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HISTORY
Assam
is the anglicized form of the name of the premier state of North-East India, a region very
strategically situated, close to India's international borders with as many as four
countries-China, Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The term Asam, or Asom
is interpreted by
some scholars as a formation of Sanskrit derivation, which means peerless or unparalleled.
But the more widely accepted opinion in the academic circles today is that the term has
come from the word Ahom, the people who migrated to the Brahmaputra Valley in the early
thirteenth century and gave shape to the Assamese society of today after having presided
over the destiny of the land for a long and unbroken stretch of about 600 years till the
annexation of Assam by the British.
Going back, one finds Assam to be an ancient land which figured prominently in
international trade even before the birth of Jesus Christ. Chang Kien, a Chinese explorer
had traced his country's trade with Assam as far back as in 100 B.C. According to the
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, Himalayan malabathrum and silk from Assam had reached
Egypt
and Rome in the pre-Christian times. Assam also figured prominently in Ptolemy's
geography.
Human footprints in this land has been traced back to the Early Stone Age. The earliest
footprints were those of Austric aborigins who were followed by the pre-Dravidians too.
The eastern floodgates, when opened, on the other hand witnessed the arrival, in quick
succession, of several Mongoloid groups of people, which had almost totally engulfed the
land by the time of the Vedas. Most of the present tribal groups of the Northeastern
region are offsprings of those Mongoloids, whom the Vedas had chosen to refer to as the
Kiratas.
Absence of archaeological materials has often made any incursion into Assam's past a
difficult task. Facts and fancy overlap very often in our efforts to recreate the past.
This land of the Red River and the Blue Hills was known in the ancient times as
Pragjyotisha, with present-day Guwahati being known as Pragjyotishpura, the City of
Eastern Lights. Pragjyotish, subsequently known as Kamarupa, had then covered a much
larger territory, at times extending as far as the border of Nepal.
The Kalika Purana and Vishnu Purana have confirmed the extent of Kamarups's territory for
about 450 miles in all directions from the Kamakhya temple, located atop the Neelachal
hills in Guwahati.
According to a deeply entrenched local tradition, the earliest rulers of Pragjyotisha
belonged to the Danava dynasty, the most important of the line, and also a founder of that
being Mahiranga Danava. The most popular and colourful figure in the legends of this body
of tradition is King Narakasura, founder of the Bhauma Naraka line, whose birth is
ascribed to the union of Vasumati (Mother Earth) with Vishnu in his Varaha incarnation.
Naraka's descendant Bhagadatta on the other hand finds honourable mention in the
Mahabharata ; he had participated in the battle of Kurukshetra on the Kaurava side, taking
with him a large contingent of China and Kirata troops. Bhagadatta fought valiantly in
Kurukshetra, to finally die a hero's death in the hands of Bhima, the second of the five
Pandava princes.
Hiuen Tsang, the famous Chinese traveller,
gives a detailed account of Assam of the seventh century, when King Bhaskaravarma enhanced
the power and prestige of Kamarupa to an extent never dreamt before.
Bhaskaravarman was a close friend and ally of Emperor Harshavardhana, and his kingdom
covered almost the whole of eastern India and enjoyed great prosperity.
The Varmans were followed by the rulers of the Salastambha dynasty who held power till the
end of the 10th century A.D. Of the important kings of this dynasty were Harshadeva or
Shri Harsha, who even assumed the imposing title of Maharajadhiraja Parameswara
Paramabhattaraka. The most powerful and prominent monarch of this dynasty however was
Vanamala Varmadeva, whose kingdom extended far and wide including upto present-day North
Bengal.
Then came the Pala dynasty, set up by Brahmapala, which flourished till the beginning of
the 12th century. Another important ruler of this region after the Pala kings was Prithu,
who had successfully resisted the first Muslim invasion of Kamarupa, led by Mohammed Ibn
Bakhtiyar and completely annihilated the Muslim forces. A second Muslim onslaught however
was successful and Prithu was overthrown. That was in 1228.
