Chutia Kingdom | |||||||||
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Capital | Sadiya | ||||||||
Common languages | Assamese language Deori language | ||||||||
Religion | Hinduism Tribal religion | ||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
Monarch | |||||||||
• Unknown–1524 | Dhirnarayana (last) | ||||||||
Historical era | Medieval Assam | ||||||||
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Today part of | India |
Rulers of Chutia kingdom | |
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Part of History of Assam | |
Known rulers of the Chutia kingdom | |
Nandisvara | late 14th century |
Satyanarayana | late 14th century |
Lakshminarayana | early 15th century |
Durlabhnarayana | early 15th century |
Pratyakshanarayana | mid 15th century |
Yasanarayana | mid 15th century |
Purandarnarayana | late 15th century |
Dhirnarayana | unknown - 1524 |
Chutia monarchy data | |
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Part of a series on the |
History of Assam |
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The Chutia Kingdom [8] (also Sadiya [9] or Chutiya) was a late medieval state that developed around Sadiya in present Assam and adjoining areas in Arunachal Pradesh. [10] It extended over almost the entire region of present districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, and some parts of Dibrugarh in Assam, [11] as well as the plains and foothills [12] of Arunachal Pradesh. [13] The kingdom fell around the year 1524 to the Ahom Kingdom after a series of conflicts and the capital area ruled by the Chutia rulers became the administrative domain of the office of Sadia Khowa Gohain of the Ahom kingdom. [14]
The Chutia kingdom came into prominence in the second half of the 14th century, [15] and it was one among several rudimentary states (Ahom, Dimasa, Koch, Jaintia etc.) that emerged from tribal political formations in the region after the fall of Kamarupa kingdom, between the 13th and the 16th century. [16] Among these, the Chutia state was the most advanced, [17] [18] with its rural industries, [19] trade, [20] surplus economy and advanced Sanskritisation. [21] [22] It is not exactly known as to the system of agriculture adopted by the Chutias, [23] but it is believed that they were settled cultivators. [24] After the Ahoms annexed the kingdom in 1523, the Chutia state & its population was absorbed into the Ahom kingdom through Ahomisation — the nobility and the professional classes were given important positions in the Ahom officialdom [25] [26] and the land was resettled for wet rice cultivation. [27]
Though there is no doubt on the Chutia polity, the origins of this kingdom are obscure. [28] It is generally held that the Chutias established a state around Sadiya and contiguous areas [10] —though it is believed that the kingdom was established in the 13th century before the advent of the Ahoms in 1228, [29] and Buranjis, the Ahom chronicles, indicate the presence of a Chutia state [30] the evidence is scarce that it was of any significance before the second half of the 14th century. [31]
The earliest Chutia king in the epigraphic records is Nandin or Nandisvara, from the latter half of the 14th century, [32] mentioned in a grant by his son Satyanarayana who nevertheless draws his royal lineage from Asuras in his mother's side who were "enemies of the gods". [33] The mention of Satyanarayana as having the shape of his maternal uncle (which is also an indirect reference to the same Asura/Daitya lineage) [34] may also constitute evidence of matrilineality of the Chutia ruling family, or that their system was not exclusively patrilineal. [35] On the other hand, a later king Durlabhnarayana mentions that his grandfather Ratnanarayana (identified with Satyanarayana) was the king of Kamatapura [36] which might indicate that the eastern region of Sadhaya was politically connected to the western region of Kamata. [37]
In these early inscriptions, the kings are said to be seated in Sadhyapuri, identified with the present-day Sadiya; [38] which is why the kingdom is also called Sadiya. The Buranjis written in the Ahom language called the kingdom Tiora (literal meaning: Burha Tai/Elder Tai) whereas those written in the Assamese language called it Chutia. [8]
