History of Upper Assam, Upper Burmah and north-eastern frontier

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HISTORY OF
UPPER ASSAM, UPPER BURMAH

AND

NORTH-EASTERN FRONTIER

MACMII.I.AN AND CO., Limited

LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
JIELBOLRNF.

THE M ACM ILL AN COMPANY

NFW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO

TIIK .AL\CMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lrn.

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HISTORY OF UPPER

ASSAM, UPPER BURMAH

AND NORTH-EASTERN

FRONTIER

L. W. ^SHAKESPEAR

[Colonel, 2nd Goorkhas)

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1914

COPY RIGHT

» - e e e •«(

^J-

QO

3

0)5

^ TO THE ASSAM MILITARY POLICE FORCE

With which I had the honour of serving several
happy interesting years — -the Wardens of our long
stretch of North- Eastern Marches ; who, since we
t-^ were brought into touch with this far-off corner
of our Indian possessions have borne the heat,
burden, and stress of every expedition (officially

^ recognised or otherwise) with a cheerful willingness

U.'

and zeal which has won the approbation of all who
6 have worked with them, but whose labours too
frequently pass unnoticed — I dedicate this humble
work.

" Florcant custodcs tcrminurum Imperii nostri."

L. W. Shakespear
(Colonel, 2nd Goorkhas),

Uehra Doon, 1912-13.

:54501 6

PREFACE

As I have found no book dealing completely and
succinctly with Assam, its border land now so much
in the public eye, and the many wild and interesting
peoples dwelling along that border, which obliges
the student to search through many books before
arriving at the points of interest desired (if even
then they are obtained), I have endeavoured to
collect materials from all — to me — possible sources,
and weaving them into narrative form, to produce
something useful and readable at least for those who
care about that little-known but very interesting
corner of India. The success of my article which
the Army Review printed in October, 1912, on this
subject, has led me to attempt something more
complete in detail ; and with all its shortcomings I
trust it may be appreciated by those interested in
the past and future of this fertile and lovely land.
If any criticisms may seem too trenchant, I trust
the hope that there are those who will in the future
benefit by statements of facts may be recognised
as a sufficient excuse for having ventured into such,
possibly to some, undesirable spheres. In this con-
nection a remark of Commander Bellairs, R.N., in
his interesting article on " Secrecy and Discussion,"
which ran to the effect that, if there is no criticism,
which naturally goes with discussion, the teachings
of history are apt to be perverted — ^may still further
strengthen my excuse. Without certain of the books

X PREFACE

mentioned in the Bibliography this could not have
been attempted, and 1 desire to record my high
appreciation of, and indebtedness to, the pa.rticular
labours of their authors ; and my gratitude to the
Librarian of the Imperial Library, Calcutta, for his
personal assistance so courteously given. My thanks
are also due to certain friends who have helped with
photographs, namely, those of the Abors, Mishmis,
and some of the photos dealing with Maram monoliths
and Nagas where I was unable to go personally ; the
rest of the photos and sketches are my own.

I may add that this book has been vised by Army
Headquarters, whose suggested alterations, omissions,
have been duly attended to.

L. W. Shakespear
(Colonel, 2nd Goorkhas).

CONTENTS

CH AFTER I

TAGE

Assam — interest for archaeologists — vanished cities — extent of the
Brahmaputra Valley comprising Assam proper — route of
ancient Indian adventurers to the further East — ancient
inhabitants i

CHAPTER II

History of the Rachari race — the Rocch race— INIahomedan

invasions \z ^

CHAPTER III

The Ahom race — war with Kacharis — consolidation of tlieir power

— war with Moghuls — the capital of Garhgaon .... I'^w

CHAPTER I\'

Mir Jumhi's great invasion — capture of Garhgaon — retreat of
-Moghuls — death of Mir Jumla — Firoz Khan's invasion repulsed
— Auranzeb's last effort against Assam — power of \'ishnubile
sect — Rudra Sing's reign— end of Jaintia War — Durbar at
Salagarh and release of royal captives— first recorded visit
of three Englishmen to Assam — Burmese invade Manipur,
whom x^homs assist — prosperity in Assam — beginning of
Moamaria revolt 40

CHAPTER \'

Massacre of Moamaria at (jarhgaon — Manipur sends troops to
assist Ahoms against the rebels — land desolated by constant
fighting — Gaurinath applies for English aid in suppressing
rebellion— Mr. Rausch — despatch of Captain Welsh's expedi-
tion— advance to Rangpur — Welsh's successes — return to
Bengal — renewed rebellion in Assam 51

xii CONTENTS

CHAl'TEK \I

!'a<;e
English aid refused Ijy Sir J. Shore — Ijiirnians respond to Ahom
king — army crosses the Patkoi ^ reinstates Chandrakaril
and retires — Ahoms again appeal for Burmese aid — another
army comes and overruns the whole country — unhappy state
of people — necessity for English interference — Burmese war
breaks out — British force ascends Brahmaputra to Rangpur —
new administrative arrangement of English in Assam — Mr.
Scott made Commissioner of Gauhati — Colonel White and
iletachment attacked at Sadiya — introduction of tea — industrial
matters — first railway enterprise — steamer communications —
Assam-Bengal railway 6i

CHAPTER \I1

Religion — notable remains — Dimapur — ruins beyond Sadiya— re- ^

markable monoliths in the Naga Hills 71/^

CHAPTER \TII
The border tribes— Bhoolan- -the war of 1864 gij/

CHAPTER IX
Akas — country Dai)hlas— expeditions — Abors — early expeditions . 103 •

CHAPTER X

Abors continued^Williamson's massacre — expedition ]yii-i2 —

remarks and criticisms i 20 '-''^

CHAPTER XI

.Mishmis — country — French missionaries murdered — Eden's exploit /

- Coopers visit to Mishmiland — Hkamtis and Singphos . . 141

CHAPTER XII

Burmah borderland — Shans — history and \arious kingdoms —

characteristics— religion i 57

CHAPTER XIII

Kachins — country — subdivisions — weapons — warfare — cognate

tribes — the Bhamo border and Shweli valley . . . . 171

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER XI\'

• — cliaracteristics-
history ig- ^

i'a<;e
The Natja tribes -countr\- —cliaracteristics — customs — origin —

CHAPTER XV

Rei^reltable incidents — treacliery — methods of fiL^htini; . . . 328

CHAPTER X\'I

The North-Eastern Frontier general!)' and its Military Police

forces 237

Appendix 253

Index 257

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Boats on the Chindwyn River, Alonywa . . . Frontispiece

Brahmaputra and River Steamer at Gauhati 5

Ancient Temples in Upper Assam 9

Last remaining Gateway to the Old Kachari Fort at Dimapur . 15

"Umanand"or Peacock Island opposite Gauhati .... 25

The Dibong where it leaves the Hills 29

A Trans Uikkoo Naga in War Paint and one from Tabhlung . . 32

The Barail Range, Angami Country, Naga Hills 52

Closer \'ie\v of Individual Stone, Dimapur 72

The Big Tank and Resthouse at Dimapur E\ca\ated Hundreds of

Years ago by the Kachari s 74

Closer View of Individual Stones, Dimapur 77

The Remarkable Carved Stones as discovered in the ( )!(1 Kachari

Fort at Dimapur 78

The Carved Stones in Dimapur Fort restored and set up, as at

present '^o

Ancient and Remarkal^le Temple Car\ ed from a Huge Boulder at

Maibong ^1

Carved Stones dug up at Maibong S4

" Murta," or Idol, found at Maibong ^^6

Inscribed Stones dug up at Maibong 88

The Remarkable " Stonehenj^e" at Togwema, Xaga Hills . . 89

The Hunting Stones at Maram 93

A Solitary Monolith 95

Method of Dragging these Stones on Sledges to their Final Resting

Place 97

Avenue of Monoliths near Maram 99

Group of Abors 108

Janakmukh Post, Dihang River, and distant .A.bor Hills . . no

Clearing Forest for Camp Ground in the Abor Country . . 112
A More Civilised P'orm of Suspension Bridge made by the Troops

in the Abor Countrv 117

XVI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

•Abo

\'illa<ie

ooo ft. el

Native Cane Bridge of the Abor and Mishmi Countries .
Mishing Stockade — Leaf and Bamboo Shelters for our Men

Countr\-

Typical Abors with Wooden Helmets

Convoy Crossing a Stream in the Abor Countr\

A Mishmi \"illage and Warrior

A Singpho of the Eastern Patkoi .

Two Headmen in Masungjami, Western Patkoi

The Morang at Nokching, Western Patkoi, with Huge Carvec

Serpent on Front Supporting Timber 35 feet high
The Great Morang or Guard House in Masungjami

Western Patkoi

Scenery in the Patkoi Range near Hukong \'alley, about 4

The Irrawadi at Myitkhyina

A Shan Man

Shan Traders

Ancient "Vallum" and Gateway in Mogoung Disiricl
(iroup of Shans and Palaungs ......

Kachin Girl

Kachin Men (Mogoung)

Cane Bridge in the Kachin Country

A Palaung Girl

Angami Nagas in Gala Attire

Angami Nagas

Kaccha Nagas Dancing

Aoh Naga Girl showing Coiffure and Sjiell Nerkhu c
Sema Nagas in War Paint ......

Aoh Naga Graves

Burial Tree outside Tabhlung Village, Western Patkoi, a Corpse

fastened to Trunk a little way up, wrapped round with Leaves,

Skulls at Base of Tree
Aoh Naga Chiefs House ....
Trans Dikkoo Naga and his " Heads "" .
Corner in Berema V'illage, Kaccha Naga
A Tankhul Naga from Manipur
Kekrima, Angami Naga Village showing the Curious

Ornamentation to Houses of Wealthy Men
Angami Naga Grave — Man's ....
Angami Naga Grave — Woman's. Her ]5askets, Weaving Sticks

and Domestic Utensils

Kohima Village — Angami Naga — 900 Houses .
Carved Front to a Wealthy Naga's House .
Stockaded Entrance to Mongsin Village, Trans Dikkoo
Sema Chiefs House. Carved Tree Trunks denote Wealth
" Jekia," a Sema Naga Chief

Horned

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii

Sema Warrior Wearing their Curious Tail Ornament . . . 233
Usual Form of Our Stockades on N.E. Frontier .... 246

MAPS AND PLATES

Types of Weapons, etc., used by Kachins and Shans.

(Coloured) „ 180

Types of Weapons and Utensils Used by Singphos,

Daphlas, and Nagas. (Coloured) .... „ 197

Map showing Boundaries of Ancient Kingdoms . 1 Ai end

Map of Bhootan and War, 1864 \ ^f

Map showing Entire N.E. Border and its Tribes J Volume

BIBLIOGRAPHY

K. S. Macdonald's " Kamrup and (iauhati in Assam," 1902.

C. C. Louis's "Tribes of Burma," 1910.

Hamilton and Syme's " Account of Burman Empire and Kingdom of
Assam," 1839.

Gaits' " History of Assam," 1906.

W. W. Hunters " The Indian Empire," 1886. " Sketch of the Singphos
and Inland Trade of the Irrawadi and their Connection with N.E.
Assam." 1847.

J. T. Moore's "Twenty Years in Assam," 1901.

T. Kinney's "Old Times in Assam,"' 1896.

S. O. Bishop's "Sketches in Assam," 1885.

T. T. Cooper's "The Mishmi Hills," 1873.

Bastian's " Volkersstamme am Brahmaputra."

"The Upper Burma Gazetteer," Volume I, Part i.

Prince H. d'Orlean's " Tonkin to India," 1898.

T. T. Cooper's "Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce," 1871.

"Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India," 1907.

General Sir J. Johnstons " My Experiences in Manipur and the Naga
Hills," 1896.

Ferishta's " History of the Moghul Empire."

Colonel J. Johnston's " Captain Welsh's Expedition to Assam, 1792-94,"
1912.

Mackenzie's " History of Assam and the N.E. Tribes," 1883.

Hosie's "Journey in 1883 through Ssu-chuan and Yiinnan."

Bryan Hodgson's " Kocch, Bodo, and Dimal Tribes," 1847.

The Reverend Endel's " History of the Kacharis."

Major Hannay's " Pamphlet in the J. A. S. Bengal on the Ruins East
of Sadiya," 1848.

Errol Ciray's " Uiary of a Journey to the Bor Hkamti Country," 1893.

B. G. Carey's " Chin Hills Gazetteer," 1896.

HISTORY OF
UPPER ASSAM, UPPER BURMAH

AND

NORTH-EASTERN FRONTIER

CHAPTER I

In spite of the interest Assam has furnished to
ethnologists in the past, due to the numerous and
curious peoples living in and round it, as well as from
the more recent military expeditions and the awak-
ening of China with her ambition to monopolise the
country lying to the north and east of its practically
unknown borders ; there is hardly any part of India
which is less known to the general public. It has
indeed probably only been heard of by the public as
a tea-producing district, and one which has, since
Lord Curzon's famous " Partition," become con-
nected with the sedition of Eastern Bengal which lies
immediately south of Assam proper. It is not
thought of as ever having possessed a stirring history
or an old civilisation ; though this latter is attested by
the numerous ancient forts, temples, and certain old
high roads such as the Kamali AUi running 350 miles

2 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

from Cooch Behar to Narainpur, still in use in parts,
which are to be found scattered up and down the
length and breadth of the land. These probalDly only
reveal a small portion of what may still remain for the
archaeologist when the jungle and forest which still
cover so great a portion of Assam may be removed, as
settlers and their cultivation gradually extend. That
it was a densely populated country in the far-off past
is shown by the extensive ruins of Kamatapur near
Cooch Behar in the west, stated by Buchanan Hamilton
to be upwards of nineteen miles round and flourishing
up to the end of the fifteenth century, when it fell a
prey to the Moghuls — by the extensive ruins of old
fortifications in the neighbourhood of Baliapara not
far from the foot of the Aka Hills — by the famous
temples of Kamakhya near Gauhati, and those at
Charaideo, near which latter are also the remains of
the old capital of Garhgaon. In the extreme eastern
corner of Assam, viz., in the angle formed by the
rivers Dibong and Dikrang within fifteen miles of our
present frontier post of Sadiya and no great distance
from the point whence General Bower's recent Abor
expedition made its start, lie the extensive ruins of
Bishmaknagar (Kundina) and a large fort of hewn
stone together with four or five excavated tanks.

This showing that what is now almost a " terra
incognita " to us, covered with more or less impene-
trable jungle, was once the centre of a thriving
community.

Mr. Kinney, who knew the Dibrughar district well,
alludes to the former high state of cultivation and
energy of a people now sunk in apathy and opium
eating, as evinced by ruins of magnificent buildings

I HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 3

and raised roadways found all over the country. The
fine old Tengrai Raj Alii connecting Rangpur with
Namrup for instance, is frequently met with in the
heart of the forest, and parts of it in the more open
spaces are in use still. Mr. T. T. Cooper also writing
in 1873 of eastern Assam again testifies to the energy
and civilisation formerly characteristic of this people
and forming a striking contrast to the lethargic exist-
ence of the present-day scanty population. He says :
" The contemplation of these ruins surrounded by
almost impenetrable jungle which has overgrown the
once fertile and well cultivated fields of a people that
has almost passed away, is calculated to strike one with
an intense desire to learn more of the history of those
terrible events which robbed a fertile land of a vast and
industrious population, converting it into a wilderness
of swamps and forests."

Again the extensive region of the dense Nambhor
Forest lying between Lumding Junction (on the Assam
and Bengal Railway) and Golaghat and bordered by
the Mikir and Naga Hills is known to cover ground at
one time owned by the strong Kachari clans in a high
*state of civilisation with their capital at Dimapur on
the Dhansiri river almost in the centre of the forest.
When the engineers, Messrs. Thornhill, Buckle, and
Venters in 1896-97 were arranging the earthwork of
the Assam and Bengal Railway north from Lumding,
they came on causeways, canals, and sites of buildings,
notably in the vicinity of Rangapahar and Dimapur
now covered with jungle ; which jungle, however,
forest experts speak of as being of no greater age than
200 years. As we shall see later on, history shows us
the Kacharis were overwhelmed by the Ahoms and

B 2

4 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

had their capital sacked in the middle of the sixteenth
century, which was then deserted together with the
entire region, and this was never re-occupied by either
nation.

Just these few facts go to prove that Assam, spoken
of in old Moghul writings as " a land of mystery and
witchcraft," does possess an interest which will
repay those who care to peruse the illuminating works
on this country by Messrs. Blochmann, Gait, Prinsep,
and others. When these are read and one realises to
what an extent civilisation had reached, the large
armies that operated up and down the Brahmaputra
valley, the depth of its religions, the engineering and
architectural work left behind, one is inclined to
wonder what has become of it ajl and of the peoples ;
and what caused the decay of power which permitted
its once thriving valleys to be now choked and buried
in densest forests ? For the people now met with in
Assam are a peaceful, almost effeminate race, in no
great numbers, addicted in a large measure to opium
eating, and not disposed to diligent labour ; whence
the necessity for importing the great numbers of coolies
from India required to work on the tea gardens.

It is generally assumed that climatic conditions
tended very largely to bring about this state of decay,
at all events where the people were concerned ; for the
climate is a distinctly enervating one, and each race
that has settled there has, in course of time, lost its
vigour and been supplanted by hardier folk, who in
their turn have; in spite of material progress as to
civilisation, succumbed to the love of ease and luxury
born of an enervating climate in a highly fertile land.

As to vanished cities, forts and other landmarks of

I HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 5

the past, their disappearance is attributable to the soft
alluvial soils of the valleys, which permit the easy
task for rivers of cutting for themselves fresh channels,
and so frequently destroying and carrying away the
towns and buildings which history tells us did exist
along their banks. Examples of this are to be found
in comparing a map of 1790 with one of about i860
when the Brahmaputra's course below Gauhati will be
seen to have shifted close on fifty miles within this

Brahmaputra and River Steamer at Gauhati.

period ; while some twenty miles from the right bank
of the same river between Nalbari and Hajo are to be
seen the arches of an ancient bridge once spanning an
old course of the river, and known as the " Sil Sako."
It stands now in the centre of a lake surrounded by
miles of forest, and had several of its arches destroyed
by the great earthquake of 1897. In the far eastern
corner of the province beyond and not far from Sadiya
are signsthat the Brahmaputra and Lohit rivers flowed

6 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

in the far-off past much closer to the foot of the Abor
and Mishmi hills, and Hannay states his opinion that
it was the gradual changing of the river's course further
and further south which led to the abandonment of
the cities of Kundina (Bishmaknagar) and Prithimi-
nagar. Added to this force of Nature come those of
earthquakes by which Assam has suffered seriously,
and the marvellously rapid growth of vegetation ;
which when unchecked in a few years spreads, chokes
up valleys, and obliterates, as in the case of the Dhansiri
and Kopili valleys, all traces of former towns and build-
ings. Although this volume is intended to deal chiefly
with tribes dwelling along the whole of our north-
eastern borderland it will not be without interest to
trace the history of the country from the most ancient
times as revealed by rock-cut inscriptions and legends,
the first contact of the Moghuls with the Ahoms then
the ruling race here, and finally the appearance of
the English on the scene.

The particular part of Assam this history deals with,
viz., upper Assam from Goalpara to Sadiya, comprises
the whole valley of the Brahmaputra with a length of
nearly 450 miles and a varying breadth of sixty to
eighty miles, covering an area of over 30,000 square
miles. To the north and east high mountains shut it
off from Thibet and Bhutan, on the west it joins Bengal,
while south and east another mountainous region —
that of the Patkoi and Barail ranges— separates it from
Burma and south-western China. It is thus almost
completely surrounded by mountains which are in-
habited by more or less savage tribes. The early his-
tory of Assam being purely legendary it is practically
impossible to lift the veil lying over it, though here

i HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 7

and there a little light comes in from ancient inscrip-
tions in India, such, for instance, as that on the famous
Allahabad pillar erected in Chandragupta's time, 316-
292 B.C., whereon we learn that Kamarupa (as Assam
was called in early days) was known of then as a State
lying away east of Nepal to which King Chandra-
gupta's fame had penetrated ; and it had then, prob-
ably under its Hindoo Khettri Kings (the very earliest
rulers in Assam), attained to a degree of civilisation
almost equal to that of the Hindu dynasties in India
of those days.

A copper-plate inscription records an invasion by
Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain, about 57 B.C., and as
he was a Buddhist it is probable he fostered that
religion in the land where, as we shall see, it never
took a serious hold. Major Hannay of the old Assam
Light Infantry, who made considerable research into the
ancient history of Assam, is of opinion that Kamarupa
was one of the earliest conquests of the Hindu Khettri
Kings about 400 B.C., and was the seat of that primitive
form of Hinduism which existed previous to Bud-
dhism, and which again was followed in the middle of
the fifteenth century by Brahminical Hinduism intro-
duced by certain Brahmins from the city of Gaur, in
Bengal.

Another inscription shows a Gupta King, by name
Samudra, at the end of the fourth century a.d. exact-
ing tribute from Kamarupa, and from the following
century this country came under the Gupta dynasty,
lasting up to the first half of the ninth century. A
Rajput, called Itari, rising to power, started the Pal
dynasty, taking the name of Dharm Pal. Twelve
kings of this dynasty are said to have reigned between

8 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

830 and 1 140 A.D., and these in their turn gave way to
that of the Senas, who however, being of Bengal,
ruled only the western part of Kamarupa.

That Assam and the Hukong Valley to the Irrawadi
river and beyond, formed as it were a natural highway
for old-time Indian kings with a desire for conquests
far afield is known, and Forlong, in his researches, states
an Indian King named Samudra (not the one pre-
viously mentioned) w^as ruling in upper Burma about
105 A.D., and that they were Hindus from that locality
who led the Shans far down the Mekhong river into
Siam ; while earlier still Chinese chronicles state an
Indian prince from Cambod in north-west India was
reigning in Cambodia, giving the name of his original
homeland to his new territory. These chronicles also
say adventurers from India founded kingdoms in Java
and Malaya as far back as 166 a.d., and also that mer-
chants from Alexandria or some other Roman port
visited China a little later, travelling via Chiampa, the
old name for Siam. All these Indians with their
armies must have got there via Assam and the low
passes of the Patkoi Range into the Hukong Valley and
so further east. The difficult mountainous regions
stretching from the Patkoi away down south to Arrakan
precluded the possibility of passing masses of men
through them, while long sea voyages were unknown
to the Indian peoples of those days. Though certain
historians are of opinion that Hindus from the ancient
sea coast kingdom of Kalinga (Madras side) did make
voyages to Java and that the Hindu ruined cities and
temples found there are their handiwork.

Other copper plate inscriptions found in Assam
show various lands having been made over to Brahmin

I HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 9

priests by certain rulers of the Pal dynasty between
990 and 1 142 A.D., whose names are thus arrived at ;
otherwise the first authentic information we have of
Kamarupa, viz., the country lying between the Kara-
toya river (flowing past Julpigori into the Brahma-
putra near . Goalundo) and Sadiya, is by the hand of
the great Chinese traveller, Huien Tsiang, who came

-i- -

Ancient Temples in Upper Assam.

to this country in 630 A.D., visiting Gauhati and other
places of sanctity.

