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93-627: The Ahom kingdom ( Ahom : 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨, ahüm ; Assamese : আহোম), or the Kingdom of Assam ( / ˈ ɑː h ɔː m / , 1228–1826) was a late medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley (present-day Assam ) that retained its independence for nearly 600 years despite encountering Mughal expansion in Northeast India . Established by Sukaphaa , a Tai prince from Mong Mao (present-day Yunnan Province , China ), it began as

186-461: A literary form of their language . Whereas the earlier state formations ( Kamarupa ) borrowed political structures from North India that led to Indo-Aryan domination, the Ahom state formation provided an alternate model built on Southeast Asian political structures, and which provided the space for the development of a distinct political, social and cultural identity. Though Brahminical myth-making

279-523: A mong in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra based on wet rice agriculture. It expanded suddenly under Suhungmung in the 16th century and became multi-ethnic in character, casting a profound effect on the political and social life of the entire Brahmaputra valley. The kingdom became weaker with the rise of the Moamoria rebellion , and subsequently fell to repeated Burmese invasions of Assam . With

372-574: A descendant of the first king Sukaphaa . Succession was generally by primogeniture but occasionally the great Gohains ( Dangarias ) could elect another descendant of Sukaphaa from a different line or even depose an enthroned one. Dangarias : Sukaphaa had two great Gohains to aid him in administration: Burhagohain and the Borgohain . In the 1280s, they were given independent territories, they were veritable sovereigns in their given territories called bilat or rajya . The Burhagohain 's territory

465-646: A language from 2000 years ago, in the Kra–Dai family (unrelated to Chinese, but possibly related to the Austronesian languages ), within the (proposed but debated) subgroup of Kam–Tai , although some say that Tai languages are a discrete family, and are not part of Kra–Dai. Ahom is distinct from but closely related to Aiton , which is still spoken in Assam to this day. Ahom has characteristics typical of Tai languages, such as: When speaking and writing Ahom, much

558-536: A large depopulation due to emigration as well as execution, but the conflicts were never resolved. A much-weakened kingdom fell to repeated Burmese attacks and finally after the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, the control of the kingdom passed into British hands. The Ahom kingdom was based on the Paik system , a type of corvee labor that is neither feudal nor Asiatic . The first coins were introduced by Jayadhwaj Singha in

651-700: A meeting of Ahom people at Patsaku, Sibsagar District, the Tai Historical and Cultural Society of Assam was founded. Since the late 1960s, Ahom culture and traditions have witnessed a revival. In 1981 the Eastern Tai Literary Organization has been founded in Dhemaji, which produced language text books and publications in the Ahom script. Schools in Dibrugarh and Sibsagar districts started offering Tai language classes, teaching

744-432: A mix of Tai Ahom, Phakey, Khamti and Central Thai. The scholar Terwiel notes that the view of the Ahom language being a dead language is hotly contested by Ahom priests and spokesmen of the revival movement. According to them, the language did not die out because Ahom priests still use the language for religious purposes. Some even claim that the priestly class speaks Ahom as their mother tongue. Upon further investigation, it

837-470: A part of the Ahom population due to the process known as Ahomisation . The identity of the Ahom people in this kingdom was fluid, with the king controlling who belonged to it and who did not. The Ahoms initially called their kingdom Mong Dun Shun Kham till 1401 ( Assamese : xunor-xophura ; English: casket of gold ), but adopted Assam in later times. The British-controlled province after 1838 and later

930-488: A process called Ahomisation . Sukaphaa befriended those among the Morans and Barahi who were amenable to join him and put to the sword those who opposed him, and in due course, many others were incorporated into Ahom clans. The Ahoms were acutely aware of their smaller numbers, and adroitly avoided confrontations with larger groups. The additions via Ahomisation enhanced the Ahom numbers significantly. This process of Ahomization

1023-585: A section of the paiks at his command for his personal use (as opposed to the Dangariyas), the rest rendering service to the Ahom state. The Borphukan was in military and civil command over the region west of Kaliabor, and acted as the Swargadeo's viceroy in the west. Borbaruas were mostly from different Moran , Kachari, Chiring and Khamti communities, while the Borphukan of lower Assam was appointed from

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1116-554: A small minority in their own kingdom, of which they kept control. During the 17th century, the Assamese language entered the Ahom court and co-existed with the Tai-Ahom for some time before finally replacing it. Eventually the Ahom peasants too adopted the Assamese language over the Ahom language for secular purposes, while Ahom was restricted to religious use by Ahom priests. The everyday usage of Ahom language ceased completely by