Brahmanical influence in the form of Vaishnavism reached the Chutia polity in the eastern extremity of present-day Assam during the late fourteenth century. [39] [40] Vaishnava Brahmins created lineages for the rulers with references to Krishna legends but placed them lower in the Brahminical social hierarchy because of their autochthonous origins. [41] Though asura lineage of the Chutia rulers have similarities with the Narakasura lineage created for the three Kamarupa dynasties, the precise historical connection is not clear. [42] Although a majority of the Brahmin donees of the royal grants were Vaishnavas, [43] the rulers patronized the non-brahmanised Dikkaravasini [44] (also Tamresvari or Kechai-khati), which was either a powerful tribal deity, or a form of the Buddhist deity Tara adopted for tribal worship. [45] This deity, noticed in the 10th century Kalika Purana well before the establishment of the Chutia kingdom, continued to be presided by a Deori priesthood well into the Ahom rule and outside Brahminical influence. [46]
The royal family traced its descent from the line of Viyutsva. [47]
Unfortunately, there are many manuscript accounts of the origin and lineage that do not agree with each other or with the epigraphic records and therefore have no historical moorings. [48] [49] One such source is Chutiyar Rajar Vamsavali, first published in Orunodoi in 1850 and reprinted in Deodhai Asam Buranji. [50] Historians consider this document to have been composed in the early 19th century—to legitimize the Matak rajya around 1805—or after the end of Ahom rule in 1826. [51] This document relates the legend of Birpal. Yet another Assamese document, retrieved by Ney Elias from Burmese sources, relates an alternative legend of Asambhinna. [52] These different legends suggest that the genealogical claims of the Chutias have changed over time and that these are efforts to construct (and reconstruct) the past. [53]
Only a few recently compiled Buranjis provide the history of the Chutia kingdom; [54] though some sections of these compilations are old, the sections that contain the list of Chutiya rulers cannot be traced to earlier than 19th century [55] and scholars have shown great disdain for these accounts and legends. [56]
Neog (1977) compiled a list of rulers from epigraphic records based crucially on identifying the donor-ruler named Dharmanarayan, mentioned as the son of Satyanarayana in the Bormurtiya grant [57] with the Dharmanarayan, the father of the donor-ruler Durlabhnarayana of the Chepakhowa grant. [58] This effectively results in identifying Satyanarayana with Ratnanarayana. [59]
Name | Other names | Reign Period | Reign in Progress |
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Nandi | Nandisara or Nandisvara | late 14th century [61] | |
Satyanarayana | Ratnanarayana | late 14th century [61] | 1392 [62] |
Lakshminarayana | Dharmanarayana or Mukta-dharmanaryana [63] | early 15th century | 1392; [64] 1401; [65] 1442 [66] |
Durlabhnarayana | early 15th century | 1428 [67] | |
Pratyaksanarayana [68] | |||
Yasanarayana [68] |
A late discovery of an inscription, published in a 2002 souvenir of the All Assam Chutiya Sanmilan [69] seems to genealogically connect the last historically known king, Dhirnarayan with Neog's list above.
Name | Other names | Reign Period | Reign in progress |
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Yasamanarayana [70] | |||
Purandarnarayana | late 15th century | ||
Dhirnarayana | early 16th century | 1522 [71] |
Though it is accepted that the rule of the Chutia rulers ended in 1523, [72] different sources give different accounts. [73] The extant Ahom Buranji and the Deodhai Asam Buranji mention that in the final battles and the aftermath both the king (Dhirnarayan) and the heir-apparent (Sadhaknarayan) were killed; [74] whereas Ahom Buranji-Harakanta Barua mentions that the remnant of the royal family was deported to Pakariguri, Nagaon—a fact that is disputed by scholars. [75] [76]
The extent of the power of the kings of the Chutia kingdom is not known in detail. [77] Nevertheless, it is estimated by most modern scholarship that Chutias held the areas on the north bank of Brahmaputra from Parshuram Kund (present-day Arunachal Pradesh) in the east and included the present districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia and some parts of Dibrugarh in Assam. [11] [78] Between 1228 and 1253 when Sukaphaa, the founder of the Ahom kingdom, was searching for a place to settle in Upper Assam, he and his followers did not encounter any resistance from the Chutia state, [79] implying that the Chutia state must have been of little significance till at least the mid 14th century, [80] when the Ahom chronicles mention them for the first time. However, it is also known that the Ahoms themselves were a people with a precariously small territory and population, which may indicate this absence of serious interaction with the old settled people of the neighborhood until the 14th century. [81] At its largest extent, the Chutia influence might have extended up to Viswanath in the present Darrang district of Assam, [50] [82] [83] though the main control was confined to the river valleys of Subansiri, Brahmaputra, Lohit and Dihing and hardly extended to the hills even at its zenith. [84]
