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The Political History of Medieval Assam Has Not So Far Received Its Due Share from Historians

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The Political History of Medieval Assam Has Not So Far Received Its Due Share from Historians CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The political history of medieval Assam has not so far received its due share from historians. The period under review i.e . 1200 to 1675 A.D. witnessed many political upheavals in Assam. The country which was leading a life of splendid isolation during the ancient times suddenly came under attack by foreign powers which were trying to conquer and settle in this sub-continent. How and to what extent Assam defended itself during this critical period of its history deserve special attention. An attempt therefore has been made in this present work to study the military acti­ vities of Medieval Assam. Scope and Nature of the Work The scope of this work covers mainly the military and politico-strategic aspects of medieval Assam. Some attempts so far have been made to connect the link of Assam history but no proper spade-work has been done in the military and politico-strategic aspects which led to the several ups and downs in the battlefields with consequent repercussion on internal and regional political and social development. It is true as said by John Buchanan (The Causal and Casual in History, p. 17) that our knowledge of the past is only partial and this is not only because of the paucity of materials and their conflicting human mind in giving proper interpretation to the known facts. Moreover all events in history cannot be explained with reference to cause and effect apparent and real. Assam, a remote part of India, has been little known to other parts of India. The contention "Assam is a country, which at most periods of its history, has remained outside the Indian civilisation" (Cambridge History of India, Vol.I, pp. 11-12), will be found to be disputed if the history and the relationship of Assam is traced from pre-historical and historical events. In the Epic age Assam’ s contact with rest of India has been found on many accounts. In historical period the whole of India was not knitted together by one political or administrative thread all the time. But there are other factors through which Indianness has been asserted and generated throughout the land. These are migration of people, attention paid and expedition conducted from the heartland, trade and commerce, cultural influence and reli­ gious link. Examining these means, Assam*s relationship with the rest of .the country can be properly gauged. Through , this work of military contacts with Muslim rulers, Assam’ s close link with the rest of India will be established besides highlighting the political, social and economic rami­ fication of Assam during the medieval period. Summary of the Chapters Military activities of Assam in the medieval period are manifold. Before the arrival of the Ahoms, the entire land was divided into some tribal states or principalities. Frequent warfares and rivalries used to crop up in between them. The Brahmaputra valley in the lower part was under Kamarup ruled by several lines of Aryan dynasties of which King Niladhwaj in this period earned prominence. With the establishment of Koch dynasty, Kamarup, a part of Assam, joined with the part of Bengal to form a separate kingdom called Koch Bihar for certain period of history. When Koch Bihar got split into two parts as Koch Bihar and Koch Hajo, the prominence of Ahom in Assam as the ruling dynasty rose to its pitch high. The Ahoms fought series of battles against the other ruling principalities like the Naras, Nagas, Ghutias, Kacharies, Dimasas, Boros, Jaintias to overpower them. The Ahoms also played aggressive diplomacy backed by armed support whenever necessary against number of border feudal lords who used to attain autonomy. Amongst them the ten Rajas of Lower Assam, Baro Bhuyans, Koch kings are worth mentioning. Finally by the middle of the I6th century, the Ahoms attained their mastery over Assam and became the truly ruling house and the rest of the tribes also converted slowly ,into Assamese fold with a common culture and tradition,. Soon after, the Ahoms also forgot their foreign identity and got themselves absorbed with the all-pervading process of Assami- tization. The repeated onslaughts of Assam by external powers could be repulsed only with the Ahom*s skill of warfare and shrewdness of diplomacy. Expeditions to Assam started from the Sultanate period. Muhammad Bakhtyar Khilji, the Turkish General of Sultan Kutubuddin on the way of his pretended Chinese expeditions entered Kamarup in 1205 A.D. The Raja of Kamarup Niladhwaj by making a clever trap destroyed the entire force of Bakhtiyar. After that as many as eight powerful expeditions followed till 1529 A.D. Some of these were protracted and costly. A few of them attained success for a short duration at heavy cost. But finally had to make withdrawal or perished. The last expedition of this period was