Establishment of Ahom Empire in Sivasagar District , Assam

      The Ahoms established the Ahom kingdom  in parts of present-day Assam and ruled it for nearly 600 years. Historical documents didn't call the kingdom "Ahom". They called it "Asam", and the subjects of this kingdom "Assamese" or "Axomiya". After the advent of the British, the meanings of these categories changed. "Ahom" as a term appears in the Buranjis to denote the collection of civil and military officers under the Ahom king, all of which were non-hereditary offices.

      Sibsagar was once the capital of the Ahom rulers who dominated Assam for more than 600 years. They ruled Assam virtually uninterrupted for 6 centuries until their kingdom fell to the British, in 1826. 'The Ocean of Shiva' is the literal meaning of the Sibsagar name, strewn with telltale ruins of a powerful empire. The most remarkable landscape of the town is the Sivasagar tank comprising 129 acres land. Although situated within the heart of the town, the water level of the tank is above the level of the town. On its bank are three temples- Shivadol, Vishnudol and Devidol (Fig. 1) all built by Queen Ambika, the wife of Shiva Singha, in 1734. The tank besides which the main temple stands is said to be the world's largest man-excavated reservoir.1228 AD to 1826 AD which is really unprecedented in the history of the world. Their contributions to Assam are vast and varied of which their historical literature or buranji is also one.

       Sibsagar, 360 km from Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam. It is about 150 km east of the famous Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The actual location of the city is 94°25/ and 95°20/ Longitude East and 25°45/ and 27°15/ Latitude North and its average elevation is 97 miters above the sea level (Fig. 2). According to 2001 Census the total population of Sivasagar district is recorded as 1051736 comprising of 545476 male and 506260 female. Sivasagar is the district headquarters of Sivasagar district with the sub-divisions of Charaideo, Sivasagar, Nazira and six revenue circles namely Sivasagar, Nazira, Demow, Amguri, and Sonari. The district was formerly known as 'Rangpur' and was the capital city of the Ahoms, who dominated Assam for over six hundred years before the rule of Britishers. The old capital of the Kingdom of Assam, The Kings, of Thai stock, were converts to Hinduism, and their substantial remaining places and temples are an amalgam of Indian and S.E. Asian styles.

         Brahmaputra, Desang, Dikhow, Darika, and Janji are the rivers that flow through Sivasagar District. Economy of Sivasagar is chiefly based on agriculture; about 92.76% of the rural population derives their livelihood from agriculture.

Tai-Ahoms of Assam are a small community of the great Tai race. The Tai is the most ancient and generic name denoting a great branch of the mongoloid people of Asia.  The original homeland of the great Tai race was in the upper reaches of the Huang-Ho (Yellow river) of china, covering the coast of the Po-Hai Bay (Gulf of Chilli) into which the river Huang-Ho originally had flowed. The Tai are the descendants of the early Imperial dynasty of the kings and emperors of ancient china and constituted the highest aristocracy in ancient china, more than sixteen hundred years before the birth of the chin state in Kan-Su and more than two thousand three hundred years before the first appearance of the Chinese with Imperial dignity in 249 B.C.

         The Tai-Ahoms first migrated into the Brahmaputra valley in 1228. Their migration originated from Dependency Mao in southwestern Yunnan, in China. The Tais had a rich heritage of spreading out to areas suitable for settlement and for centuries developed a vast knowledge of topography of migratory routes. Today they constitute one of the most widespread populations in Southeast Asia, inhabitating different areas of Myanmar (Shan), Thailand (Thai), Laos (Lao), China (Dai and Zhuang) and Vietnam.

          In 2 December or 16 Aghon, 782 years ago Sukapha put his first footstep in Tipam, Namrup valley in the Upper Brahmaputra region in 1228 AD from Mong Mao. Presently Mong Mao is located in the Yunnan province of People’s Republic of China.

        Sukapha, son of Chao Chang Ngeo of Mong Ri Mong Ram royal line and his mother Nang Mong Blok Kham Seng was a princess of the Mong Mao royal throne and the sister of Pameopong, the ruler of Mong Mao. He was born at Chieng sen in the capital of Mong Mao and was brought up by his maternal grandmother. Since his maternal uncle Pameopong had no male issue, in course of time he was nominated to the throne of Mong Mao kingdom. After 19 years as crown prince, but for the birth of a son to his uncle King Pameopong and was named as Siukhanpha. This development had brought great disappointment to Sukapha, and he decided to leave his country to found a new state. According to Chronicle, his grandmother advised him thus - no two tigers live in the same jungle, no two kings sit on the same throne. Accordingly he left Chieng-Sen the capital of Mong Mao in the year 1215 AD with some 9000 people including a number of officials 300 horses and two elephants. He carried with him the idol of tutelary deity called Chum Pha Rung Seng Mong with two families of priests to perform religious functions. The movement of Sukapha to the west was most fascinating and adventurous both in terms of 300 of miles of distance covered and the topography traversed. Before his departure he announced thus- “I will go to rule the country Mong Pa Kam that lies to the west where birds go to sleep.” It indicated his clear mission to establish a new kingdom in the Brahmaputra valley. 

