History Of ASSAM

                                          HISTORY

Mention of Assam is found in the great Indian epic Mahabharata. The valiant and invincible king of Kamrup, Bhagadatta had fought alongside the Kaurav army in the battle of Kurukhatra. He was said to be the father- in- law of the Kaurav prince Duryudhana. Even prior to this, there was the king Narakasur of Kamrupa born of the union of Bhoomi devi (mother earth) and Varaha incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is credited to have built the first temple for Goddess Kamakhya atop the Neelachal hill and the stone stairway from the valley to the temple. Assam was known as 'Kamarupa' with 'Pragjyotish' as the capital in the period of the Epics. Human inhabitation of this area dates, backs to about 2000 BC. The population of Assam comprises of the migrants from Burma and China. They came into Assam after the mongoloid migration. They came from Punjab through Bihar and North Bengal. Thus Assam presents a fusion of Mongol-Aryan culture. The early history of Assam is believed to be of the Varman dynasty. The reign of this dynasty extended from 400 AD to 13th century. The visit of Huien Tsang is said to have taken place in the 7th century during the reign of Kumar Bhaskar Varman, a friend and contemporary of Harshabardhana of Gupta dynasty. The Ahoms ventured into Assam in about 1228 AD. By 15th century the kingdoms of Ahom and Koch were established. This period witnessed a change in all walks of life in Assam.

In the later part of the 18th century the Ahom Kingdom was weakened due to internal strife. The Burmese ran over the political authority in Assam thus invoking British intervention to subdue the Burmese. After a conflict between the Burmese and the English, the treaty of Yandabo restored peace in 1826. The British then set out to organize the administration, transport and communication network in Assam. Besides the various changes, the construction of railways, introduction of tea plantation started by Maniram Dewan, discovery of coal and oil etc. proved fruitful to the British during the World War II. After Independence of India, Assam witnessed several bifurcations of its territories. The North East Frontier Agency ( NEFA ) or Arunachal Pradesh today was truncated from erstwhile Assam in 1948. This was followed by weaning out Nagaland in 1963.

After that Meghalaya in 1972 and Mizoram in 1987 An ideal meeting ground for diverse races, Assam gave shelter to streams of human waves carrying with them distinct cultures and trends of civilization. Austro-Asiatics, Negritos, Dravidians, Alpines, Indo-mongoloids, Tibeto-Burmese and Aryans came into Assam through different routes and contributed in their own way towards the creation of a unique fusion community which came to be known in later history as the Assamese. Assam, however, remained predominantly a land of the Tibeto-Burmese. The vast section of the people of Assam belongs to either to this stock or owes their origin to the fusion of this stock with other racial groups. In Assam (excluding the Surma valley) and north-east Bengal, the Dravidian type has, to a great extent, been replaced by the Mongolian, while in the Surma valley and the rest of Bengal a mixture of races has taken place in which the recognizable Mongolian element diminishes towards the west and disappears altogether before Bihar is reached.

There has been racial intermixture among the population of Assam. The Mongoloid racial stocks have large number of tribes. Their physical features are described as "a short head, a broad nose, a flat and comparatively hairless face, a short but muscular figure and a yellow skin." But there are numerous other races also. Traces of the Negroid are to be found among the Nagas. The Khasis who speak Austric language belong to the proto-australoids. The Kaibartas and the Banias of Assam are said to be descendants of the Dravidians. They are distinguished by "a long head, large and dark eyes, a fairly strong beard, a black or nearly black colour and a very broad nose, depressed at the base, but not so as to make the face look flat". Then there are the Aryans, with a long head, tall and well-built, having a fine, long and prominent nose and a fair complexion, who came to Assam from across Bihar and Bengal. All these peculiarities of physiognomy will be encountered by visitors to this region.

Numerous Mongoloid races inhabit the hills and plains of the North-east. Among these are the Nagas, who now have their own state, Nagaland, the Mikirs, who live in the Karbi Anglong (formerly the Mikir hills) district of Assam. The Bodos or Boros are the most noteworthy Mongoloid people in eastern India. The Bodo language, which falls under the Tibeto-Burman Sub-family of the Sino-Tibetan languages, has greatly influenced the Assamese language in its development. They first settled in the Brahmaputra valley and then slowly spread to various other places. The Mizos or Lushais of Mizoram, formerly a district of the state are migrants from the Chin Hills and speak a Kuki-Chin tongue of the Tibeto-Burman sub-family of the Sino-Tibetan languages. The Lalungs are another Mongoloid group that live in the Nagaon district.

The Chutiyas, a tribe which subsequently embraced Hinduism later to become Hindus and speaking a Bodo tongue, are mainly confined to the extreme north-east of the state, above the Subansiri river in Sadiya just below the Arunachal (NEFA) hills. The Miris or Mishings, are another colourful Mongoloid tribe who, like the Chutiyas inhabit the riverine areas of Lakhimpur, Sibsagar and Darrang districts. The Koches, whose dynasties ruled north Bengal and west Assam till the 17th century is described as western Bodos of Mongoloid stock as against Eastern Bodos, the Chutiyas and the Kacharis. They embraced Hinduism and the Assamese language. The Koches are scattered all over the Brahmaputra  valley. The Morans or Mataks are another mongoloid group who ruled in the extreme east prior to the Ahoms. They are largely concentrated in the eastern most parts of Lakhimpur district, in the territory lying between Dibrugarh and Saikhowaghat, south of the Brahmaputra, near Sadiya. The Morans are to be found in parts of the districts of Darrang and Sibsagar .

The Ahoms are the only Mongoloid race whose arrival in Assam is historically recorded. This is because they came very late, viz, in 1228 AD, and they recorded their own activities in the chronicles called 'Buranjis', meaning 'store -house of unknown things'. The Ahoms spoke Chinese-Siamese. In upper Burma and western Yunnan, they had styled themselves as Shans. The Ahoms, though scattered all over the valley, have the largest concentration in Sibsagar district, the seat of their administration. Assam, the present name of the state, in all probability is an Ahom contribution. The other Shan tribes who followed the Ahoms along the same Patkai Range route are the Khamtis, Naras, Phakials, Aitaniyas,Turungs and Khamjangs, who were all Buddhists. The Ahoms were the only non-Buddhists.

The Aryan Hindus of Assam are numerous with their sub-sects. Principal castes or classes of people of Assam, excluding the tribes are: Brahmana, Kayastha, Kalita, Koch, Keot, Ganaka or Daivajna, Kaibarta, Kumara, Hari, the last two being potters. This classification is based on old records and present social conditions. They inhabit every nook and corner of the plains. They originally came to Assam from the west like other Aryan descendants of northern India; they are also tall and fair. The Kalitas are agriculturists by profession, though during Ahom rule they proved their might as soldiers also. The Brahmanas and Kayasthas are generally given to intellectual pursuits such as learning, diplomacy, statecraft and religious teaching. It is they who are largely responsible for propagating the scriptures, building up literature and developing the Assamese language.