Treaty of Majuli

Last updated

The Treaty of Majuli (1563) was settled between the Koch king Nara Narayan and the Ahom king Sukhaamphaa. The treaty followed a successful campaign against the Ahom kingdom led by Chilarai, the general of the Koch forces and the brother of the king, which resulted in the fall of Garhgaon, the Ahom capital. The fall of the capital resulted in the Ahom kings flight, as well as treason by high Ahom officials including the kings own brother. The Ahom king sued for peace via his emissary, Aikhek Burhagohain. During the peace negotiations Nara Narayan was camped at Majuli. [1] The terms that were finally settled on were: [2]

  1. The Ahom king would accept Koch overlordship.
  2. The land on the North bank of the Brahmaputra to the west of Subansiri river [1] were to be ceded to the Koch
  3. Five sons of Ahom nobles were to be handed over as hostage.
  4. Hand over the elephant Khamring and the horse Paksirai
  5. The Ahoms were to pay a war indemnity60 elephants, 60 pieces of clothes, 60 maidens, 300 men, a red royal standard along with gold and silver.

Furthermore, the Koch king stationed three Koch officers as rajkhowasUjir Bamun, Tapasvi Laskar and Malamulya Laskaras well as a garrison at Narayanpur to administer the newly acquired region.

Notes

  1. 1 2 ( Nath 1989 , p. 58)
  2. ( Sarkar 1992 , p. 80)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamakhya Temple</span> Temple dedicated to mother goddess Kamakhya

The Kamakhya Temple at Nilachal hills in Guwahati, Assam is one of the oldest and most revered centres of Tantric practices, dedicated to the goddess Kamakhya. The temple is the center of the Kulachara Tantra Marga and the site of the Ambubachi Mela, an annual festival that celebrates the menstruation of the goddess. Structurally, the temple is dated to the 8th-9th century with many subsequent rebuildings—and the final hybrid architecture defines a local style called Nilachal. It is also one among the oldest 4 of the 51 pithas in the Shakta tradition. An obscure place of worship for much of history it became an important pilgrimage destination, especially for those from Bengal, in the 19th century during colonial rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonitpur district</span> District of Assam in India

Sonitpur district [Pron: ˌsə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊə or ˌʃə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊə] is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Tezpur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooch Behar district</span> District in West Bengal, India

Cooch Behar district is a district of the Indian state of West Bengal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Assam</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koch dynasty</span> Indian dynasty of Assam and Bengal

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamata Kingdom</span> Medieval Kingdom in Assam and nearby areas

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koch Hajo</span>

Koch Hajo (1581–1616) was the kingdom under Raghudev and his son Parikshit Narayan of the Koch dynasty that stretched from Sankosh river in the west to the Bhareli river in the east on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river. It was created by dividing the Kamata kingdom then under Nara Narayan in medieval Assam. The Sankosh river divided the two new kingdoms, and it is roughly the boundary between the present-day Assam and West Bengal. The western half of the Kamata kingdom emerged as Koch Bihar whereas the eastern half emerged as Koch Hajo. The name Hajo comes from the legendary king Hajo, a Koch tribal chief and an ancestor of the Koch dynasty, who ruled over the Rangpur division in present-day Bangladesh and some regions of present-day Assam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimasa Kingdom</span> Kingdom in Northeast India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilarai</span> Koch Dinasty noble

Sukladhwaja (1510-1577AD), was the 3rd son of Biswa Singha, founder of the Koch Dynasty in the Kamata Kingdom and younger brother of Nara Narayan, the 2nd king of the Koch dynasty of the Kamata kingdom in the 16th century. He was Nara Narayan's commander-in-chief and chief Minister (Dewan) of the kingdom. He got his name Chilarai because, as a general, he executed troop movements that were as fast as a chila (kite/Eagle).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahom kingdom</span> Kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, India

The Ahom kingdom 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahom–Mughal conflicts</span> 17th-century conflict in Assam