1209-459: A small number, but he was supported and joined by other Tai chiefs and common followers along the way and entered Assam with approximately 9,000 persons. His destiny was Upper Assam , earlier the domain of the Kamarupa kingdom but which had since lapsed into deteriorating conditions, and his intention was not to conquer and raid but to permanently settle in fallow land and practice agriculture—and

1302-427: A small percentage of the population lived in such towns. Some important towns of Ahom time were Rangpur, Garhgoan, Guwahati and Hajo. The capital city of Rangpur , was found to be 20 miles (32.18 km) in extent and thickly populated by Capt. Welsh in 1794. The population, however, never exceeded 10 thousand souls. The Ahom kingdom was ruled by a king, called Swargadeo ( Ahom language : Chao-Pha ), who had to be

1395-477: A third Gohain, Borpatrogohain . The Borpatrogohain's territory was located between the territories of the other two Gohains. Royal officers : Pratap Singha added two offices, Borbarua and Borphukan , that were directly under the king. The Borbarua, who acted as the military as well as the judicial head, was in command of the region east of Kaliabor not under the command of the Dangarias . He could use only

1488-659: A tone system, but because the Ahom script did not spell out any tones, the tones are now unknown. The Ahom language has the following pronouns: Ahom uses the proximal demonstrative nai meaning 'this' and the distal demonstrative nan meaning 'that'. Tai-Ahom mainly used an SVO word order, but an SOV word order has also been attested. Classifiers are used when forming plurals, counting entities and when specifically referring to one single entity. Some classifiers are: 'kun' (used for persons), 'tu' (used for animals) and 'an' (general). For example 'khai song tu' means two buffalo, where 'khai' means buffalo, 'song' means two and 'tu'

1581-502: Is dependent upon context and the audience interpretation. Multiple parts of the sentence can be left out; verb and adjectives will remain, but other parts of speech, especially pronouns, can be dropped. Verbs do not have tenses, and nouns do not have plurals. Time periods can be identified by adverbs, strings of verbs, or auxiliaries placed before the verb. Ahom, like other Tai languages, uses classifiers to identify categories, and repetitions of words to express idiomatic expressions. However,

1674-419: Is the classifier for animals. The following interrogatives are found: Ahom has the following basic numerals: 0 in Ahom script is "𑜰". Below is a comparative table of Ahom and other Tai languages. Tungkhungia Ahom kings The Tungkhungia were a sub-branch of the Ahom dynasty . These kings ruled the Ahom kingdom from 1681 till the end in the beginning of the 19th century. The genealogy of

1767-404: Is therefore usually regarded as a dead language. It retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature. This is complicated however by the fact that the phonology with its tone system has been completely lost, because the Ahom script does not mark tone and under-specifies vowel contrasts, which obscures the meaning of words as tones are important to distinguish

1860-445: The Assamese language in the 17th century. Since the early 18th century, there have been no native speakers of the language, though extensive manuscripts in the language still exist today. The tonal system of the language is entirely lost. The language was only partially known by a small group of traditional priests of the Ahom religion , and it was being used only for ceremonial or ritualistic purposes. There has been efforts to revive

1953-612: The Battle of Saraighat , the Ahoms not only fended off a major Mughal invasion but extended their boundaries west, up to the Manas river . The western border was fixed at Manas river after the Battle of Itakhuli , which remained the same till the annexation by the British. Following the Battle of Saraighat , the kingdom fell straight under ten years of political disorder. During this period

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2046-576: The Chutia community. The Borbarua and Borphukan offices were not hereditary and thus could be chosen from any families. Patra Mantris : The five positions constituted the Patra Mantris (Council of Ministers). From the time of Supimphaa (1492–1497), one of the Patra Mantris was made the Rajmantri (Prime Minister, also Borpatro ; Ahom language : Shenglung ) who enjoyed additional powers and

2139-522: The Moamoria rebellion (1769–1805) when more than half of the population fell off. Again, during the Burmese regime , the Burmese depredations (1817-1825) further reduced the population by 1/3. It shows that only 7/8 lakh people remained, at the time of British annexation. King Pratap Singha is who, systematised the population distribution and settlement of villages. The census of adult male population of

