The Khen dynasty (also Khyen dynasty) of
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 ...
was a late medieval dynasty of erstwhile
Kamata kingdom
The Kamata Kingdom (pron: ˈkʌmətɑ) 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, a ...
. After the fall of the
Pala dynasty of Kamrupa, the western region was reorganized into
Kamata kingdom
The Kamata Kingdom (pron: ˈkʌmətɑ) 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, a ...
, when
Sandhya moved his capital from
Kamarupanagara to
Kamatapur
The Kamata Kingdom (pron: ˈkʌmətɑ) 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, a ...
in about 1257, due to the frequent clashes with the
Kacharis from the east. Sandhya styled himself ''Kamateswara'' and the kingdom came to be known as "Kamata". The Khen dynasty at a later period took control of the kingdom.
Origin
According to the ''Gosani Mangala'' (1823), the Khen rulers had a humble origin, implying that they were probably local chieftains that rose to power after the fall of the Palas. Ethnically, the Khen rulers belonged to a Tibeto-Burman ethnolinguistic group. Ethnicity of Khen is not known precisely but may have been associated with Khyen of Indo-Burmese border or
Kheng from the mountains.
Though there is no contemporary historical evidence, some data from eighteenth-century's Gosanimangal claim that a boy named Kanta Nath became the Khen ruler
Niladwaj who hailed from poor family in Taluk Jambari on the bank of Singimari. Other sources claim Kanta Nath to be a migrant from
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
. They worshipped ''Kamatashwari''
["(T)heir tutelary deity called Kâmatesvarî or the goddess of Kàmatàpur"] (also called ''Chandi'' or ''Bhavani''), thus providing a break from the earlier dynasties that drew their lineage from
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 ...
, the son of
Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
.
Fall
The kingdom of Kamatapura finally fell to
Alauddin Husain Shah
Ala-ud-din Husain Shah ( bn, আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ (1494–1519)Majumdar, R.C. (ed.) (2006). ''The Delhi Sultanate'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, pp.215-20 was an independent late medieval Sultan of Bengal, who ...
in 1498. But Hussein Shah could not rule the kingdom—
Bhuyan chiefs of the region defeated the invaders in 1505. Soon control of the Kamata kingdom passed into the hands of the
Koch dynasty
Koch may refer to:
People
* Koch (surname), people with this surname
* Koch dynasty, a dynasty in Assam and Bengal, north east India
* Koch family
* Koch people (or Koche), an ethnic group originally from the ancient Koch kingdom in north east In ...
.
["The kingdom again passed on to the rule of the Bhuyans till the rise of the Koches in about 1515 AD." ]
Rulers
*
Niladhwaj (1440–1460)
*
Chakradhwaj (1460–1480)
*
Nilambar (1480–1498)
See also
*
Kamarupa
Kamarupa (; also called Pragjyotisha or Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa), an early state during the Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, was (along with Davaka) the first historical kingdom of Assam.
Though Kamarupa prevailed from 350 to 11 ...
*
Kamata Kingdom
The Kamata Kingdom (pron: ˈkʌmətɑ) 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, a ...
*
History of Assam
File:Major kingdoms of Assam.png, upright=1.3, Major kingdoms of Assam
rect 50 50 650 120 Kamarupa Kingdom
rect 45 240 160 310 Kamata Kingdom
rect 165 240 300 310 Bhuyan chieftains
rect 305 240 415 310 Ahom Kingdom
rect 425 240 540 310 Chut ...
*
Ahom–Mughal conflicts
Ahom–Mughal conflicts refer to the period between the first Mughal attack on the Ahom kingdom in Battle of Samdhara in 1616 till the final Battle of Itakhuli in 1682. The intervening period saw the fluctuating fortunes of both powers and ...
*
List of rulers of Assam
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 wa ...
*
List of Hindu Empires and Dynasties
Indian empires rose to power following the birth of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism in the Indian subcontinent. The period of the Gupta Empire under Samudragupta is sometimes attributed to as the Golden Age of India.
List
The following list enumera ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khen Dynasty
History of Assam
Dynasties of India