Of the three strong tribes who long held dominion
in different parts of upper Assam, the earliest to
arrive in the country is surmised to have been the
Kacharis, whose original habitat is believed to have
been along the foot of the Darjiling hills and the
Morang tract, which was known to the Nepalese as
the '' Kaccha country." These then travelled east
and crossed the Brahmaputra, settling in what is now
the Nowgong district between Jorhat and Gauhati.

lo HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Spreading from there, they populated the Dhansiri and
KopiU valleys and all eastern Assam, eventually cross-
ing the southern hills and occupying the present district
of Cachar, to which they gave the name of their ancient
home, after they had ousted the Tippera people.

The Chutiyas, an offshoot of the Kachari tribe,
alone used a written character, but made no use of
it in recording events.

/, The second tribe to rise into prominence were the
Kocches, allies to the Kacharis, whose home lay just
east of the Karatoya river where the little State of
Cooch Behar is now. Their kingdom when consoli-
dated comprised the whole of Kamarupa, which then
lay chiefly on the north bank of the Brahmaputra,
with Gauhati and the country towards Goalpara on
the south bank.

As these two tribes had kept no records, our in-
formation regarding them up to the arrival on the
scene of the Ahoms, comes from Mahomedan historians
who recorded the different Moghul invasions, and
from local legends, here and there substantiated by
rock-cut and copper plate inscriptions which have
come to light at Tezpur, Gauhati and elsewhere.

The third and the most important tribe are the
Ahoms, because they possessed a literature of a sort and
certainly kept written historical records — " buranjis "
as they are called, meaning " stores of instruction for
the ignorant," whereby we have a definite history of
events in upper Assam since their arrival there about
1 220 A.D. They were non-Buddhist Shans of the
great Tai race who inhabited the old kingdom of
Peng (the Mogoung of the present day) which
stretched from the upper Chindwyn to the upper

I HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ii

Irrawadi rivers ; and these people held sway in the
Brahmaputra valley until the troubles with the Bur-
mese in 1825 led to the appearance on the scene of
the last dominant Power — the English. Besides these
three large tribes, other smaller ones ruled in outlying
portions of the country, as, for instance, the Chutiyas,
owning the country between the Subansiri and Disang
rivers, and the Morans who dwelt opposite the Chutiyas
on the south bank of the Brahmaputra, east of the
present Sibsagor. Both are of the same stock as the
Kacharis, but the former is of very ancient origin,
the Deori Chutiyas claiming proudly to belong to the
descendants of the Hindu Khettri line, which Hannay
says seems to be corroborated by the fact that the
Chutiya language, now only known to the Deoris or
temple priests, contains a large proportion of Sanscrit
and Hindu words plus a certain amount of Burmese
from the Shan conquerors, whose " buranjis " state
the Chutiyas were the only possessors of a written
language they met with at the time of their advent
into Assam. Whether the Chutiyas were the original
builders of the cities of Bishmaknagar (Kundina) and
Prithiminagar beyond Sadiya, and now covered by
forests, is not known, but Hannay is of opinion that
they were occupied in the time of the Khettri Kings
over 2,000 years ago.

CHAPTER II

We will now turn to a historical review of the three
great tribes, beginning with the Kacharis, who, as
we have seen before, trekked in past ages from the
" Khaccha country," which lay roughly between the
Brahmaputra and the Kusi rivers along the foot of
the Himalayas into the country beyond the Brahma-
putra, settling first in what is now the Nowgong
district, and after long ages extending their dominions
up the great valley to about where Sadiya now stands,
and southwards up the Kopili valley and later still up
the Dhansiri and Doyang valleys to where they emerge
from the hills. Bryan Hodgson (1847) is one of the
authorities for this statement as to the original home
of the Kacharis and Kocches, both being at least
linguistically allied ; though Endle, in an excellent
work on the Kacharis, places their ancestral home in
Thibet and China, and concludes that they migrated
in two streams into the rich Brahmaputra valley —
one stream entering western Assam through the
valleys of the Tista, Dharla, and Sankosh rivers, and
founding the kingdom of Kamarupa ; while the other
stream found its way down the Subansiri, Dihong,
and Dibang valleys into eastern Assam. He classes
the Chutiyas, who long held sway round about

CH. II HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 13

Sadiya, as being a clan of the great Kachari
nation left behind as the tide of migration rolled
west and south. Both he and Hodgson hold that in
very early days they were the dominant races in
Assam ; but the latter goes further and states they
are the aborigines of A ssam ; in fact he classes them
with the Tamulian aboriginal inhabitants of India
such as Gonds, Bhils, etc., and does so through their
peculiar physical capability of being able to live
healthily in forest and swampy localities where no
other human beings can exist. He therefore con-
cludes that this capability could only have been
evolved after a lapse of a very great space of time,
which he computes at thirty centuries, so we may as
well assume that the Kacharis and Kocches are of the
aboriginal races in India. They appear to have been
a peaceful and flourishing race, given to agriculture,
and seem to have lived in amity with the rising
Kocch nation on the far side of the Brahmaputra,
with the exception of trouble in 1562, when they were
defeated by the Kocch king Nar Narain ; while they
also traded with Dacca and Bengal via Goalpara. It
was evidently from Bengal that they got their ideas
of building with bricks, for in those far-off days
neither of the other nations built permanent towns
or forts, their defences being entirely of the nature of
earthworks, and their buildings of wood and bamboo.
A few ancient temples only in upper Assam were
then built of masonry, whereas the remains atDimapur,
for instance, which flourished centuries before the
Ahoms arrived, show us the Kacharis knew all about
the art of brick making and permanent buildings ;
while the style in which they worked points to having

14 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

been copied from Bengal, the nearest civilised country
to them. To anyone nowadays travelling by rail
from Haflong to near Golaghat, or from Golaghat by
road to Nichuguard at the foot of the Naga hills, it
is difficult to realise that this densely forested region
covers the sites of many old cities and vast areas of
cultivation, the names of which, such as Maiham,
Jamaguri, Dijoa, alone remain in old Ahom accounts.
Of the three valleys mentioned before, the Kopili is
the only one which has not lapsed into such complete
desolation ; for the reason that the Kacharis were
able to hold on to this tract much longer, almost up
to the beginning of the nineteenth century ; whereas
the other two, viz., the Dhansiri and Doyang valleys,
ceased to belong to them some 300 years earlier. By
the time the Ahoms were making themselves felt as
a power in the region round Sadiya and Namrup,
the Kachari people held the country up to the Dikkoo
river flowing past Sibsagor, and here they came into
contact with the Ahoms about the beginning of the
fourteenth century. Constant friction occurring, and
the Ahoms being strengthened by a fresh influx
of emigrants from the east, the Kacharis gradually
withdrew until in the end of the fifteenth century
they took up arms with intent to recover lost lands
so successfully, that in 1490 they badly defeated the
Ahoms at Dampuk on the Dikkoo river, which they
once more made their boundary. Thirty years later
commenced the long series of wars in which the
Ahoms, having reduced their other enemies, the
Chutiyas and Morans, and also to a certain extent
the Kooches, had time to turn with all their strength
against the Kachari peoples ; for in the early part of

II

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

the sixteenth century they were pressed back until
they lost all territory east of Golaghat, the Ahoms
building a strong earthwork fort at Marangi, a little
south of Jorhat, by which to hold what they had
taken. Before a year was over a Kachari effort against
Marangi led to the Ahoms ascending the Dhansiri
and Doyang valleys in two strong armies where, after
successful actions at Bardua and Maiham, the Ahoms

Last remaining; Gateway to the Old Kachaki Fort at Di.nemtk.

retired. The sites of these places are no longer
known. Five years later, the Kacharis, still smarting
under these defeats, attacked the Ahoms in the neigh-
bourhood of Golaghat, and this time the latter took
a large force victoriously up the Dhansiri as far as
the Kachari capital of Dimapur, where, after a stiff
action, in which the Kachari king was killed and his
head sent to Charaideo, the Ahoms dictated terms and,
setting up one Detsing as king, they retired out of the
country. Five years later, however, Detsing quarrelled
with the Ahom king Sukmungijng, who, with a large

i6 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

army, advanced first up both sides of the Doyang,
where the Kacharis made but shght resistance, and
then moved into and up the Dhansiri to the capital.

Here the Kacharis after a desperate defence were
completely defeated and the city sacked. The Ahoms
now took over this entire tract of country, but as they
never occupied it and the former Kachari occupants
had either been killed or had retired to found the
new capital at Maibong in what is now the North
Cachar hills, the Dhansiri and Doyang valleys soon
relapsed into jungle, which in later times became
known as the Nambhor forest. Ahom " buranjis "
record that in 1637 the route for communication
between Ahoms and Kacharis was via Koliabar, Now-
gong, and the Kopili valley ; as the Dhansiri valley
route was impossible and the country depopulated,
Maibong, now a small station on the Assam-Bengal
Railway, lies a few miles north of the civil station of
Haflong, and by the end of the sixteenth century had
become a town of considerable size and strength ac-
cording to old accounts, and from what remains for us
to judge by, namely traces of what were strong walls,
gateways, temples, etc. One curious rock-cut temple
has a record cut into the stone showing the sacred
edifice to have been made about 1721 in the reign of
Chandra Narain. In the beginning of the seventeenth
century the Kacharis were still in possession of the north
of Nowgong district, where it borders the Brahmaputra
valley, and to the south of the same along the Jamuna
and Kopili valleys where stood the once flourishing
towns of Raha, Doboka, Demera ; and they had also
long since been the dominant power in the Cachar
plains (Surma valley), where they had driven back

II HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM . 17

the original occupants, the Tippera people. They
now tried their strength against the adjoining strong
hill tribe, the Jaintias, whose Raja was defeated and his
capital, Khaspur, taken. A few years later, namely
in 1606, trouble again occurred with the Ahoms and
the two forces met at Dharmtika, where the Ahom
king, Pratap Sing, was successful, but later received
a signal defeat at Raha near Nowgong ; after which
he withdrew his forces owing to fears of an approach-
ing Mahomedan invasion. A more or less peaceful
period then set in for the Kacharis lasting some ninety
years, when in 1696 Rudra Sing, one of the greatest
of the Ahom monarchs, made war upon the Kachari
king, Tamradhoj, who had proclaimed his independ-
ence, and sent an army of 37,000 up the Dhansiri
to Dijoa, and another of 34,000 via Raha and the
Kopili valley. The objective of each was Maibong,
the capital, and both forces had to make their own
roads through the forest as they advanced. The
former force having defeated the Kacharis at Dijoa
(now Mohan Dijoa on the north-eastern edge of the
Mikir hillg^), reached Maibong first, and in a pitched
battle crushed Tamradhoj 's forces and captured the
city, demolishing its walls and defences. The Raha
army having had enormous difficulties to contend with
in cutting its way through dense forests arrived late,
but was used to continue the war into Cachar, having
Khaspur city as its objective. Much sickness in his
army, and finding great difficulty in the matter of food
supplies, caused Rudra Sing to give up the attempt
and withdraw his troops. The Jaintias never having
got over their defeat by the Kacharis, began trouble
in 1705, and after a series of small actions their Raja

i8 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

managed by treachery to seize the person of Tam-
radhoj, who appealed for aid to his old enemy the
Ahom Rudra Sing. This was replied to by the sending
of two Ahom columns through the Jaintia country in
1707, one of which got through the hills, defeated
the Jaintia forces, and occupied the city of Jaintiapur
on the south side of those hills. Both the Raja of
Jaintia and his prisoner Tamradhoj were taken, sent
toBishnath,nearTespur, on the Brahmaputra, and both
Kachari and Jaintia countries came under Ahom rule.
The Jaintia people, girding under the Ahom yoke,
rose two years later, and at first had some successes
against the small Ahom forces left in the hills, until
the garrison at Demera, in the upper Kopili valley,
managing to co-operate with the troops left to hold
Jaintiapur, the Ahoms overcame all resistance and
finally ended the campaign in a drastic manner with
a great massacre at, and the destruction of the city
of Jaintiapur. A little later Rudra Sing released his
two royal captives at a big durbar held at Salagarh,
opposite to Bishnath, and allowed them to return to
their own States, which, however, remained feudatory
to the Ahoms. Exhausted by this last war, the Kacharis
enjoyed a period of peace for nearly a hundred years,
until, in 1803, the great Moamaria rebellion in upper
Assam having started against Ahom rule, the Kacharis
were induced to side with the rebels, hoping thus to
regain their old independence. A desultory war
dragged on for two years, until the Kacharis were
severely beaten in a pitched battle at Doboka, on the
Jamuna river, and retired to Maibong and Cachar till
1817, when irruptions of the Manipuris under their
Raja Manjit practically placed the following year the

II HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

19

whole of Cachar and its hill district under Manipuri
domination. But only for a short time, for these in
their turn were in 1819-20 ousted by the Burmese,
who, conquering the State of Manipur, soon had
Cachar in their hands, which they held till their
aggressions generally at Rangoon, as well as in Assam,
caused the English to declare war upon them, and
their ejection from Assam speedily followed. The
first visit to Khaspur, in Cachar, of any Englishman
at all events any one of note, is that recorded in 1763
by Mr. Verelst from Bengal, who later became
Governor-General ; while the first recorded hostility
between the British and the people of this locality,
namely the vicinity of Cachar, was that which took
place between a detachment of the Honourable East
India Company's troops from Dacca and the Jaintia
Raja's forces at a place twenty-one miles north-north-
east of Sylhet. The Kacharis, as a nation, have
now dwindled into the agricultural communities dwell-
ing in Cachar and scattered about upper Assam ;
while Maibong and the North Cachar hills, so long
their home and capital, have relapsed into ruins and
jungle, except in the lower reaches of the Jetinga
valley, which are now covered with flourishing tea
gardens.

The legendary history of Kamarupa, as Assam was
called by the ancients, perpetuated in the nameKamrup
a district on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, would
show the Hindu Khettri conquerors having dominated
it and having in their turn given way to the Pal
dynasty, and we are brought to the first authentic
information to hand of this country by the Chinese
traveller, Huien Tsiang, in 603 a.d. This has been

c 2

20 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

touched on before, so we begin the history of the
great Kocch tribe at the rise of one Shankaldip, a
Kocch chief, as we have the statements of a Hindu
historian and the poet Firdusi, which give a better
semblance of facts than do the legendary ideas of Bisoo,
whom local tradition asserts to be the founder of this
dynasty. Shankaldip rose to power in the middle of
the fifth century, and when Huien Tsiang visited
Assam the kingdom of Kamarupa apparently extended
from the Karatoya river, near Julpigori, as far as Sadiya
along the north bank of the Brahmaputra, where, it
seems, the Kocch people lived amicably with the
Chutiyas, who even then may have been deteriorating
from having been once a powerful community. Bryan
Hodgson, in his work on the Kocch and Bodo people,
states that these were the most numerous and powerful
aborigines in north and north-western Bengal, and the
only ones who, after the Aryan ascendancy had been
established, were able to retain political power or
possession in the plains. A translation of the Yogini
Tantra shows these people to be spoken of as Mleccha
or aborigines. One Hajo, he states, founded the great
Kocch kingdom in the latter part of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and his successors reigned for almost 200 years.
Hajo, having no sons, married his daughter to a Mecch
(Bodo) chief, thus uniting the aborigines and forming
the Kocch dynasty, which was eventually able to with-
stand invasion by the Moslems, Bhootanese, and the
Ahoms ; the latter holding sway then in upper Assam,
while the Kocch held lower and middle Assam. Later
Kocch rulers, however, cast oflt the Bodo alliance and
began to look with greater favour on the creeds and
customs of the Aryans than on their older religion of

II HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 21

nature, namely, the worship of stars and terrene
elements. They eventually took to Hinduism, calling
their country Behar, and declaring themselves to be
Rajbansis. This change only affected the higher and
wealthier grades of society, the masses, strange to say,
mostly adopting Mahomedanism. What may have
been the condition of the Kocch in the palmy days
of Hinduism cannot now be ascertained, but it is
certain that after the Moslem had succeeded the Hindu
suzerainty, this people became so important that a
Mahomedan historian, Abdul Fazul, could allude to
Bengal as being " bounded on the north by the Kocch
kingdom," which, he adds, " includes Kamarupa."
In 1773 this Kocch Raj was absorbed by the Great
Company. Bryan Hodgson says, in speaking of their
character, that they display no military or adventurous
genius, but are better suited to the homely, tranquil
affairs of agriculture. It is chiefly from old Moghul
records of bygone invasions that any knowledge is
arrived at of the Kocch people, plus lists of names of
kings recorded on copper plates up to the beginning
of the thirteenth century ; and the earliest of these
invasions was that of Mahmoud Bakhtiyar, who,
desiring to conquer Thibet and deeming an easier
route there to lie through the Bhootan hills, led an
army in 1198 through the western end of Kamarupa
unopposed. When he had penetrated into the hills
some sixteen marches, difficulties of supplies set in ;
he met the Thibetans in force, was beaten back, and
had to conduct a disastrous retreat with the Kocch
people now in arms harassing his flanks and cutting
off supplies. Mahmoud eventually, with a small
following, reached Dinajpore, the rest of his army

22 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

having perished. In 1253 Gyasuddin, a Moghul
governor of Bengal, is said to have entered and tra-
versed Kamarupa almost to Sadiya, but was eventu-
ally beaten back and had to retreat to Gaur. Twenty-
five years later a Moghul noble, Tugril Khan, entered
the Kocch country, but was almost immediately killed
in battle, and his force dispersed ; while in 1337,
another Moghul invasion took place in the reign of
Mahomed Shah Tughlak, which did not advance far
into the country before it too suffered a series of
defeats, and was almost entirely annihilated. The
Moghul historian Ferishta's account of this invasion
of China which, passing through Cooch Behar,
attempted the passage of the Bhootan hills, runs as
follows : " Having heard of the great wealth of China,
Mahomed Tughlak conceived the idea of subduing
that empire ; but in order to accomplish his design
it was necessary to first conquer the country of
Hemachal (Nepal) and Thibet lying between the
borders of China and India. Accordingly in 1337 he
ordered a force of 100,000 men to subdue this moun-
tain region under his sister's son, Khoosroo Mulk, and
to establish garrisons as far as the border of China.
When this was effected he proposed to advance in
person with his whole army to invade that empire.
Nobles and state councillors in vain assured him that
the troops of India never yet could, and never would,
advance a step within the limits of China, and that
the whole scheme was visionary. The king insisted
on making the experiment, and the army was put in
motion. Having entered the mountains, small forts
were built on the road to secure communications, and
proceeding in this manner the troops reached the

II HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 23

Chinese border, where a numerous army appeared to
oppose them. The numbers of the Indians were at
this time greatly diminished, and being much inferior
to the enemy they were struck with dismay, which was
only increased when they realised their distance from
home, the rugged nature of the country they had
passed, the approach of the rainy season, and the
scarcity of provisions which was now badly felt. With
these feelings they commenced their retreat to the foot
of the range of hills, where the mountaineers, rushing
down upon them, plundered their baggage, and the
Chinese army also followed them closely. In this
distressing situation the Indian troops remained seven
days, suffering greatly from famine. At length the
rain began to fall in torrents and the cavalry were up
to the bellies of their horses in water. The rains
obliged the Chinese to move their camp to a greater
distance, and gave Khoosroo Mulk some hopes of
effecting his retreat ; but he found the low country
completely inundated, and the mountains covered with
impervious woods. The misfortunes of the army
seemed to be at a crisis ; no passage remained to them
for retreat but that by which they had entered the
hills, and which was now occupied by the mountain-
eers. So that in the short space of fifteen days the
Indian army fell a prey to famine, and became the
victims of the king's ambition. Scarcely a man re-
turned to relate the particulars excepting some of those
left behind in the garrisons below, and the few of those
troops who evaded the enemy did not escape the more
fatal vengeance of the king, who ordered them to be
put to death on their return to Delhi." Mahomed
later sent another army to avenge the loss of the first ;

24 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

but its officers on arrival at the Kocch confines flatly
refused to cross the border into a " land of witchcraft
and magic." This all goes to prove that the Kocch
people were a powerful nation and well versed in the
arts of war of those times ; but beyond these bare
military records of the Moghuls we can get at no
detailed information of these people till the reign of
Nar Narain, who flourished from 15 15 on. This king,
who reigned fifty years, an exceptionally long time for
an Asiatic ruler, built what is now Cooch Behar in
substitution for the old city of Kamatapur, which had
been destroyed by the later Moghul invasions ; and
in 1546 began the long series of wars against the
rising power of the Ahoms in the extreme east of
upper Assam. Minor struggles had occurred between
the two peoples from 1332, but with Ahom power
now established, matters took a far more serious turn.
With the aid of his famous general, Silarai, the Ahoms
were worsted on the Dikrai river and at Koliabar (in
Nowgong district) ; and the following year Silarai
captured Narainpur on the north bank of the Brahma-
putra, and Nar Narain completed the great raised
roadway of 350 miles, called the Kamali Alii, connect-
ing this town, where a fort was being built, with Cooch
Behar, many parts of which are still in existence and
use. Major Hannay is of opinion, however, that a
road had existed ages before Nar Narain's reign,
w^hich connected the old cities east of Sadiya with the
more flourishing western districts of upper Assam,
and by which pilgrims were able to visit the sacred
shrines of " Tamasari Mai " and " Bora Bhoori "
near Sadiya. In 1562 Nar Narain again attacked the
Ahoms with such success that he captured their capital

II

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

25

Garhgaon, in the neighbourhood of the present Sib-
sagor, and retired to his own province with an immense
amount of loot. Six years later the western part of
the Kocch kingdom was invaded by the Moghuls
under Suleiman Kararani, and Nar Narain's forces
sustained several crushing defeats. Gauhati, then a
large, flourishing city on both banks of the Brahma-

1

i

^^

1

i

W^

«•

^d

B

^d^riU

II^H

H

"Umanand" or Peacock Island opposite Gauhati.

putra, was taken and looted, while a notorious Brahmin
renegade, one of Suleiman's suite, namely Kala
Pahar, was allowed to work his iconoclastic tend-
encies on the ancient Kamakhya and other famous
temples, which he more or less demolished. Some
years later these were rebuilt by Nar Narain. In
1578 this king, deeming it well to be on good terms
with the Moghul power, sent an embassy with presents
as far as Agra, where it was well received by the

26 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Emperor Akhbar. Nar Narain's reign saw the rise
of a new form of Hindu religion preached by a re-
former, Sankar Deb, whose tenets were based on a
purified Vishnuism, which it was hoped might sup-
plant the Tantric form of Hinduism, for ages the
prevailing religion among the Kocch people. The
subject of religion will be dealt with later. In the
next reign, which brings us up to the end of the six-
teenth century, we see the Kocch dominions comprise
the country from the Karatoya to the Sankosh rivers
and the districts now known as Kamrup and Mangaldai
on the north bank, together with Goalpara and Mymen-
sing on the south bank of the Brahmaputra ; and that
their ruler must have been powerful is shown in the
*' Akhbarnamah " of that time, when King Lakshmi
Narain declares himself to be a vassal of the Moghul
Emperor, and wherein it is stated the Kocch king's
forces numbered 40,000 horse, 200,000 foot soldiers,
700 elephants, and 1,000 ships. In the legends connect-
ing one Bisoo as the originator of the Kocch kings it
is said that he, at the height of his prosperity, caused
a census to be taken and found that he had over
5,000,000 men fit to bear arms. This, though, of
course, unreliable, together with the authentic in-
formation of the " Akhbarnamah," gives a good idea
of the populous state of this country — only a part of
Assam ; more especially when one compares it with
the census of 1901, which showed that the entire popu-
lation of the Assam valley was only a little over two
and a half millions. In 1612, as the result of a quarrel
between the Kocch king and the Nawab of Dacca,
the latter crossed the Karatoya with a force of 6,000
horse, 11,000 foot, and a fleet of 500 ships on the

II HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 27

Brahmaputra filled with soldiers, and laid siege to
Dhubri, which would seem to have been an important
and well-defended place in those days, for it held out
against this force for a month. Shortly after this, the
Kocch king dying, opposition in his country ceased,
and the Mahomedans annexed in the name of the
emperor Jehangir the country up to the Bar Naddi,
which flows through the present Mangaldai district,
with the exception of the country between the Kara-
toya and Sankosh rivers, to which the Kocch kings
were now restricted, until by the middle of the eigh-
teenth century this too had come under Mahomedan
rule. It eventually passed into British possession in
1765 on Bengal falling into English hands, and the
present small State of Cooch Behar represents all that
is left of the once powerful Kocch kingdom.