2232-492: The Moamoria rebellion , also festering internal conflicts that tore the kingdom asunder. According to Guha (1986) Ahom Assam continued to flourish till 1770. The Tungkhungia regime witnessed a relative time of peace till first half of the 18th century, where the population increased, trade expanded, Coinage and monetization made headway. New arts and crafts, new crops and even new style of dress were introduced. Rudra Singha alias Sukhrungphaa ( r.  1696–1714 ), under whom

2325-554: The 'Tai Ahom Yuva Chatra Sanmilan, Assam' (TAYCSA), demanded that the Tai-Ahom language be included in the school curriculum of the state of Assam. They also demanded the creation of a two-year diploma course in Mahdavdeva University. An online dictionary containing nearly 5,000 entries (see External links) has been created by analyzing old manuscripts, especially the Bar Amra. A descriptive grammar of Ahom, based on

2418-461: The 17th century had helped the kingdom to repulse the repeated Mughal invasions, had become extremely outdated. The later phase of the rule was also marked by increasing social conflicts, leading to the Moamoria rebellion were able to capture and maintain power at the capital Rangpur for some years but were finally removed with the help of the British under Captain Welsh. The following repression led to

2511-456: The 17th century, though the system of personal service under the Paik system persisted. In the 17th century when the Ahom kingdom expanded to include erstwhile Koch and Mughal areas, it came into contact with their revenue systems and adapted accordingly. Trade was carried on usually through barter and use of circulation of money was limited. According to Shihabududdin Tailash, currency in

2604-545: The Ahom domain occurred for the next two hundred years. The Ahom kingdom, for most of its history, had been closed and population movement closely monitored—nevertheless, there were two significant contacts. One was a friendly encounter with Chutia kingdom that turned into a conflict, and the other was a marriage alliance with the Kamata kingdom . At the end of the 14th century, the nascent Ahom polity faced crises of succession, two regicides, and three quick interregnum periods when

2697-400: The Ahom king to recover his country from the Burmese occupation . The first expeditionary force had to be routed off, which was sent through 'Naga Hills', in 1767 another force was despatched through the old Raha route. The second expedition was successful and achieved its objective in recovering Manipur. Kirti Chandra Borbarua who was the most influential noble in the Ahom court, had caused

2790-417: The Ahom kingdom consisted of cowries, rupees and gold coins. With the increase of external trade since the reign of Rudra Singha , there was a corresponding increase in the circulation of money. Inscriptions dating from the reign of Siva Singha , gives the price of number of commodities like rice, ghee, oil, pulses, goat, pigeon in connection with worship in different temples of the kingdom. This concludes that

2883-420: The Ahom polity together earlier replacing it with political authority of the king, and introduced the tradition of the singarigharutha ceremony, the state coronation of the Ahom kings that symbolised royal Ahom sovereignty, authority and legitimacy. Sudangphaa settled Habung brahmins close his capital, settled the sons of his adopted Brahmin family in frontier areas, dismantled the tribal allegiances that held

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2976-469: The Ahom still reside today. Tai-Ahom was the exclusive court language of the Ahom kingdom , where it was used to write state-histories or ' Buranjis '. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from the Mughal Empire and other invaders. The rapid expansion resulted in the Ahom people becoming

3069-515: The Ahoms court for the first time and briefly coexisted and eventually replaced the Ahom language. No more major restructuring of the state structure was attempted until the end of the kingdom. After the division of the Koch kingdom between two branches of the Koch dynasty in 1581, the Ahoms allied with their immediate western neighbor, the Koch Hajo branch, from 1603 to prop them as a buffer against

3162-432: The Ahoms were primarily responsible for converting the undulating alluvial forest and marshy plains in upper Assam to flat rice fields able to hold plain water for rice cultivation via a network of embankments. The Tai- Shans had with them the basic political structures for state-building, surplus producing technologies such as sedentary wet-rice cultivation and hydrology, a patriarchal social organisation based on chiefs, and

3255-775: The Ahoms. The nature of the kings institutional relationship to the ministers changed with the creation of a new position, the Borpatrogohain , named after a Chutia office; and the creation of the offices of Sadiyakhowa Gohain (territories acquired from the Chutia kingdom) and the Marangikhowa Gohain (territories acquired from the Kachari kingdom), both of which were reserved for the Borgohain and Burhagohain lineages. The traditional nobles ( Chao ) now aligned with

3348-509: The Brahmin literati and an expanded ruling class developed. And when the Ahoms under Ton Kham Borgohain pursued the invaders and reached the Karatoya river they began to see themselves as the rightful heir of the erstwhile Kamarupa kingdom . The Ahom kingdom became more broad-based and took many features of its mature form under Pratap Singha ( r.  1603–1641 ), primarily to meet