It was exactly the same year that an army of Ahoms of the Tai-Shan family came from Burma
across the Patkai range and entered Assam under an adventurous leader Sukhapha. The Ahoms
subdued the various local chiefs through a series of determined and skilful moves, and
very soon firmly entrenched themselves as the masters over a large tract.
Simultaneously had built up the Kamata Kingdom, followed by the Koch Kingdom in Kamarupa,
the latter founded by Biswa Simha (1515-1540). His son Naranarayana (1540-1584) was a
truly great ruler, who not only integrated large portions of Assam and present North
Bengal, but also established his suzerainty over many neighbouring kingdoms like Cachar,
Tripura, and the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. The military achievements of Naranarayana owed a
great deal to the extraordinary valour and intelligence of his illustrious brother
Chilarai or Sukladhvaja. The two were highly learned persons and were great patrons of
literature, art and culture. After Naranarayana's death, the kingdom disintegrated; while
the western part fell prey to Muslim aggression, the eastern part eventually became a
satellite of the Ahom Kingdom.
The Ahoms on their part embraced the Hindu religion as the Assamese language, overpowered
the Chutiyas and other groups, pushed the Kacharis southward, and gradually established
their hegemony over many other contiguous areas. By the 17th century, the Ahom country
extended upto the Manas river in the west. But by the 18th century, the kingdom began to
decline, Internal strife, repeated Moghul aggression, natural calamities, a long-drawn-out
civil war, and finally a series of Burmese invasions took a heavy toll. The British
intervened in 1824, and sent away the Burmese by signing the Yandaboo Treaty on February
24, 1826, which also led to annexation of Assam to the British Empire.
The
People
Assam is a mini-India if not more. The human
landscape is as colourful as her physiography. This land has been the meeting ground of
diverse ethnic groups and cultural streams since time immemorial. Throughout history,
people of different stocks have been migrating into this land and merged into a common
harmonious whole in a process of assimilation and fraternisation not to be seen much
elsewhere in India.
The principal migrants have been the Austro-Asiatics, the Dravidians, the Tibeto-Burmans,
the Mongoloids and the Aryans. The Austro-Asiatics, who were one of the earliest to
arrive, initially lived in the Brahmaputra Valley, but were later pushed to the hills by
the subsequent waves of migrants. The Khasis and Jaintias of present-day Meghalaya are
said to be the descendants of this stock.
Next to come were the Dravidians, and the ethnological conjecture is that the Kaibarta and
Bania communities of modern Assam are descendants of this group.
The Mongoloid migration to Assam took place at long intervals and from widely varied
sources. They, in general, belong to the Tibeto-Burman family of the Indo-Chinese group.
The early waves of this group constituted the ancestors of the present-day Kacharis,
Dimasas, Bodos, Rabhas and Lalungs, as also most of the tribes living in the hills
neighbouring modern Assam.
The Kacharis are a powerful family and are today mostly known as the Bodos in the
Brahmaputra Valley and Dimasas in the North Cachar Hills. The Koches on the other hand are
said to be an admixture of the Dravidian and Mongoloid stocks. They are called Rajbangshis
in the extreme western part of the State.
The Chutiyas in Upper Assam originally settled in the north-eastern tip of the region, but
later gave way to make room for the Ahoms, who belonged to the Shan sub-section of the
great Indo-Chinese family.
The Mishings and the Karbis belong to the Tibeto-Burman stock, and inhabit the northern
plains of Upper Assam and the Karbi hills respectively. The Khamits of extreme Upper
Assam, as also the Naras, Phakiyals and Shyams (Man-Tai and Tai-Turung) belong to the Shan
sub-section, and are believed to be groups who arrived much after the Ahoms.
Assam today has
16 Scheduled Castes and 23 Scheduled Tribes, with proposals for inclusion
of more ethnic groups in the two categories still awaiting approval of the center.
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