CHAPTER III

We now come to the last of the three great powers
in upper Assam, who being a more or less literate
people, have given us through their well connected
historical records, or " buranjis " written in the Pali
character, the clearest knowledge of doings in that
country, whether touching on the Kocches, Kacharis
or Moghuls, during their 600 years of power. As
mentioned before, the Ahoms, whose " h " softened
to " s," has given us the name " Assam," were non-
Buddhist Shans, by religion pagans and demon wor-
shippers, who, trekking west from their own country,
of which Mogoung, in upper Burma, was the capital,
in the early part of the thirteenth century reached the
eastern extremity of the Brahmaputra valley and
formed settlements in the Namrup locality on the
Dihing river. Their immediate neighbours were then
the Chutiya tribe, who ruled the country east of the
Subansiri river, and the Moran tribe, between the
Dikkoo and Dihing rivers. With the latter they soon
came into conflict, and by 1236 the Ahoms had estab-
lished themselves at and around Abhaypur, while
twenty years later saw them in occupation of the
country near Charaideo, which they made their
capital ; and which, in spite of its removal later on to

CH. Ill HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

29

Garhgaon, for several hundred years was a place of
importance and sanctity to the Ahom kings, many of
whom were buried there, while the heads of
conquered chiefs and notables were invariably in-
terred on Charaideo hill. A similar custom obtained
amongst the Manipuris and the Tangkul Nagas who
both, up to modern times, buried their enemies' heads
in special localities. By the end of the thirteenth
century they had been much strengthened by a fresh

The Dibong where it leaves the Hili.s.

trek of emigrants from across the Patkoi range and
had come into conflict with the Kachari people, whose
north-eastern border was the Dikkoo river. Fifty
years later saw the commencement of the long con-
tinued series of struggles between the Ahoms and
Kocches . In 1 3 80 they crushed the Chutiya power across
the Brahmaputra, and a few years later changed the
capital from Charaideo to Charguja, near the Dihing
river, which brought about hostilities with the Tipam
tribe, whose lands they now occupied. The first

30 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Ahom record of Mahomedan efforts in the direction
of upper Assam is in 1401, which shows how far west
the Ahoms were then dwelhng, when the Moghul
forces, coming up by river, reached Kohabar nearly
opposite Tezpur, where they met the Ahom forces,
and being defeated there on land and water, were
pursued to far below Goalpara. The end of this
century saw the defeat of the Kacharis on the Dikkoo
at Dampuk, and the early part of the sixteenth century
the subjugation of the Chutiya tribe and the annexa-
tion of their country, after severe fighting near Sadiya
and at Kaitara hill, said to be in the vicinity of the
mouth of the Dibong river. By now the Ahoms had
consolidated their power in what is now Lakhimpur
on the north, and as far west as Golaghat on the south
bank of the Brahmaputra. In 1526 the Ahoms drove
back the Kacharis who objected to the building of the
strong fort at Marangi (Moriani }) almost on their
borderland, and ascending the Dhansiri river they
fought two successful engagements at Bardua and
Maiham (unidentified) when the Kacharis gave in.
The following year saw^ the Ahoms defeating another
Mahomedan invasion near Duimunisila, where a fort
was built and garrisoned. In this fight is the first
record of weapons other than what were then generally
used, namely, bows and arrows, spears, axes, etc.,
when forty Moghul cannon were captured. Five
years later found the Ahoms not only successfully
beating the Kacharis in the Dhansiri valley and
dictating terms at their capital of Dimapur, but also
repelling another Moghul invasion below Koliabar,
which led to their placing a large garrison as low
down as Singiri, a little north of Gauhati on the north

Ill HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 31

bank and close to the Kocch border. This period appears
to have been one of little peace and rest for the Ahoms
who next year, 1532, had again to withstand an in-
vasion by Turbak Khan, a Moghul noble, who with
a large fleet sailed up the Brahmaputra to Singiri,
where he defeated the Ahom army which retired to
Salagarh on the south bank. Turbak again success-
fully attacked Salagarh and moved further east ;
when luck turning, favoured his enemy. The Ahom
king sending large reinforcements by land and river
was at last successful ; and in a heavy battle again at
Duimunisila Turbak's forces were defeated, he him-
self killed, and his head, as was customary, sent for
burial on Charaideo hill. The beaten and disorganised
forces were pursued by the victorious Ahoms through
Kocch territory to the Karatoya river. At the Dui-
munisila fight the recorded Mahomedan losses were
over 2,500 men, twenty-two ships, and many big
guns ; so that with the losses in the pursuit the
Moghul casualty list must have been a long one ;
while the booty that fell to the pursuers is stated to
have been twenty-eight elephants, a great number of
guns and matchlocks, with a quantity of gold and
silver ornaments and utensils. It is now that we find
the Ahoms taking to fire-arms and utilising the
numbers captured from the Moghuls in preference
to bows and spears. It is supposed that they were
taught their use and the rough manufacture of powder
by their Mahomedan prisoners, and certainly by the
time of Mir Jumla's famous invasion of a century
later, or about 1662, they were proficient in the art
of forging iron for cannon, of making excellent
powder, and of intelligently using the same ; which

32

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

is vouched for by the old time French traveller,
Tavernier. It is in 1536 that the Ahom " buranjis "
first mention trouble with any of the wild hill tribes

A Trans Dikkoo Naga in War Paint and one from
Tabhlung.

who inhabit the mountains which hem in upper
Assam, and we now find the Khamjang, Namsang,
and Tabhlung Nagas raiding into the plains and
standing up to the trained Ahoms in fights, in one of

Ill HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 33

which the two latter tribes not only inflicted severe
loss but captured several guns before they finally sub-
mitted. This argues a higher form of bravery and
fighting to what we are accustomed to find in these
wild tribes, and also that their village communities
must have been far more powerful than those of the
present day ; for these three tribes are well known,
the head villages of Namsang and Tabhlung lying
only a few miles east and south of our present military
police outpost of Tamlu in the Naga hills, where the
Dikkoo river makes its exit from the mountains. A
year later the Ahoms are found defeating the Kacharis
in the Doyang and Dhansiri valleys, and sacking their
ancient capital of Dimapur. The destruction of this
and their heavy losses took all heart out of the Kachari
people, who, as we have seen before, evacuated the
Dhansiri valley and formed a new capital at Maibong
in what is now called the North Cachar hills. For
what reason the Ahoms never occupied this part of
Kachari territory is not known, but as it was quite
depopulated by war it soon relapsed into a jungle too
heavy perhaps for the conquerors to cope with ; and
so it developed into the dense Nambhor forest, gradu-
ally covering and blotting out all evidences of Kachari
towns, roads, etc., which had been their pride and
home for hundreds of years. This reign, namely that
of Siikmungnung lasting forty-two years, was long and
eventful. It was notable for successful military opera-
tions which ended in the subjugation of the Chutiyas
and Kacharis, w^hile three Moghul invasions were
repulsed. The social condition of the people was
also considerably attended to, and artisans from
Bengal imported to teach arts and crafts, while fire-

34 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

arms were also introduced. This latter fact is all the
more remarkable and interesting seeing that, 120 years
before, artillery and hand guns had not emerged from
their very elementary condition in Europe, and indeed
were only beginning to be generally used in war about
the middle of the fifteenth century. The official
capital was in this reign moved to Garhgaon not far
from Sibsagor, and about 1552 the big tank there was
excavated by the Ahom king, Sukhlemning, who also
was the first to strike coins, and who also built the
raised roadway called the Naga AUi, running from
the Baralli to the Naga hills. The year 1546, as we
have seen before, found the Ahoms at war with Nar
Narain, the most powerful monarch in this part of
India, and the Kocch arms at first very successful ;
but later, the Ahoms getting the upper hand, the
war subsided owing to the exhaustion of both forces.
Before the sixteenth century was out the Ahoms had to
deal with an invasion by the Kocch king, Nar Narain,
who successfully captured the strong Ahom positions
at Boka, Salagarh, and Handia, chiefly by means of
a strong fleet on the river. The occupation of their
capital Garhgaon by Nar Narain, caused the Ahoms
to cede Narainpur on the north bank to the Kocches,
who closed the war and hurried back to repel a Moghul
invasion in which, being unsuccessful, Nar Narain re-
leased all the Ahom hostages, hoping thereby to gain
their friendship and alliance. This, however, did not
come off", as the Ahoms were too busy in dealing not only
with the Chutiya people, who were once more in revolt,
but also with the Nara Raja of Mayankwan, beyond
the Patkoi range. The seventeenth century opened
for this nation in further trouble with the Kacharis,

Hi HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 35

and severe actions took place at Dharmtika and Raha,
involving heavy losses on both sides ; at the latter
place the Ahoms being severely beaten. A few years
later, namely in 161 5, the Moghul governor of Bengal
despatched Aba Bakr w^ith a force of 10,000 troops
and 400 ships against the Ahom king. These arrived
in due time at Hajo, a few miles from the river on its
north bank and opposite Gauhati without opposition ;
and making Hajo their base they advanced to meet
their enemies on the Bharali river. After a stiff
encounter Aba Bakr was victorious ; but failing to
reap the full advantage of his success by pursuing
vigorously, the Ahom king was able to send up large
reinforcements. The battle was renewed. Aba Bakr
killed, and his force driven back on Hajo. Here the
Ahoms were joined by various petty Rajas and their
following, all anxious to be rid of the Mahomedan
invaders. These managed to capture the Moghul
position at Pandoo,near Gauhati, while the main Ahom
army was hemming in the Moghuls at Hajo. After
six weeks a battle was brought on by the Ahoms,
ending in the complete discomfiture of the invaders
and their dispersal with heavy loss ; the latter includ-
ing many horses, cannon, and cattle, which fell into
the victors hands. Twenty years later the Maho-
medans were again at Hajo with the friendly con-
nivance of the Kocches, and as their presence caused
continual friction in this part of the country, the
Ahom king, Pratap Sing, was induced to declare war
on them; when, after defeating them at Niubihan
he invested Hajo. In other parts of the district,
namely, at Pandoo and Srighat, Ahom troops were
not so successful ; but more men and ships arriving,

D 2

36 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

the Moghuls were driven from Pandoo and almost
annihilated at Sualkuchi, on the north bank, a little
below Pandoo, 300 ships and many cannon and match-
locks being captured. Curiously enough, the Ahom
records of this fight make the first mention of any
European being in Assam, when amongst their pri-
soners they found a Feringhi, but of what nationality
is not known. Ralph Fitche, a merchant in Queen
Elizabeth's time, had visited Kamatapur, the Kocch
capital, but no European had gone further east.
Having cleared the Moghuls off the river, the Ahoms
concentrated for the assault of Hajo, which fell after
a desperate defence, when an immense amount of
loot, munitions of war, etc., were secured. Pratap
Sing, pursuing his advantage, continued his advance
down river, seizing all Mahomedan posts as far as
Goalpara. This continuance of success for the Ahoms
was not of long duration, for almost immediately the
Nawab of Dacca despatched a force of 12,000 men to
recover the territory thus lost to Bengal, and it was
not long before he captured a strong fort at Jogighopa,
near the mouth of the Manas river, from which he
secured the submission of the Goalpara country oppo-
site. The Ahoms, beaten at Jogighopa, drew off to
the foot of the Bhootan hills and awaited reinforce-
ments. These arrived duly, and with 40,000 men
they attacked the Moghuls in their camp at Bishenpur.
In the heavy battle that ensued Pratap Sing's troops
were beaten with the loss of over 4,000 men and several
generals. A later defeat in a naval action on the
Brahmaputra at Srighat, followed by the capture of
Pandoo and Gauhati, placed the whole of Kamarupa
for the time being at the Moghul disposal, whose

Ill HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 37

commander made his headquarters at Gauhati and
began to consoHdate his rule. The Kocches having
joined the Moghuls in this war, it was not long before
the Ahoms retaliated by attacking their troops on
the Bharali river, whom they pursued almost to
Gauhati. Here, as the resources of both belligerents
were almost down to nil after a war extending to
almost three years, peace was made ; and the Bar
Naddi, running into the Brahmaputra opposite Gauhati,
became the eastern boundary of Mahomedan posses-
sions. This brings one to the end of King Pratap
Sing's reign, as he died in 1641, after thirty-eight
eventful years, during which two great wars had been
conducted against the Kacharis and the Moghuls,
although not always with uniform success to the
Ahoms. Great attention had been paid to internal
organisation, markets were established and trade
fostered. Buildings of masonry and of a permanent
nature were erected, notably at Abhaypur, Mathu-
rapur, and Garhgaon, the latter being fortified and
having a palace built in its centre, the ruins of which
are still visible. The Ahom capital Garhgaon is
described in the " buranjis " of that time as being
" of great size with the palace in the centre, the city
was surrounded by a well-raised solid embankment
serving instead of customary fortifications, and on the
top of which ran a roadway. In this embankment
were four masonry gates each three kos (a kos is one
and a quarter miles) from the palace, which again was
defended by a deep ditch and stockade work of great
strength. The palace was of masonry, and the
audience hall therein is said to be 120 cubits by 36
cubits." Of the state of the country in this part of

.54501 6

38 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Assam at this period it is described as being " on the
north bank {i.e., what is now north Lakhimpur)
more under cultivation than about Garhgaon, but
generally on the south bank as far down as Koliabar
were extensive fields and fine rice crops." Wild
elephants are said to have been exceedingly numer-
ous, 1 60 being caught in one drive in 1654. King
Pratap Sing also constructed many roads and tanks,
threw up the great Dopgarh embankment as a pro-
tection against Naga inroads, and developed backward
tracts. He built the forts at Samdhara, Safrai, and Sila,
while several stone bridges are believed to date from
his reign. This king, having been the first to be
converted to Hinduism, which occurred about 161 3,
later many nobles following his example. Brahmin
influence soon became powerful and many Hindus
from India were given high official posts. The
Ahom language was, however, still predominant.
Although no longer the official capital, Charaideo
maintained its sacred interest. Ahom kings wor-
shipped, buried the heads of the eminent persons
killed in battle on the hill overlooking Charaideo, and
were mostly buried there themselves. These tombs
were covered with large mounds, and the royal funeral
customs prescribed that the queen, certain guards,
slaves, and an elephant or a horse, should be buried
with deceased royalty. Some of these mounds have
been opened and from the spaces inside, bones and
ornaments found, it is conjectured the above customs
were really observed. The next fifteen years saw the
Ahoms worried by incursions of the Daphlas and
Mirris on the north bank of the Brahmaputra,
which were put down drastically and many of the

Ill HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

39

villages burnt ; while on the south bank the Lakma
Nagas in the hills south-east of Sibsagor, between the
Dilli and Dikkoo rivers, appeared to have been suffici-
ently strong to carry on a series of raids into the
plains and to seriously harass the Ahom troops sent
into the hills against them.

These particular Nagas were visited in February,
1900, by the Deputy Commissioner with a punitive
party, and were found to be anything but a war-like
people, j In 1658, owing to confusion arising in Bengal
consequent on the Emperor Shah Jehan's illness, the
Kocch people rose and made a supreme effort to throw
off the Moghul yoke under which for years they had
lain. The Ahoms were induced to join in this, and
while the Kocches overpowered the Moghuls in Goal-
para and southern Kamarupa, their allies proceeded
against and captured Hajo and Gauhati. Dissensions,
however, arising between the two allies, the Ahoms
attacked and drove the Kocches across the Sankosh
river, which joins the Brahmaputra at Dubhri, after
which they became masters of entire Assam. A
mastery which they only enjoyed four years, for 1662
saw the Moghul armies again in motion under Mir
Jumla, then Governor of Bengal, to recover the lost
territory. As this is the most famous of all Moghul
invasions it is deserving of more attention and in
greater detail.

CHAPTER IV

Mir Jumla, who was Moghul Governor of Bengal,
moved to Dacca where, with the Nawab, he organised
a force of 12,000 horse, 30,000 foot, and a large fleet
of boats ; and proceeding early in 1662 along the north
bank of the river, arrived at Dhubri, which the Ahom
troops vacated in favour of the strong fort of Jogighopa
at the mouth of the Manas river. The Moghul
strength was too much for the Ahom garrison of
12,000, who, after a short siege, cut their way out and
retired on Srighat and Pandoo on either side of the
Brahmaputra close to Gauhati, which were fortified.

On this Mir Jumla divided his army, sending one
wing over to the south bank while he with the other
proceeded along the north bank. His fleet of three
hundred boats, many of which were very large, styled
" Gharabs," so called from their swiftness, sombre
appearance of sail and hull, and from the Arabic
word " ghorab," a raven, and mounting fourteen
cannon and sixty to seventy soldiers, which records
state to have been in charge of European officers,
presumably Portuguese, proceeded up river between
the two wings, the whole presenting the most formid-
able array of force that had yet entered Assam. On
nearing the defile of the Brahmaputra below Gauhati

CH. IV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 41

Mir Jumla manoeuvred the Ahoms out of Pandoo and
Srighat and occupied Gauhati after the storming of
one small fort at Beltola. As the Ahoms had now
retired to Samdhara above Tezpur at the mouth of
the Bharali river, and to Simlagarh almost opposite
on the south bank, the Moghuls rested awhile at
Gauhati and reconnoitred. This resulted in Mir
Jumla bringing over the northern wing to the south
bank, the crossing being effected at Tezpur ; and with
his whole army and fleet moved against Simlagarh,
a large earthwork fort mounting many cannon. The
strength of the place precluded the possibility of a
direct assault, so it was regularly besieged. But after
a short siege Mir Jumla 's patience gave out on finding
his cannon produced no effect on the thick earth walls
— an experience which had its counterpart in Lord
Lake's and Lord Combermere's famous sieges of
Bhurtpore, — and he ordered the place to be stormed.
Had the Ahom troops been well led the Moghuls
could have been easily repulsed ; as it was the assault,
involving considerable losses, succeeded. The dis-
comfited Ahoms vacated Samdhara, not without, how-
ever, putting up a good fight at Koliabar on land and
river, where, losing nearly 200 ships and many men
and guns, a general retirement on Garhgaon the
capital, took place, pursued by the Moghul horse.
As it seemed to the Ahom king impossible to stop the
victorious advance of Mir Jumla, he vacated the
capital and retired first to Charaideo and thence to
Namrup on the Dilli river, the most easterly point
of the Ahom dominions. On the 17th of March, 1662,
Mir Jumla's army occupied Garhgaon, securing,
owing to the hasty retreat of the Ahoms, considerable

42 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

booty, namely, three lakhs of rupees in gold and
silver, 170 storehouses full of rice, and eighty-two
elephants. Here the army rested and again recon-
noitred ; but the rains setting in early brought the
commencement of trouble to the invaders. Garhgaon
proving unhealthy, Mir Jumla moved his army to
Mathurapur, near Charaideo, which stood on slightly
higher land, and there, after establishing certain posts
to overawe the surrounding country, the invaders
awaited the return of seasonable weather. But not
in peace ; for the Ahom king, realising the discomfort
and straits of his enemy, rallied his forces and directed
attacks against the Moghul posts with success ; for
these one after another were overwhelmed, obliging
Mir Jumla to concentrate all his force in and around
Mathurapur, where dysentery and fever soon began to
thin his ranks. Several Ahom attacks were with
great difficulty repulsed ; and news now reached Mir
Jumla to the effect that the Kocch people, hearing of his
trouble, had seized the opportunity of rising en masse
behind him and had overthrown all Moghul garrisons
which had been stationed on the north bank in Kama-
rupa. After the rains had cleared off, certain Moghul
reinforcements managed to reach him by river with
the serious news of a famine in Bengal, and that after
this no further supplies of any sort were possible from
that country. Mir Jumla was now ailing with fever,
and seeing any further stay in the country or success-
ful hostilities against the Ahoms to be impossible,
he concluded peace and began a retreat, which as it
went on was conducted in the greatest misery. It
had been Mir Jumla's intention to deal with the
rebellious Kocches on his way back, but his own

IV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 43

serious illness and discontent among his troops ren-
dered any attempts of this sort out of the question ;
and the shattered Moghul forces which had opened
the invasion so brilliantly reached the confines of
Bengal in March, 1663, Mir Jumla dying just before
Dacca was reached. The Indian campaigns in those
far off days seem always to have been conducted on
stupendous lines ; and the present day mind can
scarcely conjure up the spectacle of these great battles
in the neighbourhood of Gauhati and Tezpur, with
many thousands engaged and the river covered
with several hundreds of warships as well joining in !
How Mir Jumla marched and manoeuvred his forty
odd thousand troops by land is not stated, but con-
sidering there must have been thousands of camp
followers as well, the whole operations are indeed
wonderful, particularly so when compared with the
great difficulties we have always experienced in
moving a few hundred troops about Assam in all the
little border operations that have occurred since we
came on the scene there. Moghul writers at that
time speak of the river traffic and commerce on the
Brahmaputra as being very heavy, while the Ahom
war boats were numerous and all mounted cannon ;
which shows the condition of prosperity and strength
to which that nation had attained in the middle of
the seventeenth century. It would appear, how-
ever, that according to Mir Jumla's treaty of peace,
Moghul garrisons were left in Gauhati until the pay-
ment of the war indemnity had been settled in full
by the Ahoms, whose new king refused the demands
made by Firoz Khan to settle up completely. This
refusal started the war again in 1667, and an Ahom

44 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

army marched down both banks of the Brahmaputra
on Gauhati where, after one reverse on the Bar Naddi,
they succeeded in besieging both the Gauhati and
Pandoo garrisons, which gave in after a two months'
siege and much fighting. Many cannon fell into
Ahom hands. The remaining Moghul troops, retir-
ing on the Manas river, they were eventually sur-
rounded and cut up entirely, Firoz Khan being
captured with most of his officers. At Silghat and
Dikom, near Dibrugarh, are still to be seen two old
Moghul cannon taken in this campaign, with dates
and inscriptions on them. Aurangzeb, then emperor
at Delhi, naturally did not allow these successes of
the Ahom king, Chakradhoj, to pass unnoticed ; for
the year following he ordered one of his generals,
Raja Ram Singh, to fit out a force of 18,000 horse
and 30,000 foot to punish the Ahoms for the defeat
of his last army. These advanced from Bengal in
the open season of 1668, and en route were joined by
15,000 Kocch allies. Much fighting occurred in the
vicinity of Tezpur where at first the Ahoms were
beaten, but rallying a little got the upper hand and
forced the Moghul troops back on Hajo. In this
neighbourhood as well as on the Sessa river, success
varied between each side, until at the end of the
year both armies, wearied with their efforts, began
to negociate, and hostilities being suspended, Ram
Singh vacated Assam, having generally had the worst
of it. The year 1673 ^^^^ ^he Daphla tribes in revolt,
which was put down with some difficulty, and not
before one force of Ahoms was surrounded and
destroyed.