3441-660: The Duliya Barua, who was in charge of the royal palanquins; the Chaudang Barua who superintended executions; Khanikar Barua was the chief artificer; Sonadar Barua was the mint master and chief jeweler; the Bez Barua was the physician to the royal family, Hati Barua, Ghora Barua, etc. Other officials included twelve Rajkhowas, and a number of Katakis, Kakatis, and Dolais. The Rajkhowas were governors of given territories and commanders of three thousand paiks . They were

3534-553: The Indian state of Assam came to be known by this name. The kingdom maintained close political ties with other Tai-states especially with Mong Kwang (Nara) till the end of its rule in the 19th century. The Ahom kingdom was established in 1228 when Sukaphaa , a Tai prince, entered the Brahmaputra valley having crossed the rugged Patkai mountain range from Mong Mao . Sukaphaa probably started his journey from his homeland with

3627-674: The Indo-Aryanized tribal groups and consolidate power. The Ahom kingdom transitioned into a full state rather dramatically in a short period during the reign of Suhungmung Dihingia Raja ( r.  1497–1539 ). It began first with a consolidation of the militia in 1510, followed by an expansion into the Bhuyan region at Habung in 1512 (probably with the help of the descendants of the Habungia Brahmans settled during Sudangpha's time). The Indo-Aryan Bhuyans were relocated to

3720-591: The Kingdom attained its zenith. He subdued the kingdoms of Dimasa and Jaintia . He had made extensive preparations to extend the boundary west–towards, attempted to make a confederacy of Hindu kings of eastern India against Mughals . But he died right before he could execute his plans in 1714. Rudra Singha had re–instated the Vaisnava Satras, he himself had taken initiation of the Auniati Gosain (

3813-484: The Mughals back to the west of the Manas river permanently. In 1657, owing to the 'War of succession' among the sons of Shah Jahan . Ahom king Jayadhwaj Singha extended his authority, occupied Kamrup , preventing the other rebellious Koch king Pran Narayan from securing his footing. He speedily extended his authority over whole of western Assam. He brought under his domain the whole Brahmaputra Valley, from Sadiya in

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3906-570: The Mughals who had extended their rule to Bengal by 1576. The collapse of the Koch Hajo power in 1614 resulted in the Mughals coming to power up to the Barnadi river. The Mughals attempted further ingress to the east in 1616 with the Battle of Samdhara which marked the beginning of the Ahom–Mughal conflicts which lasted the till 1682 in the Battle of Itakhuli , when the Ahoms were able to push

3999-400: The arbitrator who settled local disputes and supervised public works. The Katakis were envoys who dealt with foreign countries and hill tribes. The Kakatis were writers of official documents. The Dolais expounded astrology and determined auspicious time and dates for any important event and undertaking. Members of the royal families ruled certain areas, and they were called Raja . Members of

4092-406: The barter economy was in the process of being replaced by the money economy, which was the outcome of Assam's developing economic ties both with feudal India and the neighbouring countries of the north east. Due to trade with Tibet, a coin of Jayadhwaj Singha carries a single Chinese character on each side reading Zang Bao. This had been translated as 'treasury of your honour'. Nicholas Rodhes read

4185-444: The burning of Buranjis . Rajeswar Singha's reign marked the end of Ahom supremacy and glory, the signs were decay was already visible during his reign. He was succeeded by his younger brother Lakshmi Singha alias Sunyeophaa ( r.  1769–1780 ). The Ahom kingdom by the mid-18th century was indeed an over-burdened hierarchical structure, supported by a weak institutional base and meagre economic surplus. The Paik system which in

4278-422: The capital and absorbed into the lower echelons of the growing state as scribes and warriors. They in turn helped in the elimination of the royalty of the advanced Chutia kingdom in 1523; and that kingdom's nobility, commanders, professional classes, warriors and technologies were absorbed into the Ahom kingdom. It was this formation of the Ahom kingdom that met the aggression from Bengal under Turbak in 1532 and it

4371-475: The chief queen. Forward governors, who were military commanders, ruled and administered forward territories. The officers were usually filled from the families that were eligible for the three great Gohains. Lesser governors were called Rajkhowas, and some of them were: The dependent kings or vassals were also called Raja . Except for the Raja of Rani, all paid an annual tribute. These Rajas were required to meet