The earliest mention of a Chutia king is found in the Buranjis that describe a friendly contact during the reign of Sutuphaa (1369–1379), [85] in which the Ahom king was killed. To avenge the death the next Ahom ruler Tyaokhamti (1380–1387) led an expedition against the Chutiya kingdom but returned with no success. [86] During the same era (late 14th century) Gadadhara, the younger brother of Rajadhara and a descendent of Candivara in order to expand his influence collected a large army at Borduwa and attacked the Chutiyas and Khamtis but was held captive, he was later set free and had to settle at Makhibaha (in present-day Nalbari district). [87] [88]
Suhungmung, the Ahom king, followed an expansionist policy and annexed Habung and Panbari in either 1510 or 1512, which, according to Swarnalata Baruah, was ruled by Bhuyans [89] while according to Amalendu Guha, it was a Chutia dependency. [90] In 1513 a border conflict triggered the Chutia king Dhirnarayan to advance to Dikhowmukh and build a stockade of banana trees (Posola-garh). [91] [92] This fort was attacked by a force led by the Ahom king himself leading to a rout of the Chutia soldiers. This was followed by the Ahoms erecting a fort at Mungkhrang, which fell within the Chutia territory. [92]
In 1520 the Chutias attacked the Ahom fort Mungkhrang twice and in the second killed the commander and occupied it, but the Ahoms, led by Phrasengmung and King-lung attacked it by land and water and recovered it soon and erected an offensive fort on the banks of the Dibru River. In 1523 the Chutia king attacked the fort at Dibru but was routed. The Ahom king with the assistance of the Bhuyans [93] hotly pursued the retreating Chutia king who sued for peace. The peace overtures failed and the king finally fell to Ahom forces, bringing an end to the Chutia kingdom. [94] [95] Though some late spurious manuscripts mention the fallen king as Nitipal (or Chandranarayan) the extant records from the Buranjis such as the Ahom Buranji and the Deodhai Ahom Buranji do not mention him; rather they mention that the king (Dhirnarayan) and the prince (Sadhaknarayan) were killed. [96] As a reward for the assistance, the Ahom king settled this Bhuyans in Kalabari, Gohpur, Kalangpur and Narayanpur as tributary feudal lords. [97]
The Ahom kingdom took complete possession of the royal insignia and other assets of the erstwhile kingdom. [98] [99] The rest of the royal family was dispersed, the nobles were disbanded and the territory was placed under the newly created office of the Sadiakhowa Gohain. [100] Besides the material assets and territories, the Ahoms also took possession of the people according to their professions. Many of Brahmans, Kayasthas, Kalitas, and Daivajnas (the caste Hindus), as well as the artisans such as bell-metal workers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and others, were moved to the Ahom capital and this movement greatly increased the admixture of the Chutia and Ahom populations. [99] A sizeable section of the population was also displaced from their former lands and dispersed in other parts of Upper Assam. [101] [102]
After annexing the Chutia kingdom, offices of the Ahom kingdom, Thao-mung Mung-teu(Bhatialia Gohain) with headquarters at Habung (Lakhimpur), Thao-mung Ban-lung(Banlungia Gohain) at Banlung (Dhemaji), Thao-mung Mung-klang(Dihingia gohain) at Dihing (Dibrugarh, Majuli and northern Sibsagar), Chaolung Shulung at Tiphao (northern Dibrugarh) were created to administer the newly acquired regions. [103] [ better source needed ]
The Chutias may have been the first people in Assam to use firearms. When the Ahoms annexed Sadiya, they recovered hand-cannons called Hiloi [104] as well as large cannons called Bor-top, Mithahulang being one of them. [105] [106] [107] As per Maniram Dewan, the Ahom king Suhungmung received around three thousand blacksmiths after defeating the Chutias. These people were settled in the Bosa (Doyang) and Ujoni regions and asked to build iron implements like knives, daggers, swords as well as guns and cannons. [108] The Chutias were defeated in 1523 which might point out that the Ahoms learned the use of gunpowder from the Chutias [109] and most of the Hiloi-Khanikars (gunmakers) belonged to the Chutia community. [110]
The Ahom or Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The members of this group are admixed descendants of the Tai people who reached the Brahmaputra valley of Assam in 1228 and the local indigenous people who joined them over the course of history. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled much of the Brahmaputra Valley in modern Assam until 1826.