Chakradhoj 's reign, which ended late in 1673, ^^^

IV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 45

chiefly remarkable for the eviction of all Moghuls
from Kamarupa (or Central Assam), and the strong
fortifications erected by him at Gauhati on both sides
of the Brahmaputra. He also established several
foundries capable of turning out numbers of cannon
for his force. The next ten years were not those of
progress for the Ahoms, for the nation was distracted
by many internecine wars between members of the
nobility which impoverished the country. Seven
kings in this short period were set up and either
died or were murdered, and all was chaos until at
last a strong ruler, Gadardhar Sing, arose, who, how-
ever, only reigned nine years, in which time he was
successful in ridding his kingdom entirely of the
Moghuls and stipulating in the final treaty that the
Manas river should become the boundary between
the two countries. This left the Kocch country
entirely under Moghul suzerainty. He also put down
with drastic severity a number of Naga and Mirri
raids, built the picturesque temple on Peacock Island
opposite Gauhati, and made the two highways, the
Dhodar and Aka AUis, the former of which is still
in use between Jorhat and Charaideo, and still
further here and there. Religion in his reign did
not make for peace, for the Vishnubite sect were
getting too much power into their hands, which he
found necessary to reduce by continuous persecu-
tion. The system of land measurements as used by
the Moghuls was also introduced by him. Rudra
Sing, who succeeded Gadardhar and reigned eighteen
years, is generally regarded as the greatest of all
the Ahom kings, and rightly so, when we consider
what he accomplished ; namely, improvements in

46 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

communications through his country and the con-
struction of numerous masonry bridges, the erection
of brick buildings at Rangpur and Charaideo with
the aid of Kocch artisans, the conquering of the
Kacharis and Jaintias for good and all, the reception
of the submission of all hill tribes, the establishment
of extensive trade with Thibet, the importation of
artificers from Bengal, and the establishment of
intercourse with other nations to whom envoys were
sent. He also started the system of schools for
Brahmins, as in later life he became an orthodox
Hindu.

His trouble with the Kacharis began early in 1696,
and at the close of that year he equipped two armies
to settle the dispute. The strongest of 37,000 men
was sent against the Kachari capital, Maibong (in
the now North Cachar hills) via the Dhansiri valley,
to Mohun Dijoa ; the other army of 34,000 moved
via Raha in the Nowgong district up the Kopili
valley. The first force, after an action at Dijoa,
reached Maibong, and, defeating the Kacharis out-
side, captured the town and destroyed its walls and
defences. The second force, arriving late owing to
great difficulties in cutting its way through the dense
forest on the upper Kopili, was ordered to press on
through the hills to seize Khaspur, the next city of
importance to the Kacharis and which after this
became the capital, in the plains of Silchar. But
shortage of food and sickness breaking out in the
army, obliged Rudra Sing to content himself with
what he had so far achieved, and the Ahoms retired.
Nine years later the Kacharis got into difficulties
with their neighbours, the Jaintias, who occupy all

IV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 47

the hill country in the centre of which lies the
present station of Shillong ; and after several small
engagements the Jaintia Raja succeeded, through trea-
chery, in capturing Tamradhoj the Kachari king,
whose ministers appealed to Rudra Sing for assistance
against their enemies. The Ahom king, responding,
sent two forces against the Jaintias, one of which,
passing through the hills, occupied the capital, Jaintia-
pur ; the other column, having more opposition to
overcome, did not get as far. Tamradhoj was re-
leased, the Jaintia Raja taken prisoner, and Rudra
Sing now formally annexed the Jaintia and Kachari
countries to his own, leaving garrisons behind to
enforce his rule. As Tamradhoj objected to this
annexation he was kept a prisoner in the Ahom
camp, and, with the Jaintia king, was sent back to
Bishnath, a little above Tezpur. The Jaintia people,
aided in a small way by the Kacharis, made supreme
efforts to shake off Ahom rule during 1708, and at first
with some success, until the Ahom troops, stationed at
Demera in the upper Kopili valley, managed to co-
operate with those holding Jaintiapur on the south side
of the hills; and, with the loss of nearly 3,000 men
and twelve high officials, overcame resistance ; finally
restoring order after a great massacre at, and the total
destruction of Jaintiapur, where an immense amount
of loot was taken. There are Ahom records of their
losses in this war, showing the extent of their military
resources, from which we find that of the killed alone,
900 came from upper Assam, over 1,000 from Gau-
hati, and several hundreds from Sonapur and the
Dekeri country. This rebellion now crushed out,
Rudra Sing withdrew to Salagarh on the Brahma-

48 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap

putra opposite Bishnath, and while here held a
grand Durbar, to which Tamradhoj was first , called .
He was conducted across the river in the royal barge,
and on landing mounted an elephant with gold trap-
pings. Rudra Sing, surrounded by his nobles and
generals, received him in a magnificent " shamiana "
supported by gold and silver poles, whilst masses of
troops stationed around must have given an added
note of power to that of the magnificence of the
actual Durbar. Tamradhoj, dismounting, proceeded
to the royal presence on foot where, introduced by one
of the chief nobles who recited the circumstances
leading up to this occasion, the captured king
prostrated himself, and was immediately offered a seat
by Rudra Sing, who then received his complete
submission ; and shortly afterwards escorted by Ahom
troops as far as Demera where the escort was changed
for one from his own people, he reached Khaspur.

Rudra Sing then received Ram Sing, the Jaintia
king, in somewhat similar style, but, as his nobles
hesitated as to complete submission the proceedings
were not marked by the friendliness shown at the
first Durbar ; and before the nobles could be brought
to reason Ram Sing died of dysentery. Rudra Sing
dying in August, 1714, he was succeeded by his
son Sib Sing, whose reign, though long (some thirty
years), was uneventful, being disturbed only once by
the Daphlas. Under this king Hinduism became the
religion of the country ; but his queen, Phuleswari,
being under the strong influence of the Sakta Hindu
sect, she set her face against the Vishnubite section
(the so-called Moamaria) and ordered some of their
Gosains to be smeared at a Sakta shrine with the

IV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

49

blood of sacrificial victims. The insult was never
forgotten, and led to far-reaching and disastrous
results later on. From this reign, with its strong
religious tendencies, is to be traced the beginning
of the decay of the Ahom strength ; for the Brahmins
forbidding the free eating of meats and strong drinks,
their physique began to deteriorate, which has gone
on steadily ever since. Sib Sing is said to have com-
pleted surveys of all Ahom territory, and during his
reign is a record of the first visit of three English-
men to upper Assam, whose names are given as
Godwin, Lister, and Mill. The purpose of their
visit, which was in 1730, is not stated. The next
period of interest, namely 1765, is the Burmese in-
vasion of Manipur, and the call by that Raja on the
Ahom king, Rajeswari Sing, for aid. This was
responded to by the sending of a force to Manipur
from Charaideo through the hills ; but it was obliged
to turn back after it had got a little way in owing to
the difficulties of that part of the country. A second
force had, however, been assembled at Raha, and
this, proceeding through the Kachari country, reached
Manipur where the Raja was reinstated. Beyond
these bare facts there are no records as to the route
taken by the Ahoms, or of any collision between them
and the Burmese. The Ahom people had by now,
under several good kings, become very prosperous,
and had enjoyed considerable internal order ; but
there were not wanting signs of approaching decay
in the evaporation of old warlike instincts, while
continual religious sectarian disputes almost blotted
out anything like patriotic ideas.

In the next reign (Lukshmi Sing's) continuous in-

E

50 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM cii. iv

suits heaped by certain Ahom nobles on the Moamaria
Gosain, or Mahanta, caused the disaffection of that
sect towards the throne to become more pronounced,
while the cruel persecution of this large and powerful
sect drove them finally, in 1769, to open rebellion
headed by the Moamaria Gosain, whose son Bangan
collected their first formed body of fighting men,
and entered the district of Namrup in the extreme
east of Assam. Their first engagement with Lukshmi
Sing's troops was not successful, but later in the
year another leader, Ragha, led an insurgent body
down the north bank of the Brahmaputra and suc-
ceeded in defeating the royalist forces several times,
eventually capturing the Ahom king and some of his
nobles, these latter being instantly put to death.

The Moamaria Gosain now caused the son of the
Moran chief, Ramakant, to be raised to the throne ;
but this regime only lasted a short while, as the
royalist nobles, making a last effort to restore the
old administration, managed to capture Ragha, and
later Ramakant, who, with their families, were put
to death. Lukshmi Sing was released, reinstated,
and with this success followed a most rigorous per-
secution of the Moamaria. The Gosain and numbers
of his followers were captured ; and as the Ahoms
had always been notorious for their cruel and revolt-
ing forms of punishment, these people were killed
with indescribable tortures, ending with impalement.

CHAPTER V

The change of sovereign on the death of Lukshmi
Sing in December, 1780, did nothing to ameHorate
the situation, for Gaurinath Sing was also a bitter
enemy of the sect, and two years after his accession
a terrible massacre of Moamaria at Garhgaon led to
another prolonged revolt ; and with such success for
the sect, that in 1791 Gaurinath's troops having been
frequently beaten, and the Moamaria having set up
one of their own on the throne at Rangpur, Gaurinath
applied for assistance to the Jaintia and Kachari
Rajas, who declined help. Manipur being applied
to did send a force of 500 horse and 4,000 foot across
the Naga hills to Nowgong, whence they moved
against Rangpur ; but, being badly worsted, retired
to their own country. Manipur chronicles relating
this action show that many of their soldiers were
severely flogged and many deported for cowardice.
Kamarupa and upper Assam were now in a most
miserable plight ; all these years of fighting had
desolated the land for both belligerents ; villages
were burnt, crops destroyed, and now a famine
started. At this juncture Gaurinath bethought him
of the English who had held the districts of Goal-
para and Cooch Behar since 1765, when the whole

5' E 2

52

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

of the Moghul possessions in Bengal passed into
their hands. A Mr. Douglas administered Cooch
Behar, and Goalpara and Jogighopa forts were both
held by the English troops, Lieutenants Crump and
Lennon with a company of Sepoys each, being at the
latter places, all of which were under the jurisdiction
of the Commissioner of the English province of
Rangpur. At Goalpara the only civilian European
was a Mr. Rausch, a Hanoverian merchant dealing

The Barail Kan(;e, Anc.ami Country, Naua Hili.s.

in the salt trade, who knew the state of affairs,
and also that in the lawless state of the country gangs
of mercenaries were coming over from Bengal, taking
sides with either Ahoms or Moamaria, or were acting
on their own and terrorising the western end of Kama-
rupa. His representations backing up Gaurinath's
appeal to Mr. Lumsden, Commissioner of Rangpur,
reached Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General, who,
seeing the urgency of putting a period to this state
of anarchy along the English border, ordered a small

V HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 53

force into upper Assam to restore order and to re-
instate the Ahom king on his throne. To this end,
in September, 1792, Captain Welsh, with Lieutenants
WilHams, Macgregor as Force- Adjutant, and Wood
as Surveyor, with six companies of Native Infantry,
namely, three of his own battalion, the i6th Native
Infantry, at Barrakpore, and the others from the
19th and 24th Native Infantry at Berhampore, with
a British officer to each company, were despatched
by boat to Assam and reached Goalpara early in
December. A little further up the river Welsh was
joined by the fugitive Ahom king with a small follow-
ing, and he landed some eight miles west of Gauhati
which was entered unopposed. From here a message
was sent to Krishna Narain of Darrang on the north
bank, whose Bengali mercenaries were the chief cause
of disturbance in the west of Kamarupa ; and as he
declined to come in Welsh crossed the Brahmaputra
with 280 sepoys and attacked him in his position on
a fortified hill, whence he finally dislodged the large
gang with a loss to him of six killed, and captured
forty cannon. In this action despatches say Lieutenant
Macgregor greatly distinguished himself. A few days
later Lieutenant Williams, with three companies,
was sent into Mangaldai, where he succeeded in com-
pletely dispersing the enemy. On Welsh's return
to Gauhati, having settled that trouble, which, indeed,
on leaving Calcutta, was all that had been intended
for the gravity of the Moamaria rising had not then
been understood, Gaurinath begged him to assist in
eastern Assam where the rebellion was at its worst ;
and as Welsh now received a letter from Lord
Cornwallis telling him to act as seemed best until

54

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

more specific instructions could be given and cordi-
ally approving his conduct of affairs, Welsh remained
in Gauhati until definite information as to the Moa-
maria could give him a line of action to follow. His
presence was also requisite to back up Gaurinath's
position and authority, he being about the weakest
and most craven of all Ahom monarchs. The state
of affairs was duly communicated to Calcutta, which
took a long time in those days, and Krishna Narnain
having at last tendered his submission he took oath
of allegiance and was formally installed as Raja of
Darrang ; and Welsh having received a reinforcement
of six more companies from the i6th and 24th Native
Infantry, began his move into the eastern districts
in October, 1793. His progress was slow, pre-
sumably to establish friendly relations with the
people and to suppress the river banditti, his pro-
ceedings receiving Lord Cornwallis's approval. It was
well into February, 1794, before he neared Jorhat,
which had just been surrounded by the Moamaria
forces. On the nth of February, Lieutenant Mac-
gregor with a small detachment arrived near Jorhat
and sent forward a Soubedar with twenty men to
reconnoitre, he following with Lieutenant Wood and
fourteen Sepoys. They found the rebels attacking
Jorhat from the far side, and were moving to support
the Ahom garrison, when they were suddenly attacked
by 2,000 rebels. The little party remained firm in
spite of the odds against them, discipline and steady
firing saved the situation, and the enemy drew off,
leaving eighty dead behind. Macgregor's loss was
only six sepoys. Welsh now hurried up from Koliabar
and had his advance guard of two companies under

V HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 55

Lieutenant Irvine heavily attacked twelve miles from
Rangpur. Beating off his assailants, the force pushed
on, but was obliged to take up a defensive position
at the brick bridge over the Namdang river for a time.
Again driving off the Moamaria, Welsh occupied the
city of Rangpur after an action costing him two
killed and thirty-five wounded. This instance of a
small force attacking a large city some twenty miles in
extent furnishes a good example of the self-confidence
of and the risks willingly undertaken by the early
British forces and their officers in India. It is also
interesting to note that practically the last stand of
the Burmese in 1825 was made at this same Nam-
dang bridge near Rangpur, when Lieutenant Brooke
(who became Raja of Sarawak) won the battle by
his spirited charge with the irregular cavalry attached
to the Rangpur Levy (later the 42nd Assam Light
Infantry and now the 2nd/8th Goorkha Rifles).
An immense amount of loot in cattle, grain, and
treasure was secured in this city, which was sold,
and the money realised given in prize money to the
troops— the only action of Welsh's which was dis-
approved of by Lord Cornwallis, although it was
done with Gaurinath's full consent.

Welsh found Rangpur city to be most extensive,
upwards of twenty miles round, set in miles and
miles of country showing a high state of cultivation.
While here they saw a body of Manipur cavalry
which had just come to Gaurinath's aid in ignorance
of Welsh's successful operations. Which route they
travelled by is not stated, but it shows that there
was a comparatively easy one through the hills be-
tween the two countries. Gaurinath had joined the

56 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

force by river on the 21st of March, and at a Durbar
held by Welsh, the latter asked whether his services
could now be dispensed with as the Ahom king's
power had been restored and his enemies dispersed.
The emphatic answer was that he could not be spared ;
and as the Moamaria were reported to be still in
some force at Bagmara not far off, Welsh detailed
three companies to move against them.

But a new Governor-General had recently suc-
ceeded Lord Cornwallis, namely, Sir John Shore,
who at once showed himself as a " peace at any
price " man by putting an end to Welsh's useful
presence in Assam, and ordering a cessation of all
military operations and a return to India. Orders
to this effect were received as the detachment was
about to start for Bagmara, so an opportunity for
further successful action was missed.

In Welsh's report to Government in February,
1794, in which he explains the condition the country
is in, what he has effected and still hopes to effect,
appears a series of replies to questions by the Secre-
tary to Government ; and to one where the subject
of withdrawing from the country is queried, Welsh's
answer is most emphatic. He says : " If we leave
the country now the contest for influence, power,
and independence would revive amongst the first
officers of State, dependent rajas, and chiefs of dis-
tricts and towns. The same confusion, devastation,
and massacre would ensue. Assam would experience
a state of desolation greater in proportion to the
temporary restraints which British influence has now
imposed on the inhumanity of the monarch, on the
ambition and resentment of the chiefs, and on the

V HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 57

vengeance of the people. Obnoxious ministers and
favourites would immediately be restored to their
offices. Every individual who had been observed
to cultivate British friendship would flee the country,
in well grounded apprehension of destruction by the
ministers or their connections. Commerce would
again be suppressed by the confusion that would
prevail in the country ; and the monarch, whose
person is too sacred for assassination, would pro-
bably be compelled to abandon his kingdom."

In another part of his letter he states : "It appears
to me that the British Government should continue
its mediating and controlling influence, as the only
means of preserving order and tranquillity." His
urgent representations and the appeal of Gaurinath
for the retention of Welsh and his troops whose
work he cordially appreciated, were of no avail ; and
an order reached Welsh to return to Bengal by the
I St of July. The Assam monarch might well appraise
the work of this officer and those with him, for Welsh
and his little force had succeeded admirably. By
his tact, judgment, and firmness, he had brought
about a restoration of order and the punishment of
all marauding gangs ; further, he had attained the
confidence of all and had put down corrupt officials.
His troops had, in fact, achieved wonders in the face
of overwhelming odds and obstacles.

During the operations round Rangpur, Lieutenant
Creswell, left in command at Gauhati, had been
obliged to cross the Brahmaputra with two com-
panies, the 27th and one of the i6th Native Infantry, in
order to break up a large gang who were terrorising
the Darrang district. A severe but successful fight

58 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

ensued near Culihi, wherein our losses were heavy,
namely, twenty-one killed and wounded, including
Lieutenant Creswell, who succumbed next day to his
wound. But this action broke up the gangs of
banditti and cleared Kamrup and Darrang of their
presence. In May, 1774, Welsh and his force com-
menced their retirement out of the country ; and
at the start seized one opportunity of inflicting severe
punishment on the Moamaria who threatened him
in force, 4,000 strong, at the Darika river. Welsh
crossed the neighbouring Dikkoo river and attacked
the hostile position vigorously, dispersing them with
heavy loss. On the 30th of May he reached Gauhati,
where he was overwhelmed with petitions to remain
and continue in his good work. His account of this
old capital is interesting to those who know it in
these days, when little or nothing is to be seen of
its former grandeur. A little over a century ago he
found it a populous and large city on both banks of
the Brahmaputra with extensive commerce. A ram-
part ran along the river front on both banks, mount-
ing 113 cannon, while in the centre was a sort of
citadel — a large, oblong enclosure with brick walls
and surrounded by wet ditches. The city entrances
were through fine masonry gateways, while the forti-
fications of Pandoo, four miles off, guarded the
river approach from the west.

One hundred years later Mr. Macdonald says,
in his book on Kamrup : "Of the former glories
of Gauhati, whether under Hindoo, Ahom, or Bur-
mese rule, the only relics which remain are the
mounds and extensive lines of brick fortifications
which lie scattered along the Brahmaputra. Gate-

V HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 59

ways existing at the end of the eighteenth century
have now entirely vanished. A large proportion of
the soil in the surrounding cultivated fields is com-
posed of brick dust, mortar, and broken pottery ;
while carved stones and beautifully finished slabs,
the remains of once noble temples, are often found
beneath the surface. The numerous large tanks
attesting the command of unlimited labour possessed
by ancient rulers, are now choked up with weeds
and jungle." Looking down on this sea of decay is
the beautiful wooded Nilachal hill, crowned with
its group of famous temples, very ancient and much
revered still, the home of the old Tantric form of
the Hindoo religion, for centuries undisturbed and
dominant throughout Assam in olden days. In fact,
from the prodigious ruins of public works through-
out this country and the magnificent raised roads,
which we have seen were constructed in different
reigns, it is probable that this remote part of India
in ancient times enjoyed a superior form of govern-
ment to any it has since experienced, until taken
over by the English. Welsh and his force eventually
reached Bengal territory on the 3rd of July, but
they left behind them in the Ahom mind a realisa-
tion of what discipline and training means to troops,
for Gaurinath had secured the services of two of
Welsh's native officers, who, under heavy bribes,
elected to serve the Ahoms. Taking the pick of all
his best soldiery, Gaurinath dressed and equipped
them with flint-locks ; and with the aid of these
two officers trained them and maintained a standing
army, with which for some time he was able to hold
his own against the Moamaria. But all that Welsh

6o HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. v

had prophesied to Government was soon reahsed on
vacation of Assam by the British. The Moamaria
w^hen they once became aware of the fact that Welsh
had left for good, captured Rangpur, Gaurinath
fleeing to Jorhat ; confusion and chaos set in, sig-
nalised by the most brutal treatment of rebels when
caught, and also of those who had been befriended
by Welsh. The country was devastated by war and
vindictive retaliatory measures by either party, until
the death, in December, 1794, of Gaurinath — the
most incompetent and disreputable of all the Ahom
monarchs.

He was succeeded by Kamaleshwar, whose reign
of fifteen years was troubled by a rebellion in Kama-
rupa fostered by the Kocch ruler, who with the Raja
of Bijni moved troops into the district. With these
were bands of Punjabis and Mahomedans, and every
effort was made to seize this portion of the country.
Kamaleshwar 's more disciplined forces, however, put
down the rising and expelled the invaders. Mr.
Rausch (who was mentioned before) while trading on
the north bank was killed by a band of these Maho-
medans. As at this time the Daphlas showed signs
of joining the rebellion, Ahom troops were sent
into their hills, and the disaffection of this tribe was
dealt with in so drastic and ruthless a manner that
further trouble from them was rendered impossible.
In 1799 another serious rising of the Moamaria was
quickly quelled with much bloodshed, and in 1803
a short war with the Kachari king took place, which
ended in favour of the Ahoms in one battle at Doboka
on the Jamuna river.