4464-428: The conflict with a treaty that fixed the boundary between the two polities at Patkai . This event was significant since it moved the Ahom polity from implicit subordination to explicit sovereignty, and this was accompanied by the transition of the name of the polity from Mong-Dun-Sun-Kham to "Assam", a derivative from Shan / Shyam . Sudangphaa established a new capital at Charagua, broke the clan allegiances that held

4557-399: The creation of the first adequate modern dictionary by Nomal Chandra Gogoi in 1987, titled The Assamese-English-Tai Dictionary . This dictionary allowed a reader to find the translation of 9,000 Assamese words into English and Tai. This dictionary filled in missing gaps of the Ahom vocabulary with Aiton and Khamti words and if those were not available, Lanna and Thai words were used. The result

4650-488: The defeat of the Burmese after the First Anglo-Burmese War and the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, control of the kingdom passed into East India Company hands. Though it came to be called the Ahom kingdom in the colonial and subsequent times, it was largely multi-ethnic, with the ethnic Tai-Ahom people constituting less than 10% of the population toward the end. People from different ethnic groups became

4743-538: The early 19th century. Although the language is no longer spoken, the exhaustive 1795 Ahom-Assamese lexicon known as the Bar Amra preserves the lexical forms of the language towards the end of the Ahom Kingdom . The language today is used chiefly for liturgical purposes, and is no longer used in daily life. While the written language (and ritualistic chants) survive in a vast number of written manuscripts, Ahom

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4836-404: The east and Sherpur on the south. Thus, the Ahom state attained the greatest territorial zenith. In 1662, Aurangzeb to bring the lost tracts and to punish the rebels elements in that quarter, launched an invasion under his chief lieutenant Mir Jumla II , in this invasion the Ahoms could not resist up well, and the Mughals occupied the capital, Garhgaon. Unable to keep it, and in at the end of

4929-741: The erection of many temples and made numerous grants to the religious sites and brahmanas. He died in 1744, and his younger brother Pramatta Singha was set up on the throne setting aside the claims of Siva Singha's son. Pramatta Singha alias Sunenphaa ( r.  1744–1751 ), nothing of importance is recorded during his reign. He had erected the Rang Ghar with masonry and built the Sukreswar and Rudreswar temples in North–Guwahati. During his reign, Kirti Chandra Borbarua gained much of his political influence. In 1744, he received an ambassador from

5022-642: The expressions, classifiers, pronouns, and other sentence particles vary between the Tai languages descended from Proto-Tai, making Tai languages mutually unintelligible. It has its own script, the Ahom script . The Ahom people and their language originated in Yunnan in south-west China . They migrated from the border between northern Vietnam and the Guangxi province of China, to the Hukawng Valley , along

5115-573: The grammar found in old manuscripts, is being worked on. A sketch has been released, titled “A Sketch of Tai Ahom” by Stephen Morey. The Tai Ahom consonants have been reconstructed as the following, by analyzing old texts: The semi-vowel /w/ is missing from the system, however it is an allophone of /b/ that occurs only in the word final position. Consonants found in the word final position are: /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, j, b [w]/. Vowels can occur in syllable medial and final positions only. The following vowel inventory has been reconstructed: The language had

5208-408: The initiation of Parvatiya Gosain and established him 'Nilachal mountain' with extensive land grants and paiks. Siva Singha was very much under the influence of Brahmanas and astrologers, 1722 it was predicted by the astrologers that his reign would soon come to a end owing to the evil influence of Chatra–bhanga–yoga . Therefore, he transferred the royal umbrella and throne to his wife Phuleshwari who

5301-594: The inscription as 'Currency of Tibet', Also these two characters were used by the Chinese in Lhasa between 1792 and 1836 with the meaning 'Tibetan currency. Furthermore, there was a significant contact between China and Tibet in the mid-seventeen century, so it is not unlikely that the Assamese would have thought have thought that a Chinese character was an appropriate for Assamese-Tibetan trade coin. This piece evidently

5394-646: The institution of Buranji writing, a practice of historiography rare in India. In the late medieval era, the Ahom kingdom was known to be a kaghazi raj (a kingdom with records) just as the Mughal Empire was. At the time of their advent, the Ahoms came with advanced technologies of rice cultivation, and it was their belief that they were divinely ordained to turn fallow land to agriculture and also to absorb stateless and shifting agriculturists to their own ways. The shifting people were called kha and many such kha people were ceremonially adopted into different Ahom clans,

