The Chutia Kingdom
(also Sadiya) was a
late medieval state that developed around
Sadiya
Sadiya is a town in Tinsukia district, Assam. It was the capital of the Chutia Kingdom and after the downfall of the kingdom it became the seat of the ''Sadiya-khowa-Gohain'' of the Ahom kingdom. Extensive remains of buildings and fortifica ...
in present
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
and adjoining areas in
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...
.
["(T)he Chutiyas seem to have assumed political power in Sadiya and contiguous areas falling within modern Arunachal Pradesh." ] It extended over almost the entire region of present districts of
Lakhimpur,
Dhemaji
Dhemaji (Pron: deɪˈmɑ:ʤi or di:ˈmɑ:ʤi) is a City in Assam and it is the headquarters of Dhemaji district, Assam, India.
Etymology
The district's name ''Dhemaji'' is derived from the Deori word ''Dema-ji'' which means ''great water'' indi ...
,
Tinsukia
Tinsukia (Pron: ˌtɪnˈsʊkiə) is an industrial town. It is situated north-east of Guwahati and away from the border with Arunachal Pradesh.
It is the administrative headquarters of Tinsukia District of Assam, India.
History
During th ...
, and some parts of
Dibrugarh
Dibrugarh (pron: ˌdɪbru:ˈgɑ:) is an industrial city in Upper Assam with sprawling tea gardens. It is located 435 kms East from the state capital of Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of Dibrugarh district in the state of Assam i ...
in Assam,
["Their kingdom called Sadiya extended in the north over the entire region from the Sisi in the west to the Brahmaputra in the east. The hills and the river Buri Dihing formed its northern and southern boundaries respectively. Thus the Chutiya territory extended over almost the entire region of present districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, and some parts of Dibrugarh." ] as well as the plains and foothills of Arunachal Pradesh. The kingdom fell in 1523-1524 to the
Ahom Kingdom after a series of conflicts and the capital area ruled by the Chutia rulers became the administrative domain of the office of ''Sadia Khowa Gohain'' of the Ahom kingdom.
The Chutia kingdom came into prominence in the second half of the 14th century, and it was one among several rudimentary states (
Ahom,
Dimasa,
Koch,
Jaintia etc.) that emerged from tribal political formations in the region, between the 13th and the 16th century. Among these, the Chutia state was the most advanced, with its rural industries, trade, surplus economy and advanced
Sanskritisation
Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) is a term in sociology which refers to the process by which castes or tribes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek 'upward' mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the dominant castes or upper ...
. It is not exactly known as to the system of agriculture adopted by the Chutias, but it is believed that they were settled cultivators. After the Ahoms annexed the kingdom in 1523, the Chutia state was absorbed into the Ahom state — the nobility and the professional classes were given important positions in the Ahom officialdom and the land was resettled for wet rice cultivation.
Foundation and Polity
Though there is no doubt on the Chutia polity, the origins of this kingdom are obscure. It is generally held that the Chutias established a state around Sadiya and contiguous areas
—though it is believed that the kingdom was established in the 13th century before the advent of the
Ahoms in 1228, and
Buranjis, the
Ahom chronicles, indicate the presence of a Chutia state the evidence is scarce that it was of any significance before the second half of the 14th century.
The earliest Chutia king in the epigraphic records is Nandin or Nandisvara, from the latter half of the 14th century, mentioned in a grant by his son Satyanarayana who nevertheless draws his royal lineage from ''
Asura
Asuras (Sanskrit: असुर) are a class of beings in Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking clans related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is sometimes translated ...
s''. The mention of Satyanarayana as having the shape of his maternal uncle (which is also an indirect reference to the same Asura/Daitya lineage) may also constitute evidence of
matrilineality
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...
of the Chutia ruling family, or that their system was not exclusively
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...
. On the other hand, a later king Durlabhnarayana mentions that his grandfather Ratnanarayana (identified with Satyanarayana) was the king of
Kamatapura which might indicate that the eastern region of Sadhaya was politically connected to the western region of
Kamata Kamata can refer to:
Places
*Kamata, Tokyo, a neighborhood in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan
**Kamata High School, a school located in the Kamata neighborhood, Ōta, Tokyo, Japan
* Kamata Kingdom, a 13th-century kingdom in Assam, India
* Kamata, New Zealand ...
.
In these early inscriptions, the kings are said to be seated in Sadhyapuri, identified with the present-day
Sadiya
Sadiya is a town in Tinsukia district, Assam. It was the capital of the Chutia Kingdom and after the downfall of the kingdom it became the seat of the ''Sadiya-khowa-Gohain'' of the Ahom kingdom. Extensive remains of buildings and fortifica ...
; which is why the kingdom is also called ''Sadiya''. The
Buranjis written in the
Ahom language called the kingdom ''Tiora'' whereas those written in the
Assamese language
Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a '' lingua franca'' of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian langua ...
called it ''Chutia''.