CHAPTER VI

The next king came to the throne in 1810, and
finding himself unable to cope with the rebellious
Moamaria as well as with the continuous strife
amongst his chief nobles he proposed to follow the
Kocch Raja's recent example and become tributary
to the British, but the nobles and people objected
to such a procedure. The king (Chandrakant) had
in fact written to the Governor-General on the sub-
ject, who, however, declined to interfere. The dis-
tracted Ahom monarch now turned to Burma for
aid, and a force of 6,000 men was despatched from
that country in 181 6, gathering strength as it jour-
neyed across the Hukong country through being
joined by the chiefs of Manipur, Mayangkwan, and
Hukong. They reached Namrup and were attacked
at Ghiladari by an Ahom force under a noble who
was in rebeUion against the throne. The Burmese,
victorious, advanced through eastern Assam, pillag-
ing and laying waste the unhappy country till they
reached Jorhat. Here they reinstated Chandrakant
and his Prime Minister who had been fugitives ;
and with the payment of a large war indemnity the
Burmese retired over the Patkoi in 181 7. Two
years of ceaseless petty rebellions and strife followed

62 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

amongst the nobles, some of whom eventually de-
posed Chandrakant and set up Purandhar Sing
on the throne. Information of this was sent to
Burma, a fresh force was sent out from that country,
and this time when it reached Assam it had come to
stay, A successful engagement against Purandhar
Sing's forces led to the Burmese reinstating Chand-
rakant on the throne, but only as a puppet king,
for the entire country soon passed into the actual
rule of the invaders, whose commanders scoured
the districts, hunting down with merciless severity
the adherents of Purandhar who, however, escaped
into British territory. The Burmese applied for his
extradition, and this was refused. The following
year found Chandrakant quarrelling with the Burmese
authorities, whose troops, owing to difficulty in
supplies, were quartered all over the country, except
in the Sadiya district, which they appeared to have
left alone to the Hkamtis and Singphos who had
occupied it undisturbed for some years past. Chand-
rakant deeming this a favourable opportunity for
throwing off the yoke of the invaders, got together
a force and succeeded in regaining Gauhati. The
• next two years saw continuous fighting in which
sometimes the Burmese and sometimes the Ahoms
were successful. Finally the Burmese sent their
famous general Maha Bandula — the commander who
in 1825 opposed the British with such vigour at the
battle of Donabyu in lower Burma — across with re-
inforcements, and the Ahoms were utterly defeated
in a pitched battle at Mahgarh, losing 1,500 men.
Chandrakant fled to Bengal and Bandula sent in-
solent messages to the English officials saying he

VI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 63

would carry the war into their territory if the fugitive
was not given up. On this, additional British troops were
sent to Goalpara, Jogighopa, and other frontier out-
posts ; and all pointed to the coming end of a most
intolerable state of affairs in upper Assam.

The Burmese had by now ravaged the land from
end to end, a great massacre of the inhabitants of
Gauhati took place, life and property were never
safe, and the various savage hill tribes utilised the
state of confusion existing to harry the plains.

On the 5th of March, 1825, the first Burma war
broke out, and Maha Bandula was recalled to his
country to organise forces in lower Burma for repel-
ling the British advance. Orders from Calcutta
detailed a force of 3,000 sepoys with guns and an
armed flotilla to assemble at Goalpara under com-
mand of Colonel Richards, for the task of turning
the Burmese out of the Brahmaputra valley ; and
these on the 28th of March occupied Gauhati, the
enemy offering little or no resistance. Here in late
April Richards was joined by Mr. David Scott, who
had marched across the Jaintia hills from Cachar
with three companies of the 27th Native Infantry.
Desultory fighting took place in the vicinity of
Koliabar, to which place Richards advanced, and
which ended in his favour. Paucity of supplies
here however, constrained the British to return to
Gauhati for the rainy season ; and this over, a fresh
forward move was made, and the enemy were
manoeuvred out of Jorhat after several skirmishes.
At the end of January, 1826, Richards fought a
serious engagement at the Namdang river and pushed
on to the capital, Rangpur, which was now held in

64 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

strength by the Burmese. The defences of the
city were well arranged, formidable, and mounted
many guns. The 57th and 46th Native Infantry
attacked with some light field guns, and the right
wing of the former corps, leading the attack, being
heavily fired on, a number of sepoys fell and a tem-
porary check occurred, until Colonel Richards, with
Captain Martin, bringing up the whole of the re-
mainder of the column, the main stockades were
escaladed and two masonry temples occupied by
the enemy with cannon were captured with con-
siderable loss in wounded to the British troops,
amongst whom were Colonel Richards and Lieu-
tenant Brooke. This action dispirited the Burmese,
whose forces breaking up, a large number were
pursued and driven into the hills, while many threw
down their arms and settled quietly in Assam.
In June this year, the Burmese who had retreated
across the Patkoi range, finding the Singphos ready
to join them, returned and made a last effort against
Sadiya, but were worsted in an encounter at Bisa
by Captain Neufville with a wing of the 57th Native
Infantry, whose success was the means of libera-
ting some 6,000 Assamese captives. Between the
Burmese and Singphos, in the past five years it is
stated that upwards of 30,000 Assamese had been
enslaved and taken out of the country.

The Brahmaputra and the Surma valleys (Cachar)
had now been entirely cleared of the Burmese forces,
who were also ejected from Manipur by Raja Gam-
bhir Sing, and the unfortunate country now came
permanently under British rule, depopulated, starving,
and in the greatest misery. A writer on this country

VI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 65

in 1873, Mr. T. T. Cooper, remarks that " of all
countries bordering on India which have come into
British possession, there is none whose history is so
mournful as Assam, none wherein the mistaken
policy of the Indian Government in the last century
is recorded in more painful evidences. Had we
maintained a protectorate when Welsh restored order,
the country might have been saved."

With the expulsion of the Burmese the English
began to take up the difficult task of administering
the country, rendered all the more difficult as the
Burmese had removed old landmarks, and the people
were by now a mass of conflicting parties. Mr.
David Scott was at once appointed Agent to the
Governor-General of all the country up to the
Sadiya and Matak districts, near the present Dibru-
ghar, in the extreme east, with Colonel Cooper and
Captains Neufville and White to assist him. A
corps raised originally for service in Cuttack was
transferred now to Assam to strengthen the hands
of these officers. It became the Assam Light Infantry,
and was quartered first at Rangpur, and later at
Gauhati. The Chief of Matak (Moran) having shown
considerable ability, was left in charge of his own
district on his agreeing to pay tribute and to provide
a certain number of troops on occasion arising, and
this continued till 1842. Sadiya, which had been
overrun by the Hkamtis gradually since 1794, was
left to the jurisdiction of a man known as the Sadiya
Khowa Gohain, who agreed to furnish a force of
armed and drilled soldiers as a protection for the
border. In 1833, owing to immense extent of country
now in English hands which was not easy to administer,

66 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

it was decided to make over the portion from the
Dhansiri to the Dibru river to Purandhar Sing,
who was consequently reinstated ; while Mr. David
Scott, as first Commissioner of Assam, administered
the entire country from the Dhansiri river to the
confines of Bengal. The Assam Light Infantry
and certain Sebundy Corps (local levies) were dis-
tributed at prominent centres throughout the land,
a strong detachment being at Jorhat, Purandhar's
capital, and another at Sadiya under Colonel White,
the Political Agent to the Hkamtis and Singphos.
In 1835 disputes arose between the Khowa Gohain
and the chief of Matak over land, which caused
friction ; and this together with the stoppage of slave
trading and a fear of being taxed, produced a state
of discontent which burst into rebellion in January,
1839. Colonel White, placing too much confidence
on the illusive permanence of Hkamti allegiance,
was unprepared, and even had no guard over his
own house though warned of trouble, which came
on the night of the 28th of January. At 2 a.m. four
large bodies of Hkamtis, with a few Singphos,
suddenly attacked Sadiya at different points, firing
the houses and resolutely attacking the main stockade.
In a moment all was confusion and uproar, the
enemy using swords and spears to great effect.
Colonel White was killed while leaving his house
to join the troops, pierced by nine spear wounds,
and eighty odd men, women and children were
cut up before the officers got their men together
in groups, when discipline at last prevailed, the
stockade was retaken and the enemy pursued out of
the place. Next day several villages in the district

VI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 67

were attacked and destroyed by the Hkamtis, more
troops were hurried up from Jorhat, and the country
was now entirely taken over by the Government.
The Hkamti element was largely deported far down
country, where eventually they settled and became
good agriculturists. By 1840 English residences,
church, etc., were springing up in Gauhati, which
had become the headquarter station of the new Assam
Government. The entire country, having now come
under British rule, it only remains to touch upon
a few industrial points of interest before moving on
to an account of the border tribes and expeditions.
yTEe great industry for which Assam is noted is that
of tea, which about 1823 ^^^ first discovered as an
indigenous plant in the surrounding hills by a Mr.
R. Bruce, at that time British agent to the Ahom
king, Chandrakant. But the matter was not taken
up until ten years later, when Mr. Bruce's brother
started the first tea plantationjiear the mouth of the
Kundil river, above Sadiya. / In 1839 the Assam Tea
Company was formed, and began opening gardens
at Jaipur, Dibrughar, and on the Tingri river.
Thence onward the tea industry flourished through-
out the country. In spite of the great raised road-
ways, which history shows us had been constructed
in different parts of the country, its communications
generally were exceedingly bad, which state, in
spite of our having made two so-called Trunk Roads
both north and south of the Brahmaputra in 1854,
may 'be said to exist still. In 1847 the first steamer
service succeeded the laborious and slow boat journey,
but for many years they only plied as far as Gauhati.
It was between 1838 and 1840 that a decision was

F 2

68 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

arrived at to locate the chief mihtary station in
upper Assam at Dibrughar, the necessity for having
a garrison nearer to the Hkamtis and Singphos
having been shown by disturbances during the past
few years. Captain Vetch, afterwards General
Hamikon Vetch, the British officer controlhng the
Matak (Moran) country in which Dibrughar hes,
selected the site ; and lines, fort, jail, and other build-
ing rapidly followed. The church, built by the late
General Reid (R.E.) is a memorial to Colonel White,
who, we have seen before, was killed at Sadiya. It
was not, however, until about 1880 that a regular
steamer service plied up and down the Brahmaputra,
and that this far eastern station was thus connected
up with Bengal. Towards the end of the '' thirties "
coal was found, first on the Safrai river where it
emerges from the hills, a little east of Sibsagor ;
and a Commission was formed to discover if it was
workable, and to what extent, in these hills. More
being found in the Tipam hills, and the Commission
reporting favourably, Mr. Landers, Special Assist-
ant to the Commissioner, in 1842 opened and
worked the first mine on the Namsangia range in
the Dikkoo valley, after which other mines beyond
Dibrughar were opened, and the industry has since
progressed with enormous strides. This, together
with the tea industry in the Dibrughar district and
the difficulty of transporting both commodities to
the river steamers, led in 1878 to the first idea of
railway construction, which was favoured by Sir
Stewart Bayley. The following year a company was
formed, but owing to difficulties in raising money
for the project, no advance was made till 1881 when,

VI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 69

after a committee had thoroughly reported on the
Makum coal fields and oil wells, showing the high
value of the same, money was raised in London to
the amount of £600,000, and the work put in hand
on New Year's day, 1882. On the ist of May
following the first engine was plying over the section
near Dibrughar, and by the end of the year twenty
miles were open to traffic. During this time work
was also progressing from Makum at the other
end of the line, as material could be floated up to
that point along the Dihing river ; and on Christmas
Day, 1883, the rails were joined and through com-
munication with Dibrughar was established. Rail-
head was then named Margherita, in honour of the
Queen of Italy, due to the fact that the Chevalier
R. Paganini, an Italian, was chief engineer of that
rail section. A year or two later a branch line
was opened from Talup to Saikwa Ghat, opposite
Sadiya, our furthest frontier post. An interesting
feature of these coal-fields, particularly that of Ledo
six miles from Margherita, is the number of isolated
hills of pure coal standing above the ground surface,
which obviates the labour of deep mining. Follow-
ing on this successful railway enterprise came two
light lines at Jorhat and Tezpur, and these again
were followed by the Assam Bengal Railway which
now connects the port of Chittagong with Dibrughar,
a length of some 600 miles, with a branch line from
Lumding Junction to Gauhati of 150 miles. The
first surveys of this great undertaking began about
1894, and work started two years later at different
points along the route. Immense difficulties were
experienced by the engineers in carrying the line

70 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. vi

through the North Cachar hills and the great Nambhor
forest, which sections cost fabulous sums of money
and are monuments of engineering skill. In 1899
ballast trains were running over portions of the
line, which was not open throughout for traffic till
1902 owing to delays caused by the immense diffi-
culties to be overcome in the hills section. With
the start of this line came the hope to link up Burma
with upper Assam by carrying a line from Dibrughar
through the Hukong valley to Mogoung on the
Upper Burma Railway system, and a survey party
with escort crossed the Patkoi in 1896, while another
party surveyed an alternative route to Burma, which
was to take off at Lumding and follow a line via
Berrima, in the Kaccha Naga hills, to the Mayank-
hong valley, and so to Manipur. Both projects,
however, were temporarily shelved ; the Manipur
one because of the expense, as the tunnelling and
difficulties in crossing the stupendous gorges of the
upper Barak river would have been prohibitive in
cost. Now that deeper interest has been stirred in
North Eastern Frontier matters, these two projects
are once again coming to the front, and the Hukong
valley route is generally stated to be the most
practicable from commercial and engineering points
of view.

CHAPTER VII

RELIGIONS OF THE EARLY ASSAMESE AND
NOTABLE REMAINS

The subject of religion is a somewhat difficult one
to trace correctly. From old legends it would appear
the earliest religion of the aborigines, namely the
Kacharis, with whom are allied the Kocch, Chutiya
and Moran (Matak) peoples, was animism and a
worship of demons, etc. When Hinduism was intro-
duced is uncertain, but it undoubtedly was in vogue
about 830 A.D., in the reign of one Hajara. Hannay
is of opinion that Kamarupa was one of the earliest
conquests of the Indian Khettri kings about 400 B.C.,
and was then the seat of that primitive form of
Hinduism, or perhaps Buddhism, which existed
previous to the introduction of Brahminical Hinduism
about the middle of the fifteenth century, brought
in by certain Brahmins from the city of Gaur in
Bengal. This took a great hold on the country, even
the Tai (Ahom) conquerors coming over to it in the
early part of the seventeenth century. That Bud-
dhism was introduced is certain, but it is equally
certain it took no very lasting hold on the people
and it was only of comparatively short duration.

72

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Many of the old Hindu temples have been built on
and with the remains of what once were Buddhist
shrines. At Hajo, once an important centre of

Closer View of Individual Stone, Dimapur.

Moghul rule, and opposite Gauhati, six or seven
miles from the river, on a wooded hill 300 feet
high, stands a remarkable and celebrated temple con-
taining a large image of Buddha six feet high and

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 73

cut from a solid block of black stone. The figure
is in what is known as the '* contemplative attitude,"
and is annually visited still by thousands of both
Hindus and Buddhists from all parts of India. This
temple is endowed with lands, dancing girls, and
beneficed priests ; as are also the celebrated Kamakhya
temples, which are said to have taken the place of
ancient Buddhist shrines.

Thibetans and Bhootanese believe that Buddha
died in Kamarupa, while the learned Hungarian
traveller, Csomo de Koros claims that the Saint died
in Gauhati " under a pair of Sal trees." The great
Chinese traveller Huien Tsiang, had also the same
idea ; but he records in the early part of the seventh
century that, though the people adored the Devas,
there seemed to be little faith in the Saint himself,
and that no places in which Buddhist priests could
assemble appeared to exist. Such disciples as there
are, he says, are certainly of a pure faith, but pray
more or less secretly. Buddha lived in the sixth
century B.C., and on his death, which some assert
occurred at Kusinagra in upper Bengal, and others
in Assam at Gauhati, the first Buddhist synod was
held at Rajagriha in Bengal, the second being held
a hundred years later, or about the early part of
400 B.C., in Wesali Long — the Buddhist name for
Assam ; which goes to prove that this religion must
in those far off days have had a certain amount of hold
on the country reaching as far as the Sadiya district,
where Major Hannay states are to be found ruins of
temples of undoubted Buddhist origin. The religion
deteriorated in the succeeding centuries until it
reached the condition in which Huien Tsiang found it.

74 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

In the centuries preceding his travels in this part
of Asia waves of Buddhism had passed further east
from India, and by way of Thibet, Assam, and the
Arrakan coast, had spread itself far afield. But it
is not till as late as 1016 a.d. that we find the gentle
teaching of Buddha introduced throughout Burma
as the State religion by Anarawthaza, the great con-
queror and religious reformer. It developed in course
of time into the puritan school (Hinayana) or Southern

The Big Tank am* ki.> i i^ .r,i-. ai l)iMA!ri; 1'.x^a\"a i hi) llrMtREDS of
\'kaks ago bv the Kacharis.

Buddhism, spreading to Siam and Ceylon ; as
opposed to the Northern Buddhism (Mahayana) or
debased ritualistic school embraced by China, Mon-
golia, Corea, Thibet, and Nepal.
^ Hinduism, known in Assam for centuries along-
side of Buddhism, began extending itself more
thoroughly throughout the land about the ninth
century, but gradually assumed a debased style due
to the Trantric form of Hinduism, also known as
Sakta Hinduism, which in its main idea is the worship

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 75

of the female principle, typifying creative power. j

The worship w^as accompanied by human sacrifices
and orgies beyond description in honour of Kamakhya,
goddess of desire, and an incarnation of the dread
goddess Kali. Hamilton, writing of this country in
1839, says : " Assam is likened in old times to a sort
of Paphian land, the seat of promiscuous pleasures,
loose manners, and mystery, due to the rise of the
Tantric form of Hinduism which the Brahmins in-
culcated in these wild parts and which enabled them
through the worship of Kamakhya to share in sensual
gratifications from which otherwise they would have
been excluded." The ancient temples on the Nilachal
hill, near Gauhati, formed the centre of this worship,
but many others exist as far afield as the Tamasari
Mai and the Bhora Bhoori temples at the foot of the
Mishmi hills not far east of Sadiya. At all these
shrines human beings were offered up as sacrifices.
Colonel Dalton has given an account of these sacri-
fices, which obtained almost up to the British occu-
pation of Assam, by certain Deori Chutiya priests
of the Tamasari Mai. These described how the
victim was detained some time at the temple, being
fed until deemed sufliciently fat to please the flesh-
eating Goddess. On the appointed day he was led
forth in magnificent clothes to be shown to the
crowds assembled for the hideous ceremony. He
was then led by a private path trodden only by the
priests to a deep pit at the back of the temple. Here
his gay raiment was stripped off and he was decapi-
tated, the body falUng into the pit, the head being
added to the heap of ghastly skulls piled in front of
the shrine.

76 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

In the early part of 1500 a.d. a Hindu reformer
arose, named Shankar Deb, a Kayasth of Nowgong,
who preached a purer Hinduism based on prayer
rather than on sacrifices ; but being much persecuted
by the Brahmins of Gauhati he went into the Kocch
country, where his ideas and new faith obtained a
better hearing. In course of time, this reUgion
gaining a strong footing in Kamarupa, spread further,
until in the seventeenth century we see Gadardhar
Sing persecuting its adherents, as they had by then
become a formidable power in the land. A hundred
years later Sakta Hinduism was firmly established
as the State religion, and soon came into conflict
with the Vishnubite followers of Shankar Deb, lead-
ing up to the sect of the Moamaria, and a series of
religious rebellions which plunged the country into
the deepest misery, and from which it was only
relieved by the advent of British rule. The Moa-
maria were a sect of the purer Vishnubite faith,
differing only from what Shankar Deb inculcated
in that they paid more distinction to caste matters,
and^were not so averse to sacrifices and idol worship.
The Assamese of the present day are Hindus, but
they are lax in religious rites, and their ceremonies
are often very different from those practised in India. /

Notable Remains.

Of all the ruins in Assam that have excited the
interest of archaeological savants, the old fort at
Dimapur in the Nambhor forest stands pre-eminently
first ; not so much from the fort itself as from the
remarkable carved stone monoliths which stand within

VII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

77

its area. Dimapur, as we have seen, was up to the
middle of the sixteenth century the capital of the Kachari
people ; and evidences of sites, causeways, etc., cut

Closer View of Individual Stones, Dimapur.

through by the Assam and Bengal Railway, show it
to have been of very considerable extent, the present
old fort having been a sort of citadel. It is a square ;
each face six to seven hundred yards long had
originally a gateway, except the one overlooking the

78

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Dhansiri river. Of these, only one on the east face
now remains in a fair state of preservation. The
brick walls are all thrown down but easily traceable,
as are also several tanks inside. It was first noticed
by Lieutenant Biggs, who in 1841 made a tour from
Nowgong to the Naga hills and opened a salt depot
at Dimapur, which was then on the border of British
territory ; but it remained hidden in its dense
covering of forest growth till about 1892, when a

The Remarkahlk Carveh Siones as discovered in the Old Kachari
Fort at Dimapur.

small portion inside was cleared. This revealed the
remarkable collection of monoliths standing inside,
or rather some still erect, others thrown down and
cracked by earthquakes. What these represent, and
by what people carved and set up, has baffled many
a savant. Ferguson says that they are unique of
their kind in Asia, and were obviously there long
before the fort, set up by a race long forgotten, but
still venerated in the mystery surrounding them, by

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

79

the Kacharis. They stand, enormous blocks of sand-
stone in four rows six yards apart, sixteen in each
row, those at the ends being ten to twelve feet, the
centre four being fifteen to seventeen feet high. The
two rows to the east are shaped not unlike gigantic
*' lingam " stones, the two western ones taking the
shape of a V, and are said to be evidences of Phallic
worship. The tops of the latter have deep slots
cut into them, pointing to their having possibly
supported a roof ; but whether the roof of a temple
or of a covered way to a temple long since crumbled
away, it is impossible to say. All the stones are
elaborately carved with representations of birds,
animals, spear heads, and this must have been done
after the stones were set up, as the nearest places
from which the stone could have been quarried are
some ten miles off in the gorge near Nichuguard,
and the carving would have been badly damaged in
transit. In Lord Curzon's time, whose interest for
ancient remains is well known, these fallen and
cracked monoHths have been set up in their places,
the broken pieces secured with iron bands, and the
surrounding ground completely cleared and fenced
in for their preservation. Further clearing inside the
fort has revealed a smaller set of smiilar stones
less elaborately carved, and one solitary giant stone
some twenty feet high. In the vicinity of Dimapur
are two enormous and deep tanks, one being over
300 yards on each face, with high banks, on one of
which, up to 1901, stood the old rest-house looking
over the fine sheet of water away to the Naga hills.
It is said that ten other tanks are known of in this
locality, all dating from the early Kachari days. At

8o

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Jamaguri, thirty odd miles north-east of Dimapur,
near the Doyang river, are the remains of another
ancient city with similar monoliths, but this has not
been properly explored yet ; while at Deopani, in
the neighbourhood of Borpathar, stands a single
gigantic monolith carved as are those at Dimapur
which was discovered by a civil engineer when con-

'I'liK Cakvkd Stones in Dimapur Fort restored and set up,

AS AT PRESENT.

structing the cart road from Golaghat to Dimapur
after the Manipur rising of 1891, and while searching
in the forest for stone for bridging purposes. At
Maibong, a small station on the Assam and Bengal
Railway, are to be seen distinct traces of massive brick
walls which surrounded the second Kachari capital,
and which are now covered with forest and jungle.
Carved stones, stone images, portions of stones with

VII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

8i

inscriptions cut into them, fragments of pillars,
excavated tanks, etc., are frequently found by coolies
and herdsmen and brought to those interested in
such things, and many of the best have found their
way into museums. The most complete of these
remains as yet discovered here lies a mile from the
station down the Mahur river, and is a gigantic
boulder eighteen to twenty feet high and over ninety
feet round at the base, the upper half of which

^^K*^^.