5487-405: The king and the two counsellors held each other in check and balance. These institutions of checks and balances thus seeded held fast for six hundred years—in the 18th century John Peter Wade, a British officer, observed these unique institutions and novel system of government. Sukaphaa had instructed that events during his rule be chronicled, a practice sustained by his successors; and there emerged

5580-551: The king of Twipra . He died in 1751. Rajeswar Singha alias Supremphaa ( r.  1751–1759 ), he was put on the throne by Kirti Chandra Borbarua by setting aside the claims of seniority of his elder brother Barjana Gohain . Rajeswar Singha had erected the most number of temples among the Ahom Kings, he was an orthodox Hindu and took initiation of Nati–Gosian (a relative of Pravatiya Gosain). In 1765, he sent an expedition to Manipur whose king Jay Singha made an appeal to

5673-511: The kingdom was without a king. Sudangphaa Bamuni Konwar ( r.  1397–1407 ), born and raised in a Brahmin household in Habung , was identified as a descendant of a past king and installed on the throne by the Burhaohain and Borgohain to end the period of crisis. He established Brahmin officers, advisors and communities near the capital and the Brahmin influence, though negligible,

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5766-573: The kingdom—the Assamese-speaking Hinduized subjects outnumbered the Ahoms themselves; and the absorption of the Chutia kingdom meant a wide range of artisan skills became available to it increasing the scope for division of labour. To provide legitimacy to the rule of the Ahom kings among the new subjects Suhungmung assumed the title Swarganarayana ( Swargadeo ), though nothing like the Rajputisation process occurred with

5859-560: The language by following the phonology of existing sister languages, especially Tai-Aiton and Tai-Phake . The Institute of Tai Studies and Research (ITSAR), is a Tai-Ahom language teaching institute in Moran , Sivasagar , Assam , India, established in 2001 and affiliated to Dibrugarh University . It offers a one-year Tai-Ahom language diploma course and a three-month certificate course in spoken Tai-Ahom. Other initiatives have been taken, such as workshops and language classes. In 2019,

5952-404: The language in recent times. A reconstructed version is taught in various educational institutions in Assam by AHSEC and Dibrugarh University . Tai-Ahom is classified in a Northwestern subgrouping of Southwestern Tai owing to close affinities with Shan , Khamti and, more distantly, Thai . The immediate parent language from which Ahom is descended has been reconstructed as Proto-Tai ,

6045-404: The meaning of words in tonal languages. Fabricated samples of the Ahom script delayed translation of legitimate Ahom texts. Several publications were created based on the fabricated samples, leading to incorrect grammatical analysis and dictionary resources that acted as a barrier to future researchers. A later translation of Ahom Buranji , a major Ahom script was provided by Golap Chandra Barua,

6138-575: The most influential Brahmana Sattradhikar ) but later in his life he got inclined towards Shaktism , considering it to be more suitable for a monarch, he invited a famous Sakta Brahmana from Bengal–Krishnaram Bhattacharya alias Pravatiya Gosain. From his death bed he expressed his will that, all his five sons to be kings in an executive manner and advised them to take initiation of Parvatiya Gosain Siva Singha alias Sutanphaa ( r.  1714–1744 ), he dropped his father's plan to invade Benagal. He took

6231-413: The needs for resources and paiks when the need arose, as during the time of war. There were in total 15 vassal states. Ahom language The Ahom people established the Ahom kingdom and ruled parts of the Brahmaputra river valley in the present day Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries. The language was the court language of the kingdom, until it began to be replaced by

6324-463: The nobles exercised immense power, and seven kings were put on the throne and deposed. In the meantime, Kamrup went back in the hands of Mughals for a few years. Gadadhar Singha ( r.  1682–1696 ) established the 'Tungkhungia rule' in Assam, which continued to remain in power till the end of the kingdom. In 1682, the Mughals were defeated in the Battle of Itakhul , and Manas river was fixed as

6417-424: The north bank (Uttarkul), the south bank (Dakhinkul), and the island of Majuli . The north bank (Uttarkul) was more populated and fertile but the Ahom kings set up their capital on the south bank (Dakinkul) because it had more inaccessible strongholds and defensible central places. From 1500 to 1770 A.D., one comes across definite signs of demographic growth in the region. There was terrible depopulation In course of

6510-527: The polity together earlier and brought the Ahom kingdom very close to a full-fledged state. The next hundred years saw the kingdom mostly suppressing rebellious Naga groups, but a conflict with the Dimasa kingdom in 1490 saw the Ahoms, not strong enough to take them on frontally, suing for peace. The Ahom royalty continuously improved their relationship with the Brahmans which enabled them to gain goodwill with

