Khen dynasty Khen dynasty | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1440 CE–1498 CE | |||||||||
Capital | Kamatapur (present-day Gosanimari ) | ||||||||
Common languages | Assamese | ||||||||
Religion | Hinduism | ||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
Maharaja | |||||||||
• c. 1440 – c. 1460 | Niladhwaj | ||||||||
• c. 1460 – c. 1480 | Chakradhwaj | ||||||||
• c. 1480 – c. 1498 | Nilambar | ||||||||
Historical era | Medieval India | ||||||||
• Established | 1440 CE | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1498 CE | ||||||||
|
Part of a series on the |
History of Assam |
---|
![]() |
Categories |
The Khen dynasty (also Khyen dynasty) of Assam was a late medieval dynasty of the erstwhile Kamata kingdom. After the fall of the Pala dynasty of Kamrupa, the western region was reorganized into the Kamata kingdom when Sandhya moved his capital from Kamarupanagara to Kamatapur in about 1257 due to the frequent clashes with the Kacharis from the east. [1] Sandhya styled himself Kamateswara and the kingdom came to be known as "Kamata". [2] [3] The Khen dynasty at a later period took control of the kingdom.
According to Gosani Mangala (1823), the Khen rulers had a humble origin, implying that they were probably local chieftains who rose to power after the fall of the Palas. Ethnically, the Khen rulers belonged to a Tibeto-Burman ethnolinguistic group. [4] The ethnicity of Khen is not known precisely but may have been associated with Khyen of the Indo-Burmese border [5] or Kheng from the mountains. [6]
Though there is no contemporary historical evidence, some data from eighteenth-century's Gosanimangal claim that a boy named Kanta Nath became the Khen ruler Niladwaj, who hailed from a poor family in Taluk Jambari on the bank of Singimari. [7] Other sources claim Kanta Nath to be a migrant from Tripura. [8] They worshipped Kamatashwari [9] (also called Chandi or Bhavani), thus providing a break from the earlier dynasties that drew their lineage from Narakasura, the son of Vishnu.
The kingdom of Kamatapura finally fell to Alauddin Husain Shah in 1498. But Hussein Shah could not rule the kingdom— Bhuyan chiefs of the region defeated the invaders in 1505. Soon, control of the Kamata kingdom passed into the hands of the Koch dynasty. [10]
Kamarupi Prakrit is the postulated Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) Prakrit language used in ancient Kamarupa. This language is the historical ancestor of the Kamatapuri lects and the modern Assamese language; and can be dated prior to 1250 CE, when the proto-Kamta language, the parent of the Kamatapuri lects, began to develop. Though not substantially proven, the existence of the language that predated the Kamatapuri lects and modern Assamese is widely believed to be descended from it.
Kamarupa, an early state during the Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, was the first historical kingdom of Assam.
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 Mlechchha dynasty ruled Kamarupa from their capital at Harruppesvar in present-day Tezpur, Assam, after the fall of the Varman dynasty. According to historical records, there were twenty one rulers in this dynasty, but the line is obscure and names of some intervening rulers are not known. Like all other Kamarupa dynasties a semi-mythical lineage from Narakasura was constructed to accord legitimacy to their rule. The Mlechchha dynasty in Kamarupa was followed by the Pala kings. The dynasty is unrelated to the previous Varman dynasty.
The Pala dynasty of Kamarupa kingdom ruled from 900 CE. Like the Pala Empire of Bengal, the first ruler in this dynasty was elected, which probably explains the name of this dynasty "Pala". But unlike the Palas of Bengal, who were Buddhists, the Palas of Kamarupa were Hindus. The Hindu orthodoxy drew their lineage from the earlier Varman dynasty and thus ultimately from Narakasura i.e. Bhauma dynasty. The dynasty is unrelated to the previous Varman and Mlecchna dynasties.
The Koch dynasty ruled parts of eastern Indian subcontinent in present-day Assam and Bengal. Biswa Singha established power in the erstwhile Kamata Kingdom which had emerged from the decaying Kamarupa Kingdom. The dynasty came to power by removing the Baro-Bhuyans, who had earlier removed the short-lived rule established by Alauddin Hussain Shah.