                                                     Route map of Sukapha

          Sukapha followed an older known route from Yunan to Assam that passed through Myitkyina, Mogaung and the upper Irrawaddy river valley. On his way he stopped at various places and crossed the Khamjang river to reach the Nangyang lake in 1227. Here he subjugated the Nagas very ferociously and established a Mong. He left one Kan-Khrang-Mong there to guard the passage back, and proceeded to cross the Patkai hills at the Pangsau pass and reached Namrup (in the Brahmaputra valley) in December 1228. The journey, from Mong Mao to Namrup thus took him about 13 years and the year he reached Namrup is considered as the year the Ahom kingdom was established.

          Having reached Namrup, Sukapha bridged the Sessa river, and went upstream along the Burhi Dihing river looking to establish a colony for wet rice cultivation. He did not find the region conducive to cultivation and returned downstream to Tipam. In 1236, he left Tipam for Abhaypur. A flood made him move again in 1240 down the Brahmaputra to Habung (present-day Dhakuakhana). Another flood and he moved again in 1244, down the Brahmaputra to the Dikhowmukh, and then up the Dikhow river to Ligirigaon. Leaving a detachment at Ligirigaon, he moved again in 1246 to Simaluguri. In 1253, he abandoned Simaluguri for Charaideo.

        Even though Sukapha treated the people of the Patkai hills very severely on his way to the Brahmaputra valley, his approach to the people in Assam was conciliatory and non-confrontational. He married the daughters of Badaucha, the Matak Chief and Thakumatha, the Barahi chief and established cordial relations with them. As he began establishing his domain, he avoided regions that were heavily populated. He encouraged his soldiers as well as members of the Ahom elite to marry locally. A process of Ahomization (whereby locals who adopted Ahom methods of wet rice cultivation and statecraft were accepted into the Ahom fold) bolstered the process of integration. The Barahi and the Moran, speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages, called Sukapha's people "Ha-Cham", that later on developed into "Assam" , the name of the kingdom; and "Ahom", the name of the people.

     After twenty five years of move Sukapha finally settled at Charaideo in the present Sivasagar district of Assam and made it the capital of his new founded Tai State in 1253 AD. The new Tai state, they called Mongdun Sum Kham (full of golden garden) was bounded by the Doi-Kham and the Buri-Dihing on the east, the Dikhow on the west the Brahmaputra on the north and the Naga hills on the south.

Political Boundaries of extant states/territories in east Assam
State/Territory	North	South	East	West
Chutiya kingdom	Mountain	Buridihing river	Brahmakunda	Sissi river
Maran territories	Buridihing river	Disang river	Suffry river	Brahmaputra river
Barahi territories	Disang river	Dikhau river	Nagahat	Barahi Fika
Kachari kingdom	Dikhau river	Patkai Hills	Patkai Hills	Dhansiri river
Bara Bhuyan territories	Mountain	Brahmaputra river	Sissi river	Gangbihali river
Dafla (Sungi) territories	Mountain	Brahmaputra river	Gangbihali river	Bhairabi river
Darrang kingdom	Mountain	Brahmaputra river	Bhairabi river	Manas river

 

       The form of government that Sukapha introduced in the new State was monarchy but was qualified by a hereditary aristocracy. They continued to perform their religious rites and ceremonies in the new land of their adoption i.e at Charaideo, where they adhered to all religious practices throughout their rule of six hundred years. In course of time Charaideo became the sanctum sanatorium of the Ahom culture. Witnessing this Dr JP Wade, who accompanied Captain Thomas Welsh to Assam in 1792 AD stated “ It is the Principal seat and centre of ancient worship”. Sukapha and his followers brought a script , economy, social and political institution, belief and customs and planted this system in the land.

       After having firmly settled at Charaideo Sukapha died there in 1268 AD ruling for forty one years. He was entombed at Charaideo, in accordance with their Tai custom, locally the burial mound was called moidam. In reverence to his position in Assam's history the honorific Chaolung is generally associated with his name (Chao: lord; Lung: great).After the passing of Sukapha his sons and grand sons were ruling Assam and successfully establish Assam as a ahom kingdom and spreaded it  Sadia to Rangamati and up to Dimapur .

                                                          The Ahom Kingdom

        The successors of Sukapha build different kinds of monuments not only Sivasagar district but all over Assam also. The historical monuments and remains that Sivasagar offers are Ranghar, a two storied building which was built during the reign of Swargadeo Pramatta Singha in 1746 and the building was used as the royal sports-pavilion of Ahom kings.

        The Kareng Ghar and Talatal Ghar are located at the south of Sivasagar town. Kareng Ghar is the seven storied building and Talatal Ghar is a beautiful structure made of bricks. The Kareng Ghar was used to be the capital and military station of the Ahom kings. Among the most remarkable monuments Gargaon Palace is also one of them. At Charaideo hillock, tombs of Ahom kings and queens are now also present.

          Sukapha the first king of Ahom was spread a new Tai culture in the Brahmaputra valley. Sukapha was no bigot, adopted a policy of mobilizing the local people for consolidating his nascent state. Their religious beliefs were respected by Sukapha. Besides intermarriage with them caused fusion of social adaptability that had contributed ultimately to the growth of a culture that is in the long run called Assamese culture. He bound all the diversified small communities around Charaideo with one thread. This example was followed by his successors and thus created a new understanding among the different     groups.