6603-618: The power of Mong Mao faded to be replaced the power of Mong Kwang, at which point the Ahoms stopped the tributes. The Ahoms began to call their domain Mong Dun Sun Kham ("a country of golden gardens"). Though Sukaphaa had avoided the Namdang region mindful of the numerically small Ahom contingent, but his son Suteuphaa made the Kacharis withdraw on their own via a stratagem and the Ahoms expanded into it; but no further expansions of

6696-676: The reign of Siva Singha led to the Moamoria rebellion and ultimately to the eclipse of the kingdom. Sukaphaa (1228–1268) spent a couple of decades moving from place to place establishing colonies and finally settled down in Charaideo in 1253. He established the offices of the Dangarias—; the Burhagohain ( Chao-Phrungmung ) and the Borgohain ( Chao-Thaonmung ). In the 1280s, these two offices were given independent regions of control; partly hereditary and partly elected,

6789-891: The royal boats, the Bhitarual Phukan, the Na Phukan, the Dihingia Phukan, the Deka Phukan, and the Neog Phukan formed the council of Phukan. The Borphukan also had a similar council of six subordinate Phukans whom he was bound to consult in all matters of importance. This council included Pani Phukan, who commanded six thousand paiks , Deka Phukan who commanded four thousand paiks , the Dihingia Phukan, Nek Phukan and two Chutiya Phukans. The superintending officers were called Barua s. The Baruas of whom there were twenty or more included Bhandari Barua or treasurer;

6882-483: The royal families who occupy lower positions are given regions called mel s, and were called meldangia or melkhowa raja . Meldangia Gohain s were princes of an even lesser grade, of which there were two: Majumelia Gohain and Sarumelia Gohain . Royal ladies were given individual mel s, and by the time of Rajeshwar Singha, there were twelve of them. The most important of these was the Raidangia mel given to

6975-434: The royal government) were established to increase the number of Patra Mantris to five, along with other smaller offices. The practices of using Brahmins solely for diplomatic missions, the Ahom kings adopting a Hindu name in addition to their Ahom names, and patronising Hindu establishments began with Pratap Singha, though formal initiation of the Ahom kings into Hinduism did not occur till 1648. The Assamese language entered

7068-417: The rules of Tai grammar. It has also changed greatly regarding semantics, literally translating Assamese into Tai words, which leads to sentences which do not make sense to any Tai speaker. Terwiel therefore calls this revived language 'pseudo-Ahom'. Nevertheless, this revived language has been used passionately by revitalists and many neologisms have been created. The demand for translation into Tai-Ahom led to

7161-424: The same man responsible for fabricating samples of translated Ahom script. It was discovered years later, by Professor Prasert na Nagara , that the translation was unreliable. Despite these difficulties, along with the lack of native speakers and specific text, studies in Ahom have prevailed, and certain available scripts have been translated and transliterated, using known words, characters and context. In 1954, at

7254-559: The scholar Morey reported that Ahom priests have resorted to compounding words to differentiate between words that are homophones in the revived language, since Ahom lost its tone system. For example in old Ahom, the word su for tiger and su for shirt would have sounded differently by pronouncing them with a different tone. In revived Ahom, they are now differentiated by compounding them with another word: tu for animal and pha for cloth respectively. Subsequently, tu su and pha su can be differentiated. An effort has been made to revive

7347-678: The service of a thousand additional paiks from the Jakaichuk village. The Borbarua and the Borphukan had military and judicial responsibilities, and they were aided by two separate councils ( sora ) of Phukans . The Borphukan's sora sat at Guwahati and the Borbarua's sora at the capital. Six of them formed the council of the Borbarua with each having his separate duties. The Naubaicha Phukan, who had an allotment of thousand men managed

7440-482: The silver earned from these trading activities. Another point by which we can understand the trade relation of Ahoms with other nations is through the use of Silver coins. It is to be noted that there are no silver mines in the northeast or in the rest of India, so the metal entered as a result of trade. In extent the kingdom's length was about 500 miles (800 km) and with an average breadth of 60 miles (96 km). The kingdom can be divided into three major regions:

7533-526: The state was taken very strictly so that every working man would be registered for the state service. The census were properly recorded in registers called paikar piyalar kakat . The following table estimates the population composition of classes, during the reign of king Rajeswar Singha (1751-1769). According to the population estimates computed by Gunabhiram Barua . population by Guha (1978) population by Bhuyan (1949) population by NPB population by Dutt (1958) There were towns, but only

