Dimasa Kingdom

The origin of the Kachari Kingdom is not clear.[15] According to tradition the Dimasa had their domain in Kamarupa and their king belonged to a lineage called Ha-tsung-tsa or Ha-cheng-sa,[16] a name first mentioned in a coin from 1520.[17] Some of them had to leave due to a political turmoil and while crossing the Brahmaputra some of them were swept away[18]—therefore, they are called Dimasa ("son of the big river"). The similarity in Dimasa traditions and religious beliefs with those of the Chutiya kingdom supports this tradition of initial unity and then divergence.[19] Linguistic studies too point to a close association between the Dimasa language and the Moran language that was alive till the beginning of the 20th-century, suggesting that the Dimasa kingdom had an eastern Assam presence before the advent of the Ahoms.[20] The Dimasas had a tradition of worshiping Kechai Khaiti, the war goddess common among all Bodo-Kachari peoples:[21] as the Rabhas,[22][23] Tiwas, Koch,[24] Chutias,[25] etc.[26] According to an account in a Buranji, the first Ahom king Sukaphaa (r. 1228–1268) encountered them in the Tirap region (currently in Arunachal Pradesh), soon after they had to leave a place called Mohung (salt springs) losing it to the Nagas, which supports a tradition that eastern boundary of their domain extended up to Mohong or Namchang (near Jeypore, Assam) beyond the river Dichang.[27]

According to legend Hachengsa (or Hasengcha) was an extraordinary boy brought up by a tiger and a tigress in a forest near Dimapur who replaced the existing king following divine oracles; which likely indicates the emergence of a strong military leader able to consolidate power.[28] Subsequently, the Hasengcha Sengfang (clan) emerged and beginning with Khorapha (1520 in Dimapur),[29] the Dimasa kings continued to draw lineage from Hachengcha in Maibong and Khaspur till the 19th century.[30] This legend of the origin of Hachengcha is recorded in an unpublished manuscript written by the late Rajkumar Janmejoy Barman, a member of the royal clan of the Dimasas.

From archaeological evidence and Kachari Buranjis record, First capital Laksmindrapur is doubtlessly accepted as Kachomari.[31]

By the 13th century, the Kachari kingdom extended along the southern banks of Brahmaputra River, from Dikhow river to Kallang River and included the valley of Dhansiri and present-day Dima Hasao district.[32] Dimapur was built by Raja Chakradhvaj after being driven from Ghergaon in Jorhat district.[33] According to the Buranjis (that called the kings khun timisa[34]), the Kachari settlements to the east of Dhansiri withdrew before the Ahom advance.[35] The Chutiya Kingdom existed in the Northeast and the Kamata Kingdom and the Baro-Bhuyans to its west.

In Dimapur, the remains of the Kachari city are still evident. The locals around Dimapur refer to the remains as the "Chess Pieces" of Dima Raja or the King of Dimasa. "A few ancient temples only in upper Assam were then built of masonry, whereas the remains at Dimapur, for instance, which flourished centuries before the Ahoms arrived, show us that Kacharis knew all about the art of brick making and permanent buildings."[36]

China Ming dynasty has political interactions with Dimasa Kingdom,[37] Ming dynasty canonized Dimasa as a tusi in 1406, which named Dimasa Xuanwei Si (Chinese: 底马撒宣慰司).[38]

At Maibang, the Dimasa Kachari kings came under Brahmin influence.[39] The son of Detsung took a Hindu name, Nirbhay Narayan (Sankritised name), and established his Brahmin guru as the Dharmadhi that became an important institution of the state. The titular deity of the Dimasas changed from Kechai Khaiti to Ranachandi in the 16th-century as a result of Hinduisation.[40] The royal family came under Hindu influence at Maibang, though the first conversion of a Kachari king to Hinduism is recorded in Khaspur, much later.[41] According to a legend constructed at the time, the royal family descends from Ghatotkacha, the son of Bhima of the Mahabharata fame, and Hidimbi, a princess of the Kachari people.[42]

Chilarai attacked the kingdom on or after 1564,[43] during the reign of either Durlabh Narayan or his predecessor, and made it into a tributary of the Koch Kingdom. The size of the annual tribute— seventy thousand rupees, one thousand gold mohurs and sixty elephants[43]— testifies to the resourcefulness of the Kachari state.

A conflict with the Jaintia Kingdom over the region of Dimarua led to a battle and the defeat of the Jaintia king (Dhan Manik). After the death of Dhan Manik, Satrudaman the Dimasa Kachari king, installed Jasa Manik on the throne who manipulated events to bring the Dimasa Kacharis into conflict with the Ahoms once again in 1618. Satrudaman, the most powerful Dimasa Kachari king, ruled over Dimarua in Nagaon district (long before it was ruled by Tiwa tribal chief (Jongal Balahu), North Cachar, Dhansiri valley, plains of Cachar and parts of eastern Sylhet. After his conquest of Sylhet, he struck coins in his name.

By the reign of Birdarpan Narayan (reign around 1644), the Kachari rule had withdrawn completely from the Dhansiri valley and it reverted to a jungle forming a barrier between the kingdom and the Ahom kingdom.[44] When a successor king, Tamradhwaj, declared independence, the Ahom king invaded Maibong and destroyed its forts in 1706 and the king had to take refuge in Khaspur.[45]

Kachari palace ruins at Khaspur

The region of Khaspur was originally a part of the Tripura Kingdom, which was taken over by Chilarai in the 16th century. The region was ruled by a tributary ruler, Kamalnarayana, the brother of Chilarai. In the middle of the 18th century, the last of the Koch rulers died without an heir and the control of the kingdom went to the ruler of the Dimasa Kachari Kingdom as dowry. After the merger, the capital of the Dimasa Kachari Kingdom moved to Khaspur, near present-day Silchar. In the 18th-century, the Hailakandi region was annexed to the Kachari kingdom.

The Dimasa Kachari kingdom came under Burmese occupation in the late early 19th-century along with the Ahom kingdom. The last king, Govinda Chandra Hasnu, was restored by the British after the Yandaboo Treaty in 1826, but he was unable to subjugate Tularam Senapati who ruled the hilly regions. Senapati Tularam Hasnusa domain was Mahur River and the Naga Hills in the south, the Doyang river on the west, the Dhansiri River on the east and Jamuna and Doyang in the north. In 1830, Govinda Chandra Hasnu died. In 1832, Senapoti Tularam Hasnu was pensioned off and his region was annexed by the British to ultimately become the North Cachar district; and in 1833, Govinda Chandra's domain was also annexed to become the Cachar district.[48]

In the early nineteenth century, after being dislodged from Meitrabak (present-day Manipur), its princes made Cachar a springboard for the reconquest of the territory. In 1819, three brothers occupied Cachar and drove Govinda Chandra Hasnu out to Sylhet (now in Bangladesh). The kingdom of Cachar, divided between Govinda Chandra Hasnu and Chaurajit in 1818, was repartitioned after the flight of Govind Chandra among the three Meitrabak princes. Chaurajit got the eastern portion of Cachar bordering Meitrabak which was ruled from Sonai. Gambhir Singh was given the land west of Tillain hill and his headquarters was at Gumrah, Marjit Singh ruled Hailakandi from Jhapirbond. The British annexed the Dimasa Kachari Kingdom under the doctrine of lapse. At the time of British annexation, the kingdom consisted of parts of Nagaon and Karbi Anglong; North Cachar (Dima Hasao), Cachar and the Jiri frontier of Manipur.