["In the past, there was a kingdom in Upper Assam that the Ahom chronicles called Tiora and the Assamese chronicles called Chutiya." ]
Brahmanical influence in the form of
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
reached the Chutia polity in the eastern extremity of present-day Assam during the late fourteenth century. Vaishnava brahmins created lineages for the rulers with references to
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
legends but placed them lower in the Brahminical social hierarchy because of their autochthonous origins. Though ''asura'' lineage of the Chutia rulers have similarities with the
Narakasura
Naraka, also known as Narakasura (), is an asura king in Hindu mythology. In Assamese tradition, he is regarded as the legendary progenitor of all three dynasties of Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa, and the founding ruler of the legendary Bhauma dyna ...
lineage created for the three
Kamarupa dynasties, the precise historical connection is not clear. Although a majority of the brahmin donees of the royal grants were Vaishnavas, the rulers patronized the non-brahmanised ''Dikkaravasini'' (also ''
Tamresvari'' or ''Kechai-khati''), which was either a powerful tribal deity, or a form of the Buddhist deity
Tara adopted for tribal worship. This deity, noticed in the 10th century
Kalika Purana
The Kalika Purana ( sa, Kālikā Purāṇa), also called the Kali Purana, Sati Purana or Kalika Tantra, is one of the eighteen minor Puranas ('' Upapurana'') in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. The text was likely composed in Assam or Cooch B ...
well before the establishment of the Chutia kingdom, continued to be presided by a
Deori priesthood well into the Ahom rule and outside brahminical influence.
The royal family traced its descent from the line of ''Viyutsva''.
Spurious accounts
Unfortunately, there are many manuscript accounts of the origin and lineage that do not agree with each other or with the epigraphic records and therefore have no historical moorings. One such source is ''Chutiyar Rajar Vamsavali,'' first published in ''
Orunodoi
''Orunodoi'' or ''Arunodoi'' ( Assamese: অৰুণোদই, English: "Sunrise") was the first Assamese-language magazine published monthly from Sibsagar, Assam, in 1846. The magazine created a new era in the world of Assamese literature an ...
'' in 1850 and reprinted in ''Deodhai Asam Buranji''.
Historians consider this document to have been composed in the early 19th century—to legitimize the ''
Matak rajya
Matak rajya or Matak kingdom was a 19th-century autonomous region within the Ahom kingdom in Assam. It was governed by the ''Barsenapati'' ("Great General").
History
This autonomous region was established by an agreement in 1805 between the Purna ...
'' around 1805—or after the end of Ahom rule in 1826. This document relates the legend of Birpal. Yet another Assamese document, retrieved by
Ney Elias from Burmese sources, relates an alternative legend of Asambhinna. These different legends suggest that the genealogical claims of the Chutias have changed over time and that these are efforts to construct (and reconstruct) the past.
Rulers
Only a few recently compiled
Buranjis provide the history of the Chutia kingdom; though some sections of these compilations are old, the sections that contain the list of Chutiya rulers cannot be traced to earlier than 19th century and scholars have shown great disdain for these accounts and legends.
compiled a list of rulers from epigraphic records based crucially on identifying the donor-ruler named Dharmanarayan, mentioned as the son of Satyanarayana in the Bormurtiya grant with the Dharmanarayan, the father of the donor-ruler Durlabhnarayana of the Chepakhowa grant. This effectively results in identifying Satyanarayana with Ratnanarayana.
A late discovery of an inscription, published in a 2002 ''souvenir'' of the ''All Assam Chutiya Sanmilan'' seems to genealogically connect the last historically known king, Dhirnarayan with Neog's list above.
Though it is accepted that the rule of the Chutia rulers ended in 1523-24, different sources give different accounts. The extant ''Ahom Buranji'' and the ''Deodhai Asam Buranji'' mention that in the final battles and the aftermath both the king and the heir-apparent were killed;
["The ''Ahom Buranji'' and the ''Deodhai Assam Buranji'' do not mention the name of Nitipal alias Chandranarayan. These sources ascribe the event to the reign of Dhirnarayan and state that in the final clash both the Chutia king (Dhirnarayan) and the prince (Sadhaknarayan) were killed." ] whereas ''Ahom Buranji-Harakanta Barua'' mentions that the remnant of the royal family was deported to Pakariguri, Nagaon—a fact that is disputed by scholars.
Domain
The extent of the power of the kings of the Chutia kingdom is not known in detail. Nevertheless, it is estimated by most modern scholarship that Chutias held the areas on the north bank of
Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. I ...
from
Parshuram Kund
Parshuram Kund is a Hindu pilgrimage sites situated on the Brahmaputra plateau in the lower reaches of the Lohit River and 21 km north of Tezu in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Dedicated to sage Parshuram, the popular site a ...
(present-day Arunachal Pradesh) in the east and included the present districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia and some parts of Dibrugarh in Assam.