The Kamata Kingdom emerged in western Kamarupa probably when Sandhya, a ruler of Kamarupanagara, moved his capital west to Kamatapur sometime after 1257 CE. Since it originated in the old seat of the Kamarupa kingdom, and since it covered most of the western parts of it, the kingdom is also sometimes called as Kamarupa-Kamata.
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.
Biswa Singha (1515–1540) was the progenitor king of the Koch dynasty of the Kamata kingdom. He was able to unify different Bodo tribes, replace the Baro-Bhuyans of Kamata kingdom, and establish a dynasty the remnant of which still exists today.
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 (zamindars). The tradition of Baro-Bhuyan is peculiar to both Assam and Bengal and differ from the tradition of Bhuihar 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 earliest Indo-Aryan migration to Assam is estimated to have occurred between the 2nd century BCE and 1st century CE—not earlier than 500 BCE. The earliest epigraphic record suggests that the Indo-Aryan migration began latest by the middle of the 4th century CE. They came from the Gangetic Plains into a region already inhabited by people who spoke Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages.
Kamarupa – Late to end period was a period of Kamarupa kingdom from founding of Pala Dynasty by Brahma Pala to last ruler of dynasty Jaya Pala.
Gosanimari is both a village and an archaeological site in Dinhata I CD block, in the Dinhata subdivision of the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, north-eastern India. The name of this site was taken from the modern grampanchyat name of the Dinhata subdivision.
Kamrup is the modern region situated between two rivers, the Manas and the Barnadi in Western Assam, with the same territorial extent as the Colonial and post-Colonial "Undivided Kamrup district". It was the capital region of two of the three dynasties of Kamarupa and Guwahati, the current political center of Assam, is situated here. It is characterized by its cultural artifacts.
KRNB lects are a cluster of modern lects that are phylogenetic descendants of the proto-Kamata language. The proto-Kamata language began differentiating after 1250 around Kamatapur, the capital city of Kamata kingdom, as the western branch of the proto-Kamarupa, whereas the eastern branch developed into proto-Assamese. Since the 16th century the proto-Kamta community has fragmented giving rise to the differentiated modern lects. The modern lects are: Kamta, Rangpuri (Bangladesh), Rajbanshi (Nepal) and Surjapuri (Bihar).
Undivided Kamrup district is a former administrative district located in Western Assam from which Kamrup Rural (2003), Kamrup Metropolitan (2003), Barpeta (1983), Nalbari (1985) and Baksa (2004) districts were formed. It was announced in January 2020 that the Bajali sub-division of Barpeta district will be upgraded to a full district.
Nilambar or Nīlambara was the last Khen ruler or Kamadeswar of the Kamata kingdom in Western Assam and North Bengal. He ruled from the city of Kamatapur.
The Bengal Sultanate–Kamata Kingdom War was a late 15th century conflict between the Kamata Kingdom and the Bengal Sultanate. As a result of the conflict the Khen dynasty was overthrown and the Bengal Sultanate extended its domain up to the Hajo in what is present day western Assam by 1502. Nevertheless, the Sultanate administration was removed in about ten years by the Assamese Bhuyans led by Harup Narayan.
Sandhya was a king of Kamarupa kingdom in north-eastern India in the present-day state of Assam, India. He founded the Kamata Kingdom when he moved his capital west to Kamatapur sometime after 1257 CE. He became the ruler of Kamarupa in 1228, when Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, who had earlier killed his predecessor Raja Prithu in 1228 AD, However, after Nasir-ud-din Mahmud withdrew from Kamrup, Sandhya stopped paying tribute and assumed independence.
Dānyāl, Prince of Bengal, also known as Dulāl Ghāzī, was the eldest son of the Sultan of Bengal Alauddin Hussain Shah. He performed official duties and engagements on behalf of his father. In 1495, Danyal secured a peace treaty with the Delhi Sultanate in Bihar, and served as the regional Governor of Bihar under the Bengal Sultanate. He was appointed as the Governor of Kamata following its conquest in 1498.
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)