7626-517: The sustained attacks from the Mughals. The Paik system was reorganized in 1609 under the professional khel system, replacing the kinship-based phoid system; and paiks could be permanently alienated to non-royal institutions via royal grants. Under the same king, the offices of the Borphukan (viceroy of territories acquired from the Koches and the Mughals), and the Borbarua (the "secretary" of

7719-725: The upper reaches of the Chindwin river , northern Burma . In the 13th century, they crossed the Patkai Range . and settled in the Brahmaputra River valley, in Northeast India. After increasing their power in Upper Assam, the Ahom people extended their power to the south of the river Brahmaputra and east of the river Dikho, which corresponds to the modern day districts of Dibrugarh and Sibsagar, Assam, where

7812-638: The western boundary. Gadadhar Singha came in conflict with the Vaisnava Satras who began commencing immense power and influence over the state and people, and started a wide–spread persecution of the Vaisnavites. The rule of Tungkhungia Ahom kings was marked by achievements in the Arts and engineering constructions, the Tungkhungia reigme witnessed a relative time of peace and stability till

7905-445: Was a common feature that all ancient and medieval kingdoms—such as Chutia and Kachari kingdoms—in Assam utilised for legitimacy to various degrees, the Ahoms were able to use their alternate Lengdon-based legitimacy to establish their rule and effectively negotiate with the indigenous people; nevertheless the later Tungkhungia kings veered towards Saktism and the persecution of the shudra Mahantas and their laity that began during

7998-473: Was a hodgepodge of multiple Tai languages, that was only linked to the Ahom language by the Ahom script in which the dictionary entries were written. The scholar Terwiel recommended in 1992 to base neo-Ahom on the grammar and tones of the very closely related Aiton language, which is still spoken in Assam. Summarizing, the revivalists use a language consisting of a mixture of Tai words from multiple Tai languages, overlaid on an Assamese grammatical base. In 1999,

8091-572: Was able to eliminate the aggressive leadership (with significant loss to itself) and pursue the retreating invaders to the Karatoya river . In 1536, after the series of contacts with the Kachari kingdom , the Ahom rule extended up to the Kolong River in Nagaon; and by the end of Suhungmung's reign, the size of the kingdom had effectively doubled. These expansions created significant changes in

8184-401: Was an attempt by Jayadhwaj Singha to facilitate trade with Chinese knowing person coming from the direction of Tibet. Rudra Singha is also said to have established an extensive trade with Tibet and to have encouraged intercourse with other nations although he strictly limited the extent to which foreigners were allowed into the country. Presumably, some of the coins of his reign were struck with

8277-475: Was between Sadiya and Gerelua river in the north bank of the Brahmaputra river and the Borgohain's territory was to the west up to the Burai river. They were given total command over the paiks that they controlled. These positions were generally filled from specific families. Princes who were eligible for the position of Swargadeo were not considered for these positions and vice versa. In the 1527, Suhungmung added

8370-436: Was determined that the priests could decipher the Ahom script and read the words aloud. However, because they did not know any tones, they did not have any idea of the meaning of the words except for the simplest expressions. According to Terwiel, there are great differences between the old Ahom language of the manuscripts, which is easily recognizable as a Tai language, and what the revivalists call Ahom, which does not follow

8463-474: Was felt for the first time. A number of rebellions erupted purportedly against this influence but Sudangphaa was able to suppress them and solidify his rule. One of the rebels invited a military expedition from Mong Kwang (called Nara in the Buranjis, the successor state of Mong Mao to which the early Ahom kings used to send tribute) resulting in a clash in 1401—but Sudangphaa defeated the expedition and concluded

8556-510: Was given the title of 'Bar–Raja' on the advice of Pravatiya Gosain. Phuleswari melded too much with the religious affairs, she had caused the insult of the Shudra–Mahantas. After the death of Phuleswari, two other wives of Siva Singha were set on the position of 'Bar–Raja', namely Ambika and Sarbeswari. Siva Singha reign was peaceful, except an expedition sent against the Daflas, he had caused

8649-459: Was particularly significant till the 16th century when under Suhungmung , the kingdom made large territorial expansions at the cost of the Chutiya and the Kachari kingdoms. At this initial stage the kingdom was still not fully sovereign. Sukaphaa sent his word of allegiance and tributes to Mong Mao , a practice that was continued by some of his successors till about the early 14th century when

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