When I was in school and college, studying India's history essentially meant learning about the Indo-Gangetic plains. There were some references to the southern kingdoms—the Cholas, Pandyas, Satavahanas, Cheras, the Vijayanagar kingdom and the Bahmani sultanate. Little was known about the eastern parts of this country, except perhaps the Pala dynasty in Bengal that lasted four centuries.
The history of regions east of Bengal was hardly known. Administrators, army officers, explorers and historians had written bits of it. But the first comprehensive and reliable account was perhaps by Edward Gait, an Indian Civil Service officer. Ranjeet Shekhar Mooshahary, an IPS officer of the Kerala cadre with a passionate attachment to history, is one of the few modern-era scholars who have endeavoured to bring together the history of Assam and the Northeast. His 400-page book, Rediscovering the History of Assam: the Continent of Circe, is a serious attempt to see the history of Assam in the context of its gradual integration over the centuries into the Indian mainland.
Mooshahary, who distinguished himself as director general of the National Security Guard and later of the Border Security Force, also served as the governor of Meghalaya. The ‘Mooshahary Committee’ made important recommendations on police reforms and he continues his association with the area as chairman of the Indian Police Foundation.
The earliest known settlers in Assam were the Bodos or Boros, also called the Meches or Kacharis of Sino-Tibetan ancestry. They spread throughout the Brahmaputra, Tista and Kosi valleys over millennia in waves of migration. There was no collective name for the places they occupied, but in their long habitation, they named the most important rivers with di or ti syllables, which meant river or water in their language.
The Aryans considered the people inhabiting the submontane Himalayas beyond Aryavarta unclean and uncivilised, or mlechchas, from which the term ‘Mech’ originated. They were otherwise known as the Bod or Kacharis. Bodo was derived from Bod, another name for Tibet. They were also called Kacharis as they inhabited Khachar or mule country, the tracts at the foothills between Kosi and Brahmaputra. The groups still speaking the Kachari language are the Boro Kachari, Mech Kachari and Dimasa Kachari in the Brahmaputra valley. In Nepal and north Bengal, they are called the Meche, while in Tripura they are known as the Borok or Boro.
Another wave came from Yunnan and upper Burma, penetrating through the Patkai passes into eastern Assam later in the early 13th century. They were not just immigrants, but sturdy warriors led by a prince in search of land to establish a kingdom. He was Chaolung Siu-Ka-Pha, who came to be famous later as Sukapha. Brian Houghton Hodgson claimed that the locals of the sub-Himalayas as far as Dhansiri to the south of Assam belonged to Tibetan stock, and the east of this river to Chinese stock. Irrespective of this classification, the indigenous races of the Northeast, Bodos and the Ahoms included, are predominantly of Sino-Tibetan and Tibeto-Burman stocks.
Sukapha encountered resistance from small Naga groups as he entered the new land, but overcame them with diplomacy rather than conflict. As his group advanced, they found a more significant group of inhabitants—the Kacharis—who could be a match for them. They preferred to build their strength without fighting the Kacharis, who had split into subgroups like Sutiyas, Morans and Borahis, with each group having its own territory and ruler. In many places, they cohabited with the locals and absorbed many of them into their fold.
‘Assam’ was derived from the Boro word ‘ha–Sam/ha-Shan’, meaning the land of Siam/Shan, from where the Ahoms, ‘the unparalleled’, came. The dynasty founded by Sukapha—the Ahom dynasty—was the most enduring; it lasted six centuries. Apart from the Cholas, the Ahoms are to be recognised as the longest-ruling dynasty in Indian history. The history of Assam began to be chronicled methodically only after the Ahoms came to power. Mooshahary has devoted almost half his book to the history of the Ahoms.
The Ahoms had an on-off relationship with the Mughals, fighting them sometimes and entering into a relationship through matrimony at others. Kamarupa was well known for its tantric rituals and black magic. When the Mughal emperor ordered his commander, Raja Ram Singh, to invade Assam, the latter requested Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur to help him counter the effects of black magic. The guru obliged, but the magic proved too potent, and the Mughals were forced to retreat. The Mughal dynasty waned in due course, but the Ahoms continued to be influential in Assam.
Assam remained fiercely independent for long. Even the East India Company was reluctant to take on Assamese forces. The first war of independence in 1857 changed this. The British accused the then Ahom child-king and his dewan of supporting the mutineers.
Mooshahary also writes about Assam's society and culture through the ages, and their beliefs and practices. As ‘Aryanisation’ gained momentum, legends of Lord Krishna, Bhima and Arjuna gained popularity. Sankar Deva (1449-1569 CE), originally of the Sakta sect, became a great social reformer, denouncing idol worship and ritualistic tantric practices, encouraging devotion and prayer. Mahatma Gandhi said of him, “Assam indeed is fortunate for Sankar Deva, who, five centuries back, gave the Assamese people an ideal, which is also my ideal of Ram-Rajya.” Sankar Deva was a prolific writer who founded a new dance form and conceived the famous artwork ‘Vrindavani Vastra’.
In his final chapter, Mooshahary expresses deep faith in unity in diversity, which must imbue the Indian social and political firmament. He says the contemporary politics of the Northeast is Delhi-centric, with the ruling party having an edge over others. Yet, Assam is fiercely independent and cannot be taken for granted. “What it means”, he says, “is the people of ancient Kamarupa want to walk the talk with the rest of India as equal partners.” There is a contemporary lesson in that.
(Views are personal)
(kmchandrasekhar@gmail.com)
K M Chandrasekhar | Former Cabinet Secretary and author of As Good as My Word: A Memoir