Ancient and Remarkable Temple Carved from a PIuge Boulder

AT Mai BONG.

is carved into the shape of a temple with doors,
projecting eaves, some rough ornamentation, and an
inscription carved on the west side, gives a date,
namely, 1683 Hindu era, representing 1721 of
ours. The temple is apparently solid and is not
used ; nor, as the writer was told, does it appear
to have any sanctity left, for it is never visited by
" fakirs " and such like who annually make their
" tirith," or pilgrimages, to ancient shrines in Assam.
Maibong lies in a charmingly wooded valley watered

82 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

by the Mahur river, which in its lower reaches holds
good fishing, and is overlooked by the Mahadeo
mountain rising to some 5000 feet.

The ruins of Garhgaon have been mentioned in
the history, so we pass on to the far eastern corner
of Assam on the borderland of the Mishmis and
Abors, to where stand the remains of the once large
and flourishing cities of Kundina and Prithiminagar,
and certain famous temples. And here, as the writer
has never had the opportunity of reaching this
locality himself. Major Hannay's account of these
in his article to the Journal of the Asiatic Society
Bengal, 1848, will serve us the better, as he fancies
no one else has taken the trouble to explore those
regions, though many of our frontier expeditions
of late years have passed them closely by. Kundina
(Kundilpur), which Hannay and party visited, is
a hill fort at the foot of the mountains between the
Dikrang and Dibong rivers, some sixteen miles north
of Sadiya. The path led six miles across the plain
and thence up the bed of the Dikrang. On reaching
the hill the only track found was that beaten down
by wild elephants, and frequently paths had to be
cut for several hours ; after which they reached a
fine piece of table-land covered with splendid timber
trees. Here they came upon the first traces of a
bygone people in a high earth rampart facing the
plains. A little further on was found the remains
of a strong parapet, the lower portion of which was
of solid hewn granite blocks topped by a wall of
well-made bricks about five feet high, apparently
loop-holed for spears and arrows. There were signs
of gateways and many cross walls, but all had

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 83

crumbled into the heaps of bricks which Httered
the locality. From what they saw, these defences
surrounded an immense area, while in the Dikrang
valley were seen numerous debris of earthen vessels
totally different in shape from those used by the
Assamese, and which they found closely resembled
the earthenware of Gangetic India.

Hannay records that all the remains are of great
age and originally were substantially built of good
stone and bricks. Cement was unknown then, and
certain rectangular turns in the walls pointed to a
knowledge of flank defence.

The party spent a week on the Dikrang river
exploring the site of another ancient city spoken of
as Prithiminagar, where they found an eighteen-
foot high earth rampart with ditch circling round
for several miles north and north-west. Inside this
rampart, now supporting enormous forest trees, they
found several very large tanks, one measuring 280 by
ninety yards, with ruined bathing ghats of hewn
sandstone. A brick gateway was found, and a raised
road leading to the river, where large stone slabs
lying about suggested the remains of a bridge. This
must have enclosed the site of a very large town.
Both these places, he conjectures, were built by one
x>eople, the masonry and bricks being of one pattern,
/But who were these people } And when and where-
from did the wild Abors and Mishmis come who
now hold these hills ? Popular tradition, Hannay
says, as well as local evidences, go to show that the
Brahmaputra in the far-off past ran much closer to
the mountains than it does now, which would have
brought the river close to these ancient cities. The

G 2

84

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

little river Kundil gave its name to one of the towns,
namely Kundilpur, also known as Kundina and as
Bishmaknagar, from the name of its legendary founder ;
and where the stream joins the Brahmaputra, namely

1

B^i

i

H

1

1

'*■ «■■ '

^>.\!?g&?>^' ^

fp

s^2

^

i^^HP^

PBPP

i

mm

W-

^^^P^r

1

K

«

-5*'«"n! ij»»nBl

w^-^r -» ' j

Carved St<>m,s 1)i:(; up at Maibong.

at Kundilmukh, was located for many years a British
military outpost.

Another visit of exploration was paid by Hannay
to the famous shrine of Tamasari Mai or the Copper
Temple, and to that of Bhora Bhoori in the same
locality, namely in the Sadiya district. Of the former,
he writes that this sacred spot, eight miles north-
east of Chunpura (Sonpura), which lies ten miles
east of Kundilmukh, now covered with dense forest.

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 85

stands on a little stream, the Dalpani. In ancient
times this shrine and the once populous lands around
were undoubtedly connected with the western end of
Assam by the stupendous raised roadway from Kama-
tapur (Cooch Behar) through Narainpur to the extreme
east of Assam, and also presumably to the cities just
alluded to, long stretches of which are still in use.
Several generations have now passed away since the
votaries of these temples were numerous enough to
keep the roads leading to them open. The Tamasari
Mai was dedicated to Kamakhya and the Yoni ; but
Shiva and the Lingam were also worshipped with
all barbarous rites, including human sacrifices, which
latter obtained it is known in the early part of the
nineteenth century. In 1850 Hannay knew of certain
families living near Sadiya who for generations past
had been specially set aside to provide the doubtful
honour of becoming victims to the dread Goddess.
He gives a detailed description of the size and shape
of this temple, speaks of the well-hewn blocks of
granite of which it is built, and from the fact that
in one part he finds a thin layer of mortar between
the bricks composing the upper part, he assumes the
ancient shrine to have been rebuilt about the time
of the Brahminical revival, namely, about the middle
of the fifteenth century. The doorway appears to
have been elaborately carved, and in front stood an
elephant carved out of a huge block of porphyritic
granite of a hardness which must have required
well-tempered tools to work with. Tradition says
the tusks, no longer existent, were of silver. The
whole is surrounded by a brick terrace which is
ornamented with tiles let in, having stamped upon

86

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

them in high rehef, figures of Hindu Avatars. Very
little remained then of the copper roofing. The
Bhora Bhoori temple Hannay and party also found
their way to, which lies ten miles from Sadiya, the last
four miles being up the bed of the Dikrang river

" MURTA,'

, I " i| ,

lUN'D AT jMaIBOXG.

till a small stream, the Deopani, was reached. Here
they came on what is generally stated to be the
most ancient as well as the most sacred spot in
Assam. Orthodox Hindus consider it a shrine to
Mahadeo, but Hannay is certain of its Buddhist
origin. There is a large hexagonal altar in a well-

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 87

flagged courtyard surrounded by a rampart of hewn
sandstone blocks, the inner side of which is faced
with bricks. In front of this altar is a stone terrace
on which offerings were placed, and about sixty
paces from the altar is the second rampart and deep
ditch outside. There were no signs of gateways,
but a raised roadway led out from the WTSt face of
the altar. There are also traces of this altar having
had a roof over it once, but this has long since vanished.
Both sacred spots are in an absolutely ruinous state
and overgrown with jungle round and upon them.
This growth of course gradually displaces stones,
and the general dilapidation is probably increased
by the numerous wild elephants tearing down the
shrubs from the highest points reachable, and rubbing
themselves against the walls.

In the vicinity of Sibsagor, at Garhgaon, and
Rangpur, are still to be seen remains of old Ahom
forts, the palace, several large tanks, and some fine
Hindu temples. Charaideo, the first capital of note,
and for long a place of sanctity for Ahom kings, has
little or nothing left visible of its former glory beyond
a temple, a tank, and the mounds covering the burial
places of certain kings. In the centre of the Dihing
Company's tea plantation stands a large ancient
temple with a splendid avenue of Nahor trees of
great age leading up to it ; this was discovered when
the ground for plantation was being cleared of its
dense forests. In this neighbourhood, when out
shooting in the jungles, one frequently comes across
evidence of the sites of towns and villages, artificial
irrigation channels, tanks, and groves of fine old
mango and jack fruit trees, marking where once

88

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

gardens had stood. This in the heart of the forest —
unmistakable signs of a former thriving population
in what was till recent years perhaps one of the
wildest districts of eastern Assam.

While on this subject a reference may well be made
here to the worship of stones by the Khasias and
certain of the Naga tribes. These are set up to

Inscribed Stones dug vv at Maibong.

commemorate deaths, raids, hunting successes, and
village incidents of importance. Some are set up,
as amongst certain hill tribes in Manipur, in the
name of a deity, but are not objects actually con-
nected with religious ideas. The tribe whose mono-
liths reach an enormous size and are arranged in
avenues on the way up to their villages is that of
Maram, a Naga community occupying the hill country
about the upper Barak waters and eastern slopes
of the Barail range, not far from the Naga hills

VII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 89

boundary. These people have erected immense stones
for centuries past, arranging them in symmetrical
rows, avenues, circles, and singly. Tw^o huge mono-
liths in the village of Maram are venerated as the
deity presiding over hunting matters. The labour
of dragging these huge and heavy stones up hill
sides is very great, the stones being levered on to
a stout timber sledge and then dragged by bands

/"?' r 'Ji

^-

jQh^^^^^^^^^HI

mi

^m

I- Sir^'

^SPP

■^BK/mi'fc' ^'^uMQ

\0

^_^pn:

■d

The Remarkable "Stonehenge" at Togwema, Naga Hills.

of men using ropes of stout creepers till the spot for
erection is reached, w^hen it is again levered off the
sledge into a hole and then lifted up until com-
pletely erect, the process sometimes covering days
and weeks. The most remarkable of these " Stone-
henges " is to be seen at the village of Togwema
(or Uilong), a few miles west of Maram, and which
has only been up to date visited by three English-
men, including the writer. Here on a spur just
outside the village, now of no great size, stands

90 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. vii

thirty-two monoliths arranged in a large oval, from
which again start lines of fourteen monoliths, the
height of all varying between eight feet and thirteen
and a half feet, and the breadth between two feet and
nine and a half feet. The thickness of each is
generally about two feet. In the oval of stones it
is customary for the young men of the place to hold
their dances and wrestling bouts, which occur on
the annual festival of the dead. These stones, the
writer was told, were very many centuries old, and
were put up when Togwema village was a large and
powerful one, which has since many generations
gradually declined in strength and importance. The
erection of this '* Stonehenge " would be quite im-
possible in the present day. From popular traditions
and from actual practices in the present day with
stones of lesser size, it is possible to obtain some
idea of the expenditure in energy, and the resources
of the people of the past required for such stupendous
undertakings.

CHAPTER VIII

BHOOTAN

Having now dealt with the history of Assam and
the reasons leading to its coming into our hands,
we can now deal with the different interesting border
tribes and their countries, commencing from the
west, namely, with the Bhootanese, a Thibeto-Burman
race dwelling east of Darjiling and north of the Cooch
Behar border.

-The Bhootan hills, as they are alluded to, and
which border Assam to the north-west, are about
220 miles long by ninety or so in breadth, and they
separate Thibet from the Brahmaputra valley. Very
little is known of this country, which was first visited
in 1774 and 1783 by Bogle and Captain Turner
respectively, who, on commercial trips to Thibet,
made their routes through Bhootan. The next to
penetrate these hills was Captain Pemberton in 1838,
who describes the people as "in disposition excellent,
they possess an equanimity of temper almost border-
ing on apathy and are indolent to an extreme degree.
They are also illiterate, immoral, and victims of
the most unqualified superstition." In describing
the officials, he says : " the highest officers of state

92 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

in Bhootan are shameless beggars and liars of the
first magnitude, whose most solemn pledged words
are violated without the slightest hesitation. They
play bully and sycophant with equal readiness, exhi-
biting in their conduct a rare compound of official
pride and presumption, together with the low cunning
of needy mediocrity." Mr. Claude White, however,
expresses himself on them in more favourable terms
since his visit to their country in 1905.

The people are professed Buddhists, though still
propitiating evil spirits ; polyandry is the prevailing
domestic custom and the habits of all classes are
filthy to a degree. The men are strongly built,
with athletic figures, of dark complexions, and un-
pleasantly heavy and cunning faces.

With a people possessing these unamiable charac-
teristics we had but little to do until well into the
middle of last century, when we came into unpleasant
contact with them, due to their continual acts of
aggression along the borders of the Dooars or large
tracts of low hills and terai land lying between the
Himalayas and the Assam plains. In 1792, when
Welsh's expedition entered Assam, it was found the
Bhootanese were exercising authority as far into the
plains as Kamali Alii, though for how long this had
been going on is not known ; presumably the weak
government of Gaurinath's reign had favoured the
extension of Bhootanese land grabbing. However,
this condition could not be put up with when the
British began to administer Assam in 1832, and
Mr. David Scott ordered them back into the Dooars.
These, the Assam Dooars, ten years later were appro-
priated by the Government in punishment for various

VIII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

93

acts of aggression and plunder. As these Dooars
had formerly belonged rightly to the Assamese kings,
and, owing to the arbitrary severity of the Bhootan
rulers had almost been depopulated, this act of the

The Hunting Stones at Maka.m,

British Commissioners cannot be view^ed as a harsh
proceeding. These tracts now came under our rule
and formed part of the present districts of Kamrup
and Darrang ; but one of the eastern Dooars, that
of Railing, for some time was subject to a curious
dual control, the reason of which was not apparent,

94 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

namely, that for eight months in the year the inhabi-
tants belonged to the Tongsa Penlo subject to the
Dharm and Deb Rajas of Bhootan, and during the
remaining four months (June 15 to October 15)
the people reverted to British jurisdiction. In 1842
this anomalous condition ceased to exist. Of the
two rulers just mentioned it may be said the Dharm
Raja is the spiritual, while the Deb Raja is the
temporal head of Bhootan.

By 1845 the most easterly of the Dooars had been
brought under our rule, and now Government decided
that a sum of money, 10,000 rupees, should be paid
annually to the two Rajas as some compensation for
the loss of revenue entailed by them on our taking
over the land.

In 1852 a misunderstanding arose between the
British and Thibetan Governments concerning the
Raja of Gelong in the hills overlooking the most
easterly of the Assam Dooars. This Raja, having
been set in authority over other petty chiefs by the
Thibetan Government, took advantage of this little
show of power to declare himself independent. Troops
from Lhassa were sent against him, and after some
stubborn fighting the Gelong Raja was driven across
our border, and his extradition demanded in most
peremptory terms. This was followed up by an
army being pushed down towards the plains, and
at one time a Thibetan invasion of Assam appeared
imminent. However, a small British force of 400
sepoys and two guns being hurried up to the Darrang
border, further Thibetan intentions were checked
without actual hostility. A treaty was then signed
by the Thibetans by which they agreed to our terms.

VIII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

95

and the hostile force returned to Lhassa. Though
these measures gave peace to the Assam Dooars,
those abutting on the province of Bengal were still
frequently subjected to plunder and outrages. In
spite of remonstrances from Government, which only

T "' " •

^!H^

|^i%

^^■■■f^ -^

i,^^ i^i

^.4B&i^^^

'J mn M-'^f

^^ "

mUlg^^ '

■ -.., ^^v.... .......... .w...... *..,,.

A Solitary Monolith.

elicited insolent replies, things went on in this un-
satisfactory way until i860 when, as a punishment,
the estate of Fallacotta was annexed by the British,
and a native mission was sent to explain the situation
and intentions of Government to the Deb and Dharm
Rajas of Bhootan. This producing no effect, Mr.

96 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Eden (Secretary to the Bengal Governme^it) was sent
in 1863 to Ponaka, their capital, to make a final effort
towards better relations between the two Governments.
Eden, however, on arrival at Ponaka was received
with contumely by the Bhootan court and practically
held a prisoner ; until only by signing a treaty under
protest, which was perfectly unworkable, would the
Durbar guarantee him and his party a safe conduct
out of their country. The patience of the British
Government being now exhausted, war became un-
avoidable. The Bhootanese forces were said to
number 10,000 men armed with matchlocks, bows
and arrows, and short heavy swords. Their match-
locks, though clumsy, were effective at 400 yards ;
while a case occurred at Dewangiri of one of our
men being shot at 800 yards by one of these weapons.
But the bow is their favourite arm with which they
constantly practise and are very expert. They were
this time found to act well on the defence and were
good at field works. That they are not devoid of
courage is shown by what occurred at Dewangiri
in 1865, when they defeated and put to rout a
British force of 800 sepoys and ten British officers ;
and again near the same place the defence of a stockade
by 150 Bhootanese, who fought it out to the bitter
end, excited admiration.

A picturesque feature in their country are the old
mediaeval forts built to control the trade route from
Thibet and to guard against invasion on that side.
These are well described by Mr. C. White in the report
of his visit in 1905, and it would be interesting to
know how this people got to know of the pattern of
such defensive structures unlike what are found in

viii HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 97

the parts of India adjacent to their country, and far
more resembhng some old-time European castle.

Active measures having now been decided on against
Bhootan, a force in four columns was assembled to
enter the country and exact reparation for insults
to our envoy, property raided, captives carried off,
and general aggressiveness of the past few years.

The Dewangiri column was the principal one,
and consisted of the 43rd Assam L.I. (now 7th

Method of Dragging these Stones on Sledges to
THEIR Final Resting Place.

Goorkha Rifles) one and a half companies Sappers,
one squadron 5th B.C., and two mountain guns,
with a wing of the 12th B.I. and Assam local Artillery
in reserve at Gauhati.

The Sidli column of one squadron of 5th B.C.
and two squadrons 14th B.C., a wing of the 44th
Assam Light Infantry (now the 8th Goorkha Rifles),
one and a half companies Sappers, and three moun-
tain guns, was to operate in the hills between the
Sankosh and Manas rivers

98 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

The Buxa column a wing of the nth B.I., one
squadron 14th B.C., and three mountain guns was
to operate west of the Sankosh river beyond the
northern border of Cooch Behar.

The Dahng column based on Jalpaigori consisted
of a wing of the nth B.I., two squadrons 5th B.C.,
one company Sappers, with two mountain guns
and two mortars was to move on Baling fort between
the Jaldaka and Tista rivers.

The 80th Foot was held in readiness at Darjiling.

In the end of November all was in readiness and
the Baling column opened proceedings by moving
first. On the 5th of Becember, 1864, the force
reached Baling, which was attacked and shelled
next day. A breach being effected, the place was
assaulted, the enemy evacuating it before our troops
got in. The defence for a time was well conducted,
for our losses were three British officers and seven
men killed, seven officers and fifty-seven men wounded ;
while though our fire on the fort had been heavy
for eight hours, only four dead were found in it.
Four days later the fort of Bumsong was taken, and
the troops moving further east reached Chumarchi
fort, which was captured on the 2nd of January, 1865,
with a loss to us of two killed and fifteen wounded.

While this was going on the Buxa column had
occupied Buxa without opposition, and left a garrison
to hold it, while the rest scoured the country.

The Sidli and Bewangiri columns working in
concert via Bhijni and Kurramkotta, or Kumrikotta,
captured Bewangiri on the 12th of Becember with
the loss of only one man.

A garrison of six companies 43 rd Assam Light

VIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 99

Infantry and two guns was left here, while the rest
of the force moved west to establish a post at Bishen-
sing. Early in February, it being thought operations
were at an end, the columns, excepting these garri-
sons, were withdrawn to the plains. The Bhootanese
however, were not done with, for in early February,
1865, they re-assembled and began attacking the
garrisons left behind. At Dewangiri they succeeded
one morning early in entering the camp quietly, and

Avenue of Monoliths near Makam.

suddenly cutting the tent ropes, all was soon in con-
fusion, and hand-to-hand conflicts followed when the
enemy were at length beaten off, having inflicted a
loss to the garrison of one British officer and four
men killed, one British officer and thirty-one men
wounded. For three days the garrison were sur-
rounded and its water supply cut off. On the
4th of February they were compelled to retreat,
which was commenced the following day under
disastrous circumstances. The way was lost, the

H 2

100 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Bhootanese, 1,500 strong, followed closely, a panic
set in, many wounded were left behind, and the two
guns fell into the enemy's hands. The force, com-
pletely disorganised, at last reached the plains. Deter-
mined attacks were also made on the Chumarchi,
Balla, and Buxa stockades, and were not beaten off
without considerable losses to us. At Buxa the
garrison was obliged to retire with two officers and
thirteen men wounded.

Immediate steps were taken to send up reinforce-
ments, and the 55th and the 80th Foot, 19th, 29th,
and 31st Punjabi Infantry with two batteries of
Artillery were ordered up to Assam under command
of General Tombs. Two columns were formed :
the right to concentrate at Gauhati and to advance
on Dewangiri, the left from Jalpaigori to move into
the western hills on Buxa and Daling. After a series
of minor skirmishes Dewangiri was captured after a
stiff fight, with a loss to us of four officers and thirty-
five men wounded ; the fort and defences were then
demolished. The left column encountered severe
opposition at Balla, losing three killed and one officer
and nineteen men wounded in the capture of a strong
Bhootanese stockade, whch the enemy held to the
last in hand-to-hand conflict with detachments of
the 1 8th and 19th P.I. The operations were brought
to a close in early April, 1865, and with Daling and
Buxa garrisoned in strength the force returned to
Assam. The Bhootan Durbar, however, did not
yet come to terms, nor had they given up the captured
guns ; it was therefore found desirable to again
enter their hills and advance to the capital Ponaka.
To this end a force of two wings of British infantry

VIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM loi

and six battalions of Native Infantry were put in
motion, and after one action at Salika on the 6th of
February, 1866, the Bhootanese finally submitted.
The guns were given up and a treaty signed by the
Deb and Dharm Rajas agreeing to all our terms, which
included the final annexation of the Bengal Dooars
and the cessation of all revenue hitherto received
by Bhootan for the Assam Dooars. The end of
this war saw the Bhootan Durbar finally deprived
for good and all of the Dooars and lands they had
held below the hills, and the allowances hitherto
paid to the Durbar on account of the Assam Dooars
and Fallacotta were, of course, stopped. I,ater, how-
ever. Government reconsidered the matter of allow-
ances on its being known that the Bhootan aristo-
cracy drew all their revenue from these plains' lands.
It was rightly surmised that entire deprivation of
such revenues would only produce a discontented,
turbulent set of neighbours along our border ; so
in spite of all provocation the British Government
arranged that a sum of Rs. 25,000, in which the
Assam Dooars' allowance was merged, should be
paid annually, and the boundary line from the Manas
river on the west to the Deosham river on the east
was definitely laid down, and a military post estab-
lished in the hills at Buxa ; after which our frontier
relations with these people became extremely simple.
With regard to direct trade between Assam and
Thibet which formerly existed, Hamilton states that
Lhassa used to send an annual caravan of silver
and rock salt to a place called ' Chouna," two
months' march from the capital, where for long a
mart had been established close to the border of

102 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. viii

both countries, and that four miles from Chouna
on the Assam side a similar mart existed at " Gegun-
shar," to which place rice, silk, iron, and lac were
brought for exchange. These two places, however,
are not shown on any maps, and in the early part of
last century the trade appears to have ceased, to
be revived again by a Lieutenant Rutherford in
1833 at Udalguri, in Darrang district, which still
continues and is visited annually by crowds of inter-
esting peoples from Bhootan, Thibet, and even China.
Another trade route between Thibet, Bhootan, and
Assam, passes through Tawang to Udalguri, and
is in constant use.

