subsequently proceeded downstream to Barbil and, in the following month, continued downstream along the Tilao from Barbil to the mouth of the Dikhow. Early nineteenth-century geographical accounts place the Manipur district in Outreparh, the north-bank division of Assam, between Narowa and Gaguldoobi, while Kara is possibly identifiable with the Karha (Korha) River of the north-bank Dhakuakhana tract. The Karha drains the Dhemaji–Dhakuakhana region and joins the Kherkatia channel of the Brahmaputra opposite Majuli. The place-name Barbil also survives in the region: a Borbil village is recorded in the Narayanpur area on the north bank, while the 1917 Survey of India map of western Majuli marks a Bar Bil west of Charaikata.

By the time of Mir Jumla's invasion of Assam in 1662, however, a different drainage configuration is recorded. Edward Gait states that the Brahmaputra or Luit then flowed north of Majuli, while the Dihing followed approximately the channel now occupied by the Brahmaputra south of the island. In this configuration, the Dihing received the Disang River and the Dikhow before rejoining the northern Brahmaputra at Lakhau, at the western extremity of Majuli. During the Mughal occupation, outposts were established north of Garhgaon at Ramdang and Trimohini, the latter being identified by Gait as the place where the Dikhow then fell into the Dihing.

Gait also recorded a native tradition concerning a still earlier course of the river. According to this tradition, the Dikhow formerly had an independent course extending as far west as Kajalimukh, with portions of the former channel believed to survive as the Tuni River in Majuli and the Kallang in Nagaon district.