The Ahom dynasty (1228–1826) ruled the Ahom Kingdom in present-day Assam, India for nearly 598 years. The dynasty was established by Sukaphaa, a Shan prince of Mong Mao who came to Assam after crossing the Patkai mountains. The rule of this dynasty ended with the Burmese invasion of Assam and the subsequent annexation by the British East India Company following the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826.
Buranjis are a class of historical chronicles and manuscripts associated with the Ahom kingdom. There were written initially in the Ahom Language and later in the Assamese language as well. The Buranjis are an example of historical literature which is rare in India—they bear resemblance to Southeast Asian traditions of historical literature instead. The Buranjis are generally found in manuscript form, a number of these manuscripts have been compiled and published especially in the Assamese language.
Sadiya is a town in Tinsukia district, Assam. It was the capital of the Chutia Kingdom and after the downfall of the kingdom it became the seat of the Sadiya-khowa-Gohain of the Ahom kingdom. Extensive remains of buildings and fortifications built during the rule of the Chutias near Sadiya still point to the importance of the region in the past. Historically Sadiya referred to the Chutiya kingdom which included at times the districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Tinsukia. It is claimed to be the center of development of the eastern Assamese dialects, the inscription here are written in a Tai script. Its stands on a grassy plain, almost surrounded by forested Himalayan mountains, on the right bank of Lohit River which is locally considered the main stream of the Brahmaputra River. The deepest point of the Brahmaputra River is located near this village. It is famous for a flower named satphul, which is much like Jasmine.
The history of Assam is the history of a confluence of people from the east, west, south and the north; the confluence of the Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman (Sino-Tibetan), Tai and Indo-Aryan cultures. Although invaded over the centuries, it was never a vassal or a colony to an external power until the third Burmese invasion in 1821, and, subsequently, the British ingress into Assam in 1824 during the First Anglo-Burmese War.
The Dimasa Kingdom was a late medieval/early modern kingdom in Assam, Northeast India ruled by Dimasa kings. The Dimasa kingdom and others that developed in the wake of the Kamarupa kingdom were examples of new states that emerged from indigenous communities in medieval Assam as a result of socio-political transformations in these communities. The British finally annexed the kingdom: the plains in 1832 and the hills in 1834. This kingdom gave its name to undivided Cachar district of colonial Assam. And after independence the undivided Cachar district was split into three districts in Assam: Dima Hasao district, Cachar district, Hailakandi district. The Ahom Buranjis called this kingdom Timisa.
Suhungmung, or Dihingia Roja was one of the most prominent Ahom Kings who ruled at the cusp of Assam's medieval history. His reign broke from the early Ahom rule and established a multi-ethnic polity in his kingdom. Under him the Ahom Kingdom expanded greatly for the first time since Sukaphaa, at the cost of the Chutia and the Dimasa kingdoms. He also successfully defended his kingdom against Muslim invasions, first by a general called Bar Ujjir and another by Turbak Khan. During his time, the Khen dynasty collapsed and the Koch dynasty ascended in the Kamata kingdom. His general, Ton-kham, pursued the Muslims up to the Karatoya river, the western boundary of the erstwhile Kamarupa Kingdom, the farthest west an Ahom military force had ventured in its entire six hundred years of rule.