Ahom–Mughal conflicts (1616–1682) refers to the series of 17th-century conflicts between the Ahoms and the Mughals over the control of the Brahmaputra valley. It began soon after the eastern branch of the Kamata kingdom then under the Koch dynasty, Koch Hajo, collapsed after a sustained Mughal campaign bringing it face-to-face with the eastern Ahoms. After nearly seventy years of sustained efforts, the Mughals were finally ousted in the Battle of Itakhuli in 1682. The Mughals since then maintained interest to the region west of the Manas river via zamindars, till they were ousted from Bengal by the British about a hundred years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biswa Singha</span> 16th-century ruler in South Asia

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baro-Bhuyan</span> Medieval petty rulers of Assam and Bengal

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nara Narayan</span> King of the Koch kingdom, Assam (India)

Naranarayan was the last ruler of the undivided Koch dynasty of the Kamata Kingdom. He succeeded his father, Biswa Singha. Under him the Koch kingdom reached its cultural and political zenith. Under his rule, and under the military command of his brother Chilarai, he was able to subjugate the entire Brahmaputra valley, including the Ahom kingdom; besides the Kachari, Tripura kingdoms, as well as the Khyrem, Jaintia and others. This influence was halted when he faced Suleman Karranni, the Sultan of Bengal.

Mir Jumla II invaded the Ahom kingdom in January 1662 and left it in January–February 1663. He was able to occupy Garhgaon, the Ahom capital, before the beginning of the rainy season, but he and his army were confined mostly to Garhgaon and Madhupur during that period. The Ahom king Sutamla had to take flight and hide in Namrup during Mir Jumla's occupation of the capital. The defection of Baduli Phukan, a high ranking Ahom commander, precipitated the Treaty of Ghilajharighat in January 1663, with the Ahom king accepting tributary status. Mir Jumla died on his way back before he could reach Dhaka, his capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukhaamphaa</span> 16th ruler of Ahom Kingdom

Sukhaamphaa also known as Khora roja (1552–1603) was a king of the Ahom kingdom of medieval Assam. He ruled for a period of fifty one years, the longest in the Ahom dynasty. Very fond of sports, he fell off an elephant soon after his ascension and the injury gave him a limp, and as a result the Buranjis often called him the Khora roja.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamrup region</span> Region in India

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.

The Koch–Ahom relations (1532–1571) refer to the diplomatic, strategic and military relationships between the Koch and the Ahom kingdoms over the control of the Brahmaputra Valley. Though an initial contact between the Ahoms and Koch occurred during Biswa Singha's reign, the relationship became belligerent with Nara Narayana ascending to power and consolidating his hold over the western portion of Assam; and it ended with the failure of Chilarai's campaign against Sulaiman Karrani. This was followed by an alliance that soon gave way to a fierce conflict between the Ahoms and the Mughals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gohain Kamal Ali</span>

Gohain Kamal Ali was an embanked road that connected the capital of the Koch dynasty, Cooch Behar in North Bengal to heart of Agomani in Dhubri and Narayanpur in Lakhimpur district in Assam, and ran along the foot of the Bhutan hills and the Dafla (Nishi) hills. This was constructed under the supervision of Gohain Kamal, the step-brother of the king, Nara Narayan and was completed in 1547. This was the road that the Koch general Chilarai used soon after for his invasion of the Ahom kingdom, and attacked the Ahom fort at Pichala, which was not a success, but a later movement in 1562 was greatly successful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balinarayan</span> King of the Darrang Kingdom, 1616 to 1638

Balinarayan alias Dharmanarayan or Baldeo of Mughals was the son of Koch King Raghudev and younger brother of King Parikshit and the first King of Darrang Desa. He was the chief conductor of the operations conducted against the Mughals during their occupation of Kamrupa erstwhile fallen Koch Hajo which got annexed to Mughal domain after the defeat of the latter.

References