CHAPTER IX

AKAS

/ The tribe next to the Bhootanese, who in the
old days of a strong ruler in Assam appear to have
been kept in good order, probably by drastic
measures, are the Akas — a small tribe allied to
the Nagas on the south side of the Brahmaputra,
and who had a reputation for violence .^TWhen the
English first came into contact with them was in
1829, when the depredations of the Tagi Raja
necessitated action being taken against him. He
was captured and got four years in the Gauhati jail,
which it was thought would teach him better ways.
But on release he at once turned to the old game,
eluding re-capture ; and in 1835 he and a strong
following treacherously obtained entrance to the Balia-
para stockade, held by a small garrison of Assam
Light Infantry (now the 6th Goorkha Rifles), and
managed to cut up twenty-four people. Instead
of a punitive expedition a blockade of the tribe was
started, lasting some seven years, during which time
the Tagi Raja and his following maintained a guer-
rilla warfare, evading capture until he vanished quietly
from the scene. In 1875 trouble again broke out

I04 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

over boundary demarcations, and a small expedition
was sent into the hills, but with no success. On
this followed another blockade, which brought the
tribe to its senses a few years later. In 1883, when
the Calcutta Exhibition was coming off, a native
official was sent to the Aka chief to ask him to
supply articles for the exhibition, and also for a
man and a woman to be sent down to be modelled
there. The chief took offence at the request and
detained the official. This act was immediately
followed by a serious raid on Baliapara, when two
forest officials were captured amongst many others ;
and a British force consisting of 700 rifles of the
43rd Assam Light Infantry and 12th B.I., with two
guns of the Kohat mountain battery and 450 trans-
port coolies under command of General Sale Hill,
entered the Aka country in December, 1883. The
advance was rapid and was opposed at the Bharali
river, where the tribesmen attacked the camp at night,
causing us one killed and seven wounded. A few
days later the principal village Mehdi, strongly
stockaded, was attacked and assaulted. The guns
taking the heart out of the Akas, they did not wait
for the bayonet, but broke and fled. Two days
later they sent in their captives, and in January, 1884,
the force was withdrawn on the Akas entering into
an agreement with Government to report their arrival
at any markets in the plains, where they would fairly
barter their goods, and not thieve or commit crimes
in our territory, or join any parties who may here-
after become enemies of the British, to appear in the
plains without weapons, to recover debts from our
ryots through our civil court, and to forfeit the

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 105

pensions to their chiefs should these terms not be
abided by.

Daphlas and Mirris.
[The next tribes immediately to the east of the
Akas are the Daphlas and Mirris, the latter of whom
have never given us trouble and stand in some sort
of servile relation to their powerful neighbours the
Abors ; while the former tribe, with whom we first
came in contact in 1835 has given in earlier days
a good deal of annoyance. Their country which,
like the rest of the border is hilly and densely forest
clad, is much more accessible than that of the neigh-
bouring tribes ; while one tribal sub-division, the
Apa Tanangs, own a magnificent elevated plateau
laid out in highly cultivated terraces7 [which was
once visited by the late Mr. Macabe, who also found
their country full of articles of Chinese manufacture ;
though what communication there may be between
the Daphlas and Thibet or China we do not know.
The Daphlas and Apa Tanangs are thought to number
some 25,000, and when we arrived in Assam they
had a formidable reputation which, however, did
not survive a close acquaintance. This reputation
had come down from early days when the Ahoms
from 1646 on, had to send several expeditions into
their hills, when it not unfrequently happened the
Daphlas were successful until a very large force
crushed out all opposition. In 1673 Ahom " bur-
anjis " record an Ahom force being sent to exact
reparation for raids made into the plains, and which
came utterly to grief, being surrounded by the Daphlas
and almost annihilated.

io6 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

In 1758 the Ahoms, in order to check their raiding
propensities, found it necessary actually to erect
forts along the foot of the hills and institute a long
blockade of the tribe ; which goes to show that the
tribe possessed brave and warlike propensities in
the past, though these exist no longer. Mahomed
Kasim, a Moghul historian of the seventh century,
speaks of this tribe as being " entirely independent
of the Ahom king, and whenever they find an oppor-
tunity plunder all the lands in the vicinity of their
mauntains."

/ It seems that the Daphlas, under the Ahom rule,
had the right to levy what was called " Posa " directly
from the ryots, in some cases this being paid in cash,
in others in kind. This " Posa " has been some-
times alluded to as blackmail, which is inaccurate,
it being rather of the nature of a well-ascertained
revenue payment on account of which a correspond-
ing remission was made in the State demand upon
the persons satisfying it ; it was a distinct feature
in the Ahom revenue system, was not exacted from
every tribe, and was at first not iriterfered with by
the British officials, who avoided making any very
radical changes. In time efforts were made to induce
the tribe to resign this right, which was not complied
with, and for many years constituted a difficulty. In
1835 a serious raid constrained offensive action on
our part, when Captain Mathie, in charge of the
Darrang district, led a small military force into the
hills where, after a little desultory fighting, certain
captives were released, and a series of outposts
established along the border. After this, certain
sections of the Daphla tribe submitted and agreed

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 107

to resign their right to collect " Posa," which for
many years was entirely stopped ; till it was found
the Daphlas we were concerned with, being subordinate
to a stronger community in the higher ranges, these
latter were oppressing the former, who now had no
money to pay them with as formerly had been
customary. The Government then in 1862 directed
the '' Posa " to be changed to a monetary payment
of Rs. 4,000 annually on their chiefs agreeing not
to aid the enemies of the British Raj, to arrest
offenders, and to arrange that one chief should live
near the British official to be the medium of com-
munication with the Daphlas. All went well until
iSyijWhen the tribe again gave trouble, which started
in a curious way. A severe epidemic of whooping-
cough occurred amongst the Daphlas living on and
in our border which spread to the hill villages. These
latter demanded compensation from the men on the
low hills and plains, amongst whom the malady
started. As this was refused the hill Daphlas raided
a village on the border, killing a number and carrying
off thirty-five persons. A British force was at once
ordered to assemble, but interminable delays took
place owing to disagreements between the civil and
military authorities ; and eventually a column of
600 rifles of the 44th A.L.I, (now the 8th G.R.)
were advanced to the border under Major Cory.
The villages concerned were but five marches beyond
our border, and the country is, as before stated,
the most easily accessible of all the north-east tribes.
Unfortunately, the sound forward designs of Cory
were over-ridden by the less advanced policy of
the civil authorities ; and, as is so often the case

io8

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

in divided counsels, the result ensued that nothing
was done beyond a long and futile blockade. In
early 1874, therefore, Colonel Stafford with a column
of 1,000 rifles, three mountain guns, and 1,500
coolies entered the hills. The Daphlas made no
resistance, but paid up fines and returned the captives.
Little or nothing was done by this large force in
exploration or survey, and it returned to Assam

Group of Abors.

amidst a clamour from Government over wasted
money. But it was projected on a ridiculously large
scale by the civil authorities, by whom also it was
controlled and accounted a political success, though
subsequent events have shown that no such serious
measures had really ever been needed. In 1896
the Apa Tanang section began raiding on a small
scale, which was soon stopped by Captain Roe with
a small force of the Dibrughar Military Police

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 109

# Battalion making a promenade through their hills,
and which was sufficient to make them pay up their
fines at once. This has proved the last of the trouble
with this tribe, any further offences having been
simply of a nature to be settled by police.

The Abors.

We now come to the two tribes round whom at
present the chief interest centres, namely, the Abors
and Mishmis. The former occupies the mountain-
ous region between the Dihang (Tsan Po) and the
pibong rivers, and next to the Naga tribes on the
/ south side of the Brahmaputra valley are the most
formidable and physically superior to their neigh-
bours. The Mirris, dwelling between the Daphlas
and Abors, are allied to the latter, and are so alike
that it seems evident they both came from the same
original home — wherever that was ; the Mirris, migra-
ting first and having been longer influenced by
association with the plains folk, have lost their
savagery and hardihood, which the later arrivals,
the Abors, have retained. Intercourse between the
two tribes is intimate, which does not seem to exist
between the others, who live entirely independent
of each other. That all own some sort of subordina-
tion to the more remote races living further into the
Himalayas to the north of them seems certain, but
who these are and where their different boundaries
lie we have no definite knowledge ; nor is any know-
ledge forthcoming as to when they settled in these
hills, which history shows had once a strong, thriving,
and almost civilised race dwelling in large cities

no

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

along the outer ranges of hills now inhabited by wild
Abors and Mishmis^/ The Ahom " buranjis " are
silent as to any trouble having occurred with these
two races. The Abors are said not to fear the
Thibetans, and trade much with^hem, their markets
being more accessible than ours^ Captain Neufville
in 1825 first makes mention of the Mirris as living
in the plains and low hills from the Sisi district of
Lakhimpur almost to the Dihang river, where they

Ja.nakml'kh Post, Diham; River, and disiant Abur Hills.

merge into the Abors, while the Bor Abors occupy
the inner and loftier ranges of hills which from the
plains up are covered with dense forest. As various
expeditions have merely penetrated the outer fringe
of hills, what lies beyond is utterly unknown to us,
though much information was expected on this point
from the recent expedition of 1911-12, and ^from
exploration work going on the following winter. It
is stated the Abors can turn out some 10,000 to
15,000 fighting-men, and the feeble conduct of troops

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM iii

and officials in the past has encouraged them to
thjnk the most of their powers.

/ The Abors are divided into four clans, Menyong,
Panghij Padam, and Shimong, the two former dwelling
between the Yamne and Dihang rivers and west of
the latter river ; the Padam east of the Yamne ;
and the Shimong to the north up the left bank of the
Dihang. The character of the country is most
difficult — entirely mountainous and forest-clad, with
the rivers running for miles through rocky gorges,
and unnavigable above Pasighat. Communications
are only by means of the roughest tracks from village
to village, and the rainfall in this region is exceed-
ingly heavy, the only open months for work being
October to the end of March. Their weapons are
a long, straight " dao," which comes from Thibet,
spears, and bows and arrowsT^he latter being pre-
pared for war with a dab of-^'poisoned paste made
sometimes of pig's blood and aconite or the juice
of the croton plant, which is put on just behind the
arrow head. In most cases, however, from being
made up for some time the poison loses its deadly
efficacy, though it still makes a festering wound.
A few old Tower muskets and muzzle-loading guns
re also found in most villages.

XJnHke Singphos and Nagas, they do not stockade
their villages, but build these defences at a distance
to command all approaches, behind which they have
frequently stood very stoutly. Like all these savage
tribes they rely mostly on night attacks, ambuscades,
booby traps, and stone shoots, etc., on which they
will expend great labour. The religion of this tribe
is purely animistic. It was in 1826 that the Abors

IT2

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

were first visited by Englishmen, Messrs. Bedford
and Wilcox, in a friendly way, who went to Membu,
which they reported on as being the most important

Clearing Forest for Cami' Ground in the Abor Country.

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 113

of the tribal settlements and numbering 300 odd
houses. Some years after this an early Political
Agent with a strong vein of optimism describes the
Abors as being the most powerful and best disposed
of all the hill tribes — ^which description was not long
after shown to be wholly incorrect as regards their
disposition.

Trouble first occurred with the tribe in 1848
over what they considered their inalienable rights
over the Mirris, as well as to all fish and gold found
in the streams issuing from their hills. The Assam
Government had already begun to acquire con-
siderable revenue from the gold dust of these rivers,
which industry had long been carried on by Hindu
gold washers who gave conciliatory offerings of the
dust to the Abors. The Abors, finding these offer-
ings decreasing as the Hindu washers realised their
new position, the tribe raided into the plains and
carried off a number of these gold washers. This
necessitated Major Vetch, on duty at Sadiya, taking
a force across the border. At first there was no
opposition and the captives were given up, on which
Vetch began to retire, and had his camp seriously
attacked that night. The Abors were beaten off,
but the troops re-crossed the border unwilling to
risk anything further.

In the succeeding years a number of outrages
occurred, culminating in 1858 in a serious attack
on a village but six miles from Dibrughar. Kebang
village headed this raid, and an expedition at once
set out under Major Lowther, with no rifles and
two howitzers, to punish this village, which lies
some twenty to thirty miles above Pasighat on the

I

114 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

border. With this force went the Deputy Commis-
sioner, whose presence and authority tied Lowther's
hands, and various disagreements occurred. The
Deputy Commissioner placed too much rehance on
information with which he furnished the commander
of the column, and which was faulty. A point four
miles from Kebang village was reached, where a
stockade was met with from which fire was opened
and a bugler killed. The approach being difficult,
the force withdrew to renew the attack next day ;
but that night the Abors sturdily attacked the camp,
the troops got demoralised and retired out of the
hills. In doing so they were hustled the whole of
the way, and lost four killed and twenty-two wounded.
As all the neighbouring villages had now joined
Kebang, the discomfited expedition made ignomi-
nious haste for Dibrughar. For this failure both
Commander and Deputy Commissioner were severely
blamed by the authorities.

The repulse of this force naturally encouraged
the tribe to greater aggression, and in the following
year, 1859, another force under Major Hannay, with
300 rifles of the 42nd A.L.I., sixty gunners with
two howitzers and two mortars, were sent across the
border to go for Kebang. This force advanced as
the previous one had done to Pasighat, and thence
attacked two stockaded positions at Runkang and
Manku, where the Abors were driven out with a loss
to us of one killed and forty-four wounded. The
savages stuck well to their defences, and this together
with the difficult nature of the country and the great
number of coolies and elephants with the column,
took the heart out of Hannay and his men. After

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 115

a halt of a few days it was thought advisable to clear
out of the hills ; so without any attempt to reach
Kebang, the real objective, they retreated to the
plains with results to their efforts as unsatisfactory
as Lowther's had been.

Another determined raid in 1862 on another village
near Dibrughar, and on the south side of the river,
obliged a recourse to punitive measures again, and
Colonel Garston led a force of similar strength to
Hannay's against Runkang village. However, they only
got as far as Lallichapri when the civil official arrang-
ing a meeting and parley, a treaty was patched up
with the tribe, who agreed to respect the border on
consideration of a " quid pro quo." /As the arrange-
ment of " Posa " had never existed between the
Ahoms and Abors, Government agreed to a similar
custom as existed between it and the Daphlas ; and
the Abors became the recipients of " Posa," con-
sisting of iron hoes, salt, rum, opium, and tobacco ;
later this was turned into a monetary stipend of
Rs. 3,400 annually. Small wonder that the Abors
after all these futile efforts at punishment on our
part and their recent substantial gain should have
had an exaggerated notion of their own powers.
Their outrages in various petty ways still continued,
and still they received their " Posa " !

In 1 88 1 they crossed into the Mishmi country
and practically controlled one of the trade routes into
i Ithe interior, which necessitated a strong outpost of
300 rifles being located at Nizamghat, which over-
awed them for a time.

This unsatisfactory state of affairs and our apathy
towards the offenders continued up to 1893, when

1 2

ii6 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

one of our Mirri villages was raided by Pashi and
Menyong Abors, and captives were carried off. The
usual negociations for their restitution were made
with the usual empty results ; so, as the behaviour
of the Abors, their insolence and disregard of Garston's
treaty, was affecting the other tribes, notably the
Mishmis, a fifth expedition was organised against
them of 400 Military Police from Dibrughar, 100
rifles of the 44th Goorkha Rifles (now 8th G.R.)
and 1,500 coolies for transport. This well-equipped
force started across the border in January, 1894,
under command of Captain Maxwell.

The Political Officer with the column directed
the political side of the expedition and also controlled
in a large measure its general management, which,
as was only to be expected, produced disagreement
and some friction. Bomjur, Dambuk, and Silluk were
the first objectives, and the first village was taken
at dawn on January the 14th without opposition.
Dambuk was found strongly stockaded as usual a
mile or so in front of the actual village. The dense
forest prevented the possibility of any turning move-
ment, and as the first efforts of the advance guard to
rush the stockade failed, and the seven-pounder guns
made no effect, a general assault was ordered. The
Abors fought well, standing to their defences, keeping
up showers of arrows and stones while the attackers
were hacking at the chevaux de /rise of " panjis "
or bamboo stakes, which prevented their reaching the
stockade. At last the Abors gave way and the defences
were carried ; too late though 'in the evening to make
any further advance on the village, which next
morning was found deserted. A move was now

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 117

A MoRK Civilised P'orm of Suspension Bridge made by the
Troops in the Abor Country.

ii8 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

made against the villages of Mimasipu and Silluk,
both were destroyed, opposition only being met with
at the latter place. The Political Officer now learnt
that Damroh, a large village stated to be four long
marches further into the hills, had also taken their
share in the fighting, so an advance against it was
decided on. Transport and supply difficulties now
arose, and a halt was called until twenty days' rations
could be collected at Bordak, to which place the force
had advanced just below the junction of the Yamne
and Dihang valleys. This was now made the base,
while sick were returned to Bomjur, the starting-
point of the expedition. The Political Officer, relying
on local information, said it was quite unnecessary
to leave a strong guard at Bordak, to which Maxwell
disagreed, but as the management was in the hands
of the former, he gave in to the extent of a small
guard composed of weakly men under a native officer,
himself not fit. After nearly a month's delay the
rations were collected and the force advanced, leaving
seventeen rifles and forty-four coolies at Bordak ;
rations were to be sent on by x\bor coolies. Dukku,
two marches on, was reached without mishap, and
next day only six miles were made owing to the
difficult nature of the country, and a reconnoitring
party up the Yamne gorge was fired upon. The
next march only two miles were covered, and further
difficulties were experienced owing to the Abor coolies
deserting. The column was now in straits ; they
had been far longer on the road than had been
anticipated, and no supplies had reached them
from the base. An attempt was made to reach
Damroh with a flying column, now only some four

IX HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 119

miles off, and which was to destroy the place
and return the same day. This, however, failed,
the march being greatly delayed by having to turn
the enemy out of a great stone " shoot " arranged
far up on the hill side. So this column returned
at two o'clock in the day without having reached
its objective. The whole force had now to turn
back, no rations having come out from Bordak,
and en route the Abors opposed the retreat at Silli
and Dukku.

Bordak was duly reached, only to be found com-
pletely gutted, dead bodies strewing the camp and
the stores mostly destroyed. It transpired from the
one man alone who escaped the massacre that the
enemy had come into the camp in the guise of carriers
who were expected, and that while loads were being
distributed to them they suddenly set upon the small
guard, cutting down all right and left. This now
decided the Political Officer to leave the country,
but Maxwell persuaded him to stay long enough to
punish Padu and Membu villages, which must have
been concerned in the destruction of the Bordak
camp. Both villages were burnt with but little oppo-
sition, and the force withdrew to Sadiya by the end
of March.

The objects of this expedition can only be said
to have been half accomplished and at a very con-
siderable loss to us, namely, forty-nine killed and
forty-five wounded. Of course the " Posa " or annual
monetary stipend has been stopped since this, and
with one exception, that of an insignificant raid in
1903, this tribe has given no further trouble until
March, 191 1.

CHAPTER X

Mr. Noel Williamson, who had been PoHtical
Officer at Sadiya since 1904, had got on terms of
friendUness with both the Abors and Mishmis, and
had made one or two trips into the country of the
latter with intent to reach Rima, but had not succeeded.
He was a man of extraordinary tact and geniahty,
and from having been long in the Lushai and Naga
countries, and also at Sadiya, he had acquired con-
siderable insight into the characteristics of these
various savage peoples. Their friendship he had
gained while yet maintaining a strong hand, and he
was looked upon as one of the best of our border
officers. In 1909 he and Mr. Lumsden had made
a trip into the Abor hills to Kebang, and had been
invited to pay another visit. This was done a year
later when Williamson and Dr. Gregorson went into
the hills, hoping in the friendly attitude of the tribes-
men to be able to push up the Dihang river into the
unknown hinterland and discover the supposed falls
in that river which a former native explorer, Kinthup,
reported in 1882 as existing. This Kinthup travelled
down the Tsan Po from Thibet, and was taken captive
twice for periods of several months, but eventually
reached a point north of the Abor country which he

CH. X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 121

surmised must have been only thirty-five miles from
the plains of Assam, He saw the falls near a place
called Gyala Sindong, but was constrained to return
to Thibet. In March, 191 1, both Williamson and
Gregorson and their party came to grief, being
treacherously cut down by Kebang Abors of the
Menyong clan just after their arrival at a village,
Komsing, only two or three managing to escape.

To punish the Abors and also to explore and survey
this country, for, owing to China's movements in
Thibet and along the south-eastern borders of that
country, a real interest was at last being awakened in
this long stretch of unknown borderland, a large force
under the command of Major-General Bowers, C.B.,
consisting of the ist Battn. 2nd Goorkhas, ist Battn.
8th Goorkha Rifles, 32nd Sikh Pioneers, a company
of Sappers and Miners, a Signal Company and the
Lakhimpur Military Police Battalion, with usual staif
and two seven-pounder guns and the Maxim detach-
ment of the Assam Valley Light Horse, concentrated
at Kobo, forty-five miles above Dibrughar on the
Brahmaputra, where the base was established in
October, 191 1. With this force also went 3,000 Naga
transport carriers. During the summer the Military
Police Battalion had made a forward move at once
on hearing of the massacre, had rescued the sur-
vivors, and made a capital reconnaissance via Ledum
and Mishing, when they were recalled by Govern-
ment ; otherwise it is probable they would have been
able to effect seasonable and immediate punishment
of Kebang. They were, however, allowed to build
and hold a strong stockaded post at Balek throughout
the rains, thus holding the tribe in check. The

122 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

rainy season was exceptionally severe and long, and
it was not till near the end of October that the forward
move could be made in two columns, the main one
moving up the Dihang valley to Pasighat and Kebang,
while a smaller column of 500 rifles marched to
Ledum and Mishing to protect the left of the main
column, as the attitude of the neighbouring tribe of
Galongs, who are more allied to the Mirris than to
the Abors, was uncertain.