Between 1228 and 1253 when
Sukaphaa
Sukaphaa (), also Siu-Ka-Pha, the first Ahom king in medieval Assam, was the founder of the Ahom kingdom and the architect of Assam. A prince of the Su/Tsu (Tiger) clan of the Mao-Shan sub-tribe originally from present-day Mong Mao, Yunnan Prov ...
, the founder of the
Ahom kingdom, was searching for a place to settle in Upper Assam, he and his followers did not encounter any resistance from the Chutia state, implying that the Chutia state must have been of little significance till at least the mid 14th century, when the Ahom chronicles mention them for the first time. However, it is also known that the Ahoms themselves were a people with a precariously small territory and population, which may indicate this absence of serious interaction with the old settled people of the neighborhood until the 14th century. At its largest extent, the Chutia influence might have extended up to Viswanath in the present
Darrang district
Darrang () is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters are located at Mangaldoi. The district occupies an area of 1585 km2.
History
No definitive records about Darrang are available for the pre-med ...
of Assam,
though the main control was confined to the river valleys of
Subansiri,
Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. I ...
,
Lohit and
Dihing
Dihing or Burhi Dihing (Dihong = wide river ) is a large tributary, about long, of the Brahmaputra River in Upper Assam in northeastern India. The river originates at above sea level in the Eastern Himalayas (the Patkai Hills) in Arunachal Pra ...
and hardly extended to the hills even at its zenith.
Dibang Valley
Dibang Valley (Pron:/dɪˈbæŋ/) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh named after the Dibang River or the Talon as the Mishmis call it. It is the least populated district in India and has an area of .
History
In June 1980, Dibang Valley distri ...
of Arunachal Pradesh">
File:Ruins of Bishmak Nagar in Arunachal Pradesh.jpg, View of the platform of the central building.
File:A brick platform of Bishmak Nagar temple in Arunachal Pradesh.jpg, View of a ruined building
(1369-1379), in which the Ahom king was killed. To avenge the death the next Ahom ruler
(1380–1387) led an expedition against the Chutiya kingdom but returned with no success. During the same era (late 14th century) Gadadhara, the younger brother of
and a descendent of Candivara in order to expand his influence collected a large army at Borduwa and attacked the Chutiyas and
).
, the Ahom king, followed an expansionist policy and annexed Habung and Panbari in either 1510 or 1512, which, according to Swarnalata Baruah, was ruled by
s while according to Amalendu Guha, it was a Chutia dependency. In 1513 a border conflict triggered the Chutia king Dhirnarayan to advance to Dikhowmukh and build a stockade of banana trees (''Posola-garh''). This fort was attacked by a force led by the Ahom king himself leading to a rout of the Chutia soldiers. In 1520 the Chutias again attacked the Ahom fort Mungkhrang and occupied it, but the Ahoms recovered it soon and erected an offensive fort on the banks of the Dibru River. In 1523 the Chutia king attacked the fort at Dibru but was routed. The Ahom king with the assistance of the Bhuyans hotly pursued the retreating Chutia king who sued for peace. The peace overtures failed and the king finally fell to Ahom forces, bringing an end to the Chutia kingdom. Though some late spurious manuscripts mention the fallen king as Nitipal (or Chandranarayan) the extant records from the Buranjis such as the ''Ahom Buranji'' and the ''Deodhai Ahom Buranji'' do not mention him; rather they mention that the king (Dhirnarayan) and the prince (Sadhaknarayan) were killed. As a reward for the assistance, the Ahom king settled this Bhuyans in
as tributary feudal lords.
The Ahom kingdom took complete possession of the royal insignia and other assets of the erstwhile kingdom. The rest of the royal family was dispersed, the nobles were disbanded and the territory was placed under the newly created office of the ''Sadiakhowa Gohain''. Besides the material assets and territories, the Ahoms also took possession of the people according to their professions. Many of Brahmans, Kayasthas, Kalitas, and Daivajnas (the caste Hindus), as well as the artisans such as bell-metal workers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and others, were moved to the Ahom capital and this movement greatly increased the admixture of the Chutia and Ahom populations. A sizeable section of the population was also displaced from their former lands and dispersed in other parts of Upper Assam.
After annexing the Chutia kingdom, offices of the Ahom kingdom, ''Thao-mung Mung-teu''(Bhatialia Gohain) with headquarters at Habung (
) were created to administer the newly acquired regions.
The Chutias may have been the first people in Assam to use firearms. When the Ahoms annexed Sadiya, they recovered hand-cannons called ''Hiloi'' as well as large cannons called ''Bor-top'', ''Mithahulang'' being one of them. As per Maniram Dewan, the Ahom king Suhungmung received around three thousand blacksmiths after defeating the Chutias. These people were settled in the Bosa (Doyang) and Ujoni regions and asked to build iron implements like knives, daggers, swords as well as guns and cannons. The Chutias were defeated in 1523 which might point out that the Ahoms learned the use of gunpowder from the Chutias and most of the ''Hiloi-Khanikars'' (gunmakers) belonged to the Chutia community.
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{{History of Assam