The Ahom kingdom or the Kingdom of Assam was a late medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley that retained its independence for nearly 600 years despite encountering Mughal expansion in Northeast India. Established by Sukaphaa, a Tai prince from Mong Mao, it began as 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 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.
Barua is a common Assamese surname shared by the Assamese communities much like Aroras of Punjab.
Buragohain was the one of the two original counsellors in the Ahom kingdom. He was selected by the Ahom king from members of the Ahom nobility ,who vowed not to fight for the position of Ahom kingship, rather act as a guide to the Ahom king in matters of administering his province in an efficient manner. The other original counsellor is Chao Thao Lung or Borgohain. Both the positions existed from the time of the first Ahom king, Sukaphaa.
Borpatragohain was the third of the three great Gohains (counsellors) in the Ahom kingdom. This position was created by Suhungmung Dihingia Raja in the year 1527 when Konsheng was made the first Borpatrogohain. The designation was borrowed from Vrihat-patra, the Habung dependent of the Chutiya king.
Habung is a historical region in present-day Lakhimpur district of Assam, India, although Tai-ahom claim it to be a part of present-day Dhemaji district. As per epigrahic records, Habung (Ha-vrnga-Vishaya) was a vishaya or province where Brahmins were settled by Ratna Pala of the Pala dynasty of Kamarupa in the 10th century.
The Baro-Bhuyans were confederacies of soldier-landowners in Assam and Bengal in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The confederacies consisted of loosely independent entities, each led by a warrior chief or a landlord. The tradition of Baro-Bhuyan is peculiar to both Assam and Bengal and differ from the tradition of Bhuinhar of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—in Assam this phenomenon came into prominence in the 13th century when they resisted the invasion of Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Shah and in Bengal when they resisted Mughal rule in the 16th century.
The pepa is a hornpipe musical instrument that is used in traditional music in Assam, India. In Boro language, it is known as Phenpha. It is usually made with the horn of a buffalo.
Jaapi or Japi is an Asian conical hat from Assam, India. It is made from tightly woven bamboo and/or cane and tokou paat a large, palm leaf. The word jaapi derives from jaap meaning a bundle of tokou leaves. In the past, plain jaapis were used by ordinary people in Assam and by farmers for protection from the sun, while ornate decorative jaapis were worn as a status symbol by the royalty and nobility. Decorative sorudoi jaapi are made with intricate cloth designs that are integrated into the weaving.
The Chutia people are an ethnic group that are native to Assam and historically associated with the Chutia kingdom. However, after the kingdom was absorbed into the Ahom kingdom in 1523–24, the Chutia population was widely displaced and dispersed in other parts of Upper Assam as well as Central Assam. They constitute one of the core groups that form the Assamese people.
Tamreswari temple is a temple for the tribal goddess called Kecaikhati is situated about 18 km away from Sadiya in Tinsukia district, Assam, India. The temple was in the custody of non-Brahmin tribal priests called Deoris. Some remains suggest that a Chutiya king built a wall or the temple itself in the year 1442. There were four different kinds of Deori priest who looked after the temple. The Bar Bharali and the Saru Bharali collected dues of the temple and provides animals for sacrifice. The Bar Deori and the Saru Deori performs the sacrifice and sung hymns. The temple was dedicated to Kechaikhati/Pishasi, a powerful tribal deity or a form of the Buddhist deity Tara, commonly found among different Bodo-Kachari groups. The worship of the goddess even after coming under Hindu influence was performed according to her old tribal customs.
Bhismaknagar is an archeological site in Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is located near Roing in Lower Dibang Valley district. The remains are generally ascribed to the rule of the Sutiyas, a Bodo-Kachari (Tibeto-Burmese) ethnic group who ruled over the region of Sadiya from 11th to 16th Century CE.
Ahomisation was an assimilation process in the former Ahom kingdom of Assam by which the people from different ethnic groups in the region became a part of what is now considered as the Ahom population.