badly mauled in the naval engagement of Timeni and land battle of Singri. During this period a considerable number of Muslim soldiers on their voluntary options were rehabilitated in Assam, thereby making the beginning of Muslim settlements in North-East frontier of India. Mughal expedition to Assam started from 1612 A.D. on­ wards and continued till 1682 A.D. But the battle of Saraighat in 1671-72 A.D. finally decided the Assamese super­ iority over the great Mughals. The Bengal Governor Islam Khan sent the powerful expedition in 1612 A.D. equipped with cavalry, artillery and navy with a large number of Mansabdars •and Hindu Zamindars under the command of Mukarram Khan. This Mughal force attained success in the battle of Dhubri and proceeded upto Pandu near Guwahati fighting number of critical wars on land and water. Great Mughal General Mir Jumla (1662- 1663 A.D.) even captured the Ahom Capital Gargaon forcing the Ahom king to flight. But this initial grand success doomed by both predictable and unpredictable events ultimately costing the untimely death of Mir Jumla. Next important attempt was made by Emperor Aurangzeb by sending Raja Ram Singh for capturing Assam but that was ended with the miserable defeat at the battle of Saraighat in 1671-72 A.D. Assamese policy of appeasement and conciliation to subsidise their armed strength, their ruse and feint and diplomatic manoeuverability ultimately yielded fruits of success through adversities. That no imperialist during any period of Indian history could subdue Assam despite repeated attacks appears to be a mystery. The organizational skill, efficient Navy, shrewd intelligence system, exploitation of terrain, skilful handling of critical situation and over and above the passionate love of Assamese people for the independence of their country happened to be the main factor of their main success. A nation in arms was the prevailing order and hence at short notice a vast army could be raised to defend against the invaders. Sources Historical materials for the period from 1200 A.D. to the beginning of the Mughal expeditions to Assam are meagre and occasionally confusive as a result of ornamentalization in the writings. Treaty agreements, edicts, correspondences, numismatics which are primarily taken to be important sources for assimilation of history are extremely limited for the period 1200 A.D. to 1500 A.D. Records of events left by the contemporary Muslim persons of eminence and persons who accompanied the expeditions besides the oflicial recordings of the Imperialists form important source-materials to build up the military history of defence and offence of the period under study. Perhaps the Ahom Kings of Assam for the first time in India introduced the system of writing history system­ atically by engaging official and unofficial persons. More if. than hundred of these Ahom history called Buran.11 have been discovered from various places. These Buranjis are the most valuable record for authentic informations of the period. Contemporary foreign travellers* account and the geographical investigation made by the East India Company officials in the process of their expansionism also supply informations which are to be properly scrutinized before acceptance. The sources used for making up the geographical identity of Assam on the period of study are the Epics, the Puranas, the Tantras and other mythological literature. These literary works refer to Assam as Kamarupa and Pragjyotishpura. The area and boundary as referred to in these works found to be identical in the references of Periplus of the Erythrean Sea of 1st century A .D ., and in the accounts of Chinese visitor Hiuen Tsang of 7th Century A.D. The prevalent traditions of 4ssam, the existing remnants of roads and bridges, the great Brahmaputra river and many other rivers as mentioned in early literary and historical records make it easy to ascertain the geographical identity. Though tradition cannot be considered ^ This is an Ahom word which means treasure house of knowledge. always as accurate sources yet comparative and analytical assessment over it helps in sorting out several problems as one has to confront in research works. Persian and Muslim Sources Persian writings of the Muslim historians, travellers and Generals are important source for geographical as well as strategic and military knowledge. Minhajuddin Siraj who wrote Tabaqat-i-Nasiri during the middle of 13th century A.D. gives valuable informations of Muhammad-bin-Bakhtiyar K hiliji’ s Assam invasion in 1205-06 A.D., Ghiasuddin’ s invasion in 1226 A .D ., Nasiruddin^s in 1228 A.D. and of Yuzback^s invasion in 1256-57 A.D. The author was at Lakhnuati (near Dhaka) when the expeditions took place. Rlyaz-us-Salatln of Ghulam Hussayan Salim of the later 13th century A.D. presents the accounts of Bakhtiyar’ s and Hussayan’ s expeditions to Assam. Akbar-namah by Shaikh Abul Fazl refers to Mughal intervention in Koch Bihar when there was a rivalry between Lakshmi Narayan and Raghu Narayan the rulers of Koch Bihar and Koch Hajo.
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