The official objects of this expedition were to
punish the Kebang and Komsing villages concerned
in the massacre, to reduce all clans to submission
throughout the country so as to facilitate survey and
exploration work, and to visit all the principal villages.
The Dihang was to be explored as far as the falls,
and information obtained enabling a suitable boundary
to be adopted with Thibet and China. The Ledum
column having no tracks to follow, which was not the
case with the main column, had to practically cut
every mile of their advance through the densest
jungle, and while the reconnoitring party was pushing
up to Mishing the first contact with the Abors was
made, the 2nd Goorkha scouts surprising and killing
a picquet. Mishing was later occupied, and till the
end of November nothing but small reconnaissances
were feasible owing to stringent orders from head-
quarters which forbade any night to be spent out
of camp. This for a long time obviated any chance
of active offence or wide reconnaissance work, and
lost more than one chance of bringing the enemy
to book ; and the column had to content itself with
rapid marches out and back in all directions, in which
on two or three occasions they were able to surprise

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 123

Native Cane Bridge of the Abor and Mishmi Countkip:s.

124 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

the enemy's ambuscading parties. At the end of
November these orders as to sleeping in the Mishing
Post were relaxed, and two small columns were
despatched against Korang village in the Galong
country. In November a strong reconnoitring party
from Mishing, along the Dihang and Kebang path,
not being allowed to combine with the main force,
the opportunity of well punishing the Abors at
Kekyar Monying, where nearly a fortnight was spent,
was lost. Parties were also now able to scour the
country almost as far as Rotang, where it was antici-
pated a junction would be made with the main column.
This latter force had in the meantime concentrated
at Pasighat on the 26th of October, and stockades
were built here and at Janakmukh on the line of
communication. On the 6th of November the force
reached the Sirpo river with no opposition, due
probably to the activity of the Ledum column, ahead
of, and on the left flank of, the main column. On
the 7th of November a reconnaissance came into
contact with the enemy, who were punished severely
with a casualty list to us of an officer severely wounded
in the thigh by a poisoned arrow, two riflemen killed,
and one wounded. Road-making by the pioneers and
sappers was going on slowly, contending, as these
had to, with ceaseless difficulties of gorge, jungle,
and hill side ; and the troops were more or less
held back until the efforts of the road-makers per-
mitted a short advance. On the 19th of November
Rotang village was reached, in front of which a large
stockade on the Igar stream was found and attacked
by the 8th G.R. in front and flank, who were received
by a fall of stones from " shoots " above, and a fire

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 125

of guns and arrows. A flanking party, after a severe
climb, succeeded in capturing the stockade with a
few casuahies in several wounded by the stone
" shoots " and one by a gunshot. Ten days were
spent at Rotang roadmaking, collecting supplies and
reconnoitring. As the main column was now abreast
of the Ledum one, this was broken up, and after
locating two companies of Military Police to hold
Mishing, it was ordered to march across the hills
and join headquarters at Rotang, which was done
after three days' severe marching in heavy rain.
The large stockade at Kekyar Monying was now found
barring a continuation of the advance up the Dihang,
and a force of one company 2nd Gs. and three com-
panies 8th G.R. with the Maxim detachment of the
Assam Valley Light Horse were sent across the
Dihang on the 3rd of December, the sappers manag-
ing with great labour to get a hawser over to the
other bank, and by 11 p.m. the little force was across.
It was, however, charged by Abors in the dark as
it crawled through the forest, when two riflemen
of the 2nd Gs. were cut down and killed by a party
of Abors who got close in. Next morning, this
force having got into position and the left flank
attack being also nearly ready, the whole advanced,
and the great stockade was easily captured, thirty
Abors being killed, with no loss to us. Five days
more were spent here, and on the 9th of December,
Kebang, the main objective for punishment, was
reached, sixty-two miles from the border which the
force had left on the 22nd of October. It was found
deserted, a condition about which there had never
been much doubt ; and after its destruction a wing

126 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

of the 8th G.R. pushed on to Yemsing, cutting its
way through the jungle instead of going by the main
path, with the result that they surprised and inflicted
loss on the enemy. The first phase of the expedition
was now over, but although Kebang had been reached
and destroyed it was found the Menyong Abors had
only vanished into their forests and showed no signs
of submission, as was evidenced by many cases of
convoys being fired on and telegraph wire cut. More
activity being now displayed in scouring the country
round Yemsing and Kebang, large amounts of grain
and cattle were captured and a few small hostile parties
dispersed; while, in the early days of 19 12, the Abors
came in seeking peace when they realised most of their
villages were occupied and food supplies carried off",
in addition to losing possibly 200 men. Punitive
operations now being considered at an end, those
who had chiefly participated in Mr. Noel Williamson's
massacre having been given up, tried and sentenced,
and looted rifles returned, attention was directed to
survey and exploration.

When the force crossed the border it was not known
what the attitude of the various other clans would
be. Rumour said the Panghi and Padam clans
would join with the Menyongs, but these, having had
no hand in the massacre, though hostile, were not so
openly ; merely sitting on the fence for a time, as
it were, until they realised the desirability of pro-
fessing unswerving friendship to us.

At the end of December then, two exploration
and survey columns left headquarters, one to move
through the Panghi and Padam Abor country under
Colonel Macintyre with 100 rifles 2nd Goorkhas

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 127

and carriers for supplies, and which, after visiting
all the principal villages as far as Damroh a large
one of 800 houses, completed a very successful tour
by early March.

The other one, under a civil official, with 100 rifles
8th G.R. and carriers for twenty-four days' supplies,
went up the Dihang to survey the course of that
river, but can hardly be said to have met with con-
spicuous success. On one occasion, at Shimong, it
was touch and go whether another regrettable inci-
dent, even possibly a massacre, might not have
taken place, which was fortunately averted by the
timely arrival of a party of troops, this occasion
having arisen through our mistaken and over-friendly
attitude to a people of doubtful intentions. Rain
and mist interfered with survey work, and the Naga
coolies were greatly exhausted with marching. How-
ever, this party did make a dash and got some
distance beyond Shimong, which was found to be,
with its sister village of Karko, a sort of barrier between
Thibet and Assam ; these two strong villages on
either side of the Dihang, allowing no Thibetans to
pass south and no Abors or Assamese to pass up.
From here a broadish, well-defined trade path led
towards Thibet, trodden by hundreds of laden yak
bringing commodities to Shimong, whose inhabi-
tants distributed the same throughout the northern
Abor clans. Another yak road was also noticed
leading up the Siyom river below Karko. A certain
amount of work was done by this party, who fairly
well established the identity of the Tsan Po with the
Dihang, and consequently with the Brahmaputra.
In late March, 19 12, the Abor force, originally con-

^128 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

sisting of eighty British officers and 3,000 fighting-
men broke up and returned to India. The casuahy
Hsts showed twenty-one British officers sent to
hospital sick, of whom one died, while 850 of other
ranks were treated for sickness or wounds. Shortly
after their return a medal was granted to this force.
The veil of interest and mystery surrounding the course
of the Tsan Po and its falls it was hoped would have
been cleared up with exploration and surveys, and
reports were eagerly looked forward to not only by
us, but by geographers of all nations. Hopes, how-
ever, in these matters, entertained more heartily by
none than by the Survey of India, were fated to be
deferred ; and this particular locality still remains
about the least known of any in India or, indeed,
in Asia.

Thus ended the sixth expedition against the Abors,
and we may now glance briefly at what each accom-
plished, or rather what most of them did not. We
have seen how, between 1848 and 1893, five expedi-
tions crossed the border. The first two failed utterly
owing to the irresolution of their leaders ; the third
was ineffectual owing to divided counsels produc-
ing some friction between the two authorities with
the force ; the fourth only effected a treaty never
respected by the tribesmen ; while the fifth also
suffered in its arrangements and energy due as
before to divided counsels which, when permitted
to exist, can never make for a harmonious and
successful issue to expeditionary work. With the
sixth, the expedition we have just dealt with. Govern-
ment has expressed its satisfaction, and as nothing
was said about the expense stated by Sir F. Wilson

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

129

to have been £124,300 (including the small Mishmi
mission), we can presume it was thought rightly
spent. But it has been found still necessary to
complete the work expected of it by large survey
parties and strong escorts entering those hills again
in the winter of 19 12-13. These, however, through
various delays in the making of preliminary arrange-
ments always in these wild border countries no very

MisHiNG Stockade — Leafand Bamboo Shelters for our Men —
Abor Country.

easy matter, were allowed to start only very late in
an unexpectedly good and dry season, whereby they
could not accomplish all that was desired, and the
work will probably be seen continued through the
winter, 191 3-14. It is generally said that dual control
exists no longer, and that commanders conduct their
own operations and see to their own political busi-
ness. In a sense it is true, but in another sense
it is not, and commanders now find themselves

K

130 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

controlled throughout by telegraph by those who
have never been near the scene of operations or
have any notion of the people to be dealt with. It
can hardly be said in favour of this system that it
engenders the confidence of a commander in himself
or calls forth his best efforts. In spite of all labour
expended on a good mule road and stockades built
to be garrisoned by Military Police, which was the
original intention, with a view to dominating the
country instead of merely going in and coming out
of the hills, final orders on breaking up of the force
showed to the regret of all ranks that this intention
had been abandoned. It had been hoped that the
post at Rotang would have been instrumental in
putting a stop to slave trading and other cruel

i practices of these savage tribes, and the final decision
was the more disappointing because the Abors (particu-

I larly the Panghi section) having learnt during our
stay to appreciate some of the blessings of civilisa-
tion, were anxious for a trading post and the benefits
of a hospital. Whether this policy is likely to pro-
duce good effects only the future can show. Past
history here does not offer much hope of permanent
friendly relations and good behaviour unless we
recast our methods in dealing with these frontier
tribes.

Of all hill expeditions of modern times, at least
on the eastern side of India, General Penn Symond's
action in putting down the disorders in the Chin
hills in 1889-90, can well be held up as an example
of successful operations of that nature, when he
overran the country with small columns, giving
neither himself, his troops, nor the enemy, any rest

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 131

until all opposition ceased. Even with him an effort
at dual control threatened to cause trouble, which
did occur once only in the south of those hills. As
to resolution and the lack of it, Lieutenant Eden's
famous exploit (which is dealt with in the Mishmi
account) in 1854 shows us what the former quality
can effect ; while a different tale would have been
told of Manipur in March, 1891, had that quality
prevailed and the Military head been supreme.

It will be said that the foregoing remarks on the
expeditions show only a carping criticism, without
offering suggestions for improved future methods.
But with the example of history before us what more
is needed } It is known that in 1899 Mr. Needham,
the knowledgeable man on the spot, declared a force
of some sixty rifles to be ample for the purpose of
entering these hills to exact punishment from a weak
tribe ; his advice went unheeded, with the result of
money wasted and nothing done, the force sent in
being too big and unwieldy. In this connection it
is an open secret that this particular expedition fell
under Lord Curzon's scathing condemnation, in which
he is said to have pointed out that had the original
suggested smaller force gone up, all results would
have been achieved at a cost of a few thousand rupees
instead of lakhs. This would point to an absence of
accurate knowledge as to the capability of the tribe
to be dealt with on the part of the controlling powers.
It would appear to have been better in 191 1 if, in
dealing with these little-known tribes and their
countries, the advice of the few, who, from their
official position, were most intimately acquainted with
them and with what is requisite in the nature of

K 2

132 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

expeditionary work, had prevailed. Of course it is
always easy to criticise and to find fault ; but it
certainly does seem as if expeditions in the past,
under faulty arrangements and this dual control, had
failed ; while present day ones, though showing greater
improvements in method, may be said to err on the
side of being unwieldy in size and over-elaborate in
arrangements, while far distant control of matters is
still also considered necessary.

In the case of this last expedition, 1911-12, the
tribes, in spite of their inflated idea of power, never
attempted to put up any fight against a large, slow-
moving force, knowing how futile their efforts would
have been ; which points to the correctness of the
statements of those who knew and those who were
with the force, namely, that one battalion of Military
Police with a backing of, say, two companies of
Goorkha regulars, could have rapidly done all punitive
work early, while roadmaking went on behind. As
soon then as opposition was over, probably in a fort-
night to three weeks, these Military Police and
Goorkhas would then have sufficed for escorts to the
survey parties which might then have ranged the
country.

These considerations surely point to the necessity
of the authorities with whom the final responsibility
as to what action in each case is to be taken must rest,
being supplied with the best and most reliable in-
formation, not only from the Civil authority, but also
from thoroughly qualified Military officers well
acquainted with all local conditions. Can it be said
that the recent withdrawal of the General Officer
Commanding and staff from the former Assam

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 133

Brigade and the transfer of their duties to the already
overburdened General Officer Commanding at Luck-
now, a week's hard travelling from any scenes of these
border operations, has tended towards efficiency in
this respect ?

In contrary distinction to this somewhat retro-
grade action on the part of the Military, the Civil
authorities, fully recognising the growing importance
of this borderland, have recently formed a Political
Agency with headquarters at Sadiya. The Assis-
tant Political Officer there, formerly subordinate to
the Deputy-Commissioner at Dibrughar, having been
replaced by a Political Officer working directly under
the orders of the Chief Commissioner of Assam.
This officer has now under him three English assis-
tants, each of whom is in charge of a particular tribe,
and the duties of these officers are to extend British
influence without stirring up hostility by needless
interference with tribal customs. The particular
officer chosen for this new duty shows that the so
often misinterpreted term " selection " has been most
satisfactorily applied in this case ; Mr. Dundas
having done sixteen uniformly successful years among
tribes on this border. It is therefore not unreasonable
to suppose that this new action will be productive of
the best results.

As before stated, the work of exploring and sur-
veying the Dihang valley and northern Abor country
having been but slightly touched upon in the winter
of 1911-12, this has again been carried on by strong
parties of Military Police and Royal Engineers through-
out that of 191 2-1 3 ; the work having been started
again in the neighbourhood of Kebang above which

134

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

one party worked west and north up the Siyom river,
while another continued far up the Dihang, hoping
to reach Pemakoi peak and possible even the great
falls of the Tsan Po. Both parties were expected to

Tyi'ICAl Ahoxs \vi ih WooDii.N Helmets.

meet eventually near Pankang and Janbo before the
close of the working season, when a considerable
amount of ground would have been covered and
mapped, and probably some definite idea of a frontier
decided upon. Recent reports on the work of the
various parties out surveying and exploring in these

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 135

difficult mountainous regions show that much has
been done to open up the country. From early
December, 19 12, the Abor surveys carried out most
valuable work under the able political direction and
management of Mr. Dundas, extending their opera-
tions until late in the rainy season, 191 3, and not
returning to civilisation till mid August, 191 3, after
enduring discomfort and hardships which can only
be realised by those who have lived in that corner
of India. By them accurate survey was carried out
as far north as latitude 29 30', and as far west as
longitude 94 30', while the officers were able to
cross the main Himalayan range by the Doshung-la,
and to carry plane tabling beyond the above northerly
limit, whereby they were able to establish the identity
of the Tsan Po with the Dihang river beyond all
doubt.

It was found that the Tsan Po breaks through the
main range a little north-east of a lofty mountain,
" Namchia Barwa," about latitude 29 7' and longi-
tude 95 3', and 25,741 feet high, by a stupendous
gorge which has probably never been traversed by
any human being. No possible track exists through
the gorge on either bank. The river, after passing
through this, bends towards the south. The state-
ment of the explorer Kinthup, who came far down
the Tsan Po in 1882, till close to the Abor hills
regarding the existence of falls on this great river
has not yet been verified ; but his evidence has been
corroborated in so many particulars by the Abor
surveys that there seems little reason to doubt his
veracity as to their existing. The operations have
now completed our geographical knowledge of these

136 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

frontier regions east of longitude 95', and with the
return of Captain Bailey, whose intention is to reach
Assam through eastern Bhutan, the gap left between
longitude 95 and Bhutan will be filled in.

That he and his companion, Captain Morshead,
have carried out their intention we now know, for in
November, 191 3, they emerged once more into Assam
near Dewangiri, having been as far up the Tsan Po as
they possibly could, and no doubt put up with very
great hardships in penetrating one of the last of the
few " secret places of the earth." Their reports,
when published, should be full of interest. At present
all that has been made public of their Tsan Po expe-
riences is that they found no falls at all, only a series
of long stretches of rapids. It seems not unlikely
that they were not able to get as far up as the locality
where the native explorer Kinthup saw them in 1882,
where a certain Chinese Captain stated he saw them
on his way to Pomed, or where a Thibetan Lama gave
evidence to Colonel Waddell of them, in proximity to
a large and ancient monastery situated just below these
falls. The latter officer had met many Thibetans
when in that country who had seen the falls and even
recognised a rough sketch of them drawn by his friend
the Lama. They also stated the locality to be one for
pilgrimages to be made to, in order to propitiate a
" King Devil " resident in the rush of the waters. So
that it is yet possible the mystery surrounding this
particular locality remains still to be solved.

It was found during the winter 19 12-13 that the
Abors now thoroughly realising that we can and
mean to go into their hills, and having received
certain lessons in the previous winter, had taken these

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 137

to heart ; for no serious molestation to parties was
offered, or hindrance to work. Of course they have
often tried the old game of " bluff," which, how-
ever, invariably subsided at the last moment.

An experience of one of these parties may be
mentioned as showing what patience, tact, and firm-
ness is required in dealing with these folk. A party
under Captain P. consisted of forty-six Military
Police Sepoys and Surveyors, and when far into the

Convoy Crossing a Stream in the Abor Country.

hills reached a point where the Abors seemed dis-
posed to dispute any further advance. The tribes-
men, to prevent us crossing the river, had cut away
the long swinging cane bridge just before our party
arrived ; and when these started to build rafts with
which to cross over, the Abors began firing at them
with bows and arrows from the forest and from
across the river. No damage was done, and our
Sepoys took no notice of this hostility. At last,
just before the rafts were ready, the Abors sent an

138 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

emissary who enquired why no notice was taken of
their arrows, and when were we going to fight ?
The interpreter explained that fighting was not our
intention, that we were quietly touring through" the
hills, and that early next morning we should cross
the river to their village, whereupon the Abors
quietly withdrew. Next morning the crossing was
effected and the Abors came forward to make friends,
confessing their foolishness in attempting hostility,
or to stop us ; for which they now found them-
selves punished in that all their " jhooms " (culti-
vation) lay on the far side of the river, the bridge
across which they had cut away, while our people
had used all the canes and cut all trees suitable for
anchoring the strands of a fresh bridge in order to
make their rafts. So the Abors were confronted
by the tedious and difficult task of making a fresh
cane bridge to cross by higher up. This sort of
" bluff " was often met with and treated calmly,
as in this instance.

An immense amount of country has now been
surveyed up to and beyond the main watershed of
the Himalayas in their locality, and great interest
centres round the party under Captain Bailey, who
alone are now left in the country, and who are working
their way up the Tsan Po river.

That there are large falls on this great river
received confirmation in a curious way. As stated
before, it was hoped the expedition of 1911-12 might
have been able to penetrate up to the Pomed border
and possibly to locate the falls. Had they done so,
it is now known they probably would have met
the Chinese, when boundai-y matters might have

X HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 139

had a satisfactory start. For amongst the Chinese
troops recently expelled from Thibet, who were
allowed passage to their own land through India,
was an officer of the Celestial forces who had been
with them in Pomed, who while they were there
heard of the movement of General Bowers' expedi-
tion and expected they might meet each other, and
who also substantiated the existence of the Tsan
Po falls as he and his troops camped in their vicinity.
Before leaving the Abors it would not be out of
place to touch on questions that were asked in
Parliament querying Mr. Williamson's presence in
their hills, and expressions of disapproval made as
to the need of sending a punitive expedition at all,
seeing he was murdered in a locality where, the
questioners state, he had no right to be. People
arguing on those lines have no idea of the gross slur
it would have been on us to have allowed such a
massacre to pass unnoticed, simply from the out-
look of economy and expense — which is really what
their objections mean ; nor do they realise what is
required of a frontier official and his life. He has
to be in touch with all tribes in his sphere of juris-
diction, to acquaint himself with all that is going on
on either side of the border, and to influence, if
possible, the wild folk in a right direction. For
obvious reasons Government lays down rules as to
the crossing of borders, and in 1872-73 a regulation
was drawn up prescribing a limit of direct admini-
stration which is known as the " Inner Line,"
namely, a boundary maintained at the discretion
of the Lieutenant-Governor, which British subjects
of certain classes are not allowed to cross without

140 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. x

a pass. This " Inner Line " shown on maps is not
the British frontier — it is merely a Hne fixed by
Government to guide the civil officers as to the
extent of their jurisdiction. No frontier officer could
adequately fulfil his duties if he sat year in year out
in his headquarter station, so to speak, merely listen-
ing to most likely unreliable reports brought in by
so-called " friendlies " ! Would McCabe, Davis,
Needham in Assam, and others in Burma have won
such credit as border officials if they had not, when
opportunity offered, accepted the responsibility for
exceeding their routine instructions in order to get
more in touch with wild people, whose customs and
countries stimulated their keenest interest, and thereby
gave Government a considerable amount of informa-
tion obtainable in no other way ?

CHAPTER XI

THE MISHMIS

The Mishmis are the close neighbours of the
, Abors, but are in no way kin to them, language and
customs being entirely different. The Dibong river
their western boundary, this tribe stretches north
and east of Hkamti Long, where Mr. Ney Elias, a
great authority on Burma border tribes, finds the
Mishmis closely allied to the Khunongs, showing
that the tribe now dealt with covers a very large
area, though how far north they reach is not known ;
but their country is generally said to be bounded on
the north and east by the Thibetan provinces of Pomed
and Zayul the fertile Lama valley, the capital of
which is Rima.

The Mishmis who merge into the interest surround-
ing their Abor neighbours do so by reason of a friendly
mission sent into their country simultaneously with
General Bowers' military expedition ; this was done
in order to prevent the possibility of any of them
joining in with the Abors, for survey work, and also
because of Chinese activity to the north and east of
their hills, and amongst whom that nation had, it
was reported, sent emissaries to claim their sub-

142 HLSTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

mission. ■- This tribe is divided into four sections
and are, on the whole, a weak race, the Meju and
ChuUkatta sections being, if the term can be apphed,
perhaps the most warhke. Like that of the Abors,
their country is extremely mountainous, covered with
dense forests and vegetation, particularly in the
outer and lower ranges, and is very difficult of access.
Their original habitat is supposed to have been the
highlands of north-east Thibet, whence, with the
Chins, they moved south, remaining in their present
locality while the other people moved further and
spread out. Their general strength is unknown, but
they are keen traders, greatly appreciating access to
the markets in the plains, and are like almost all
these tribes, worshippers of demons and evil spirits.
The majority of the Mishmis acknowledge their
dependence on us, though the Mejus consider them-
selves allies of Thibet, which feeling dates back to
1836, when the latter certainly assisted them against
the Digarus.

This terra incognita has stimulated several explorers
to penetrate their hills without much success, the
first to do so being Lieutenant Burlton in 1825, who
went up the Brahmaputra some distance above the
Dihing river, and reported that " the people were
very averse to receiving strangers." Two years later
Lieutenant Wilcox succeeded in entering the Meju
country, but the hostile attitude of one of the chiefs
obliged him to return. In 1836 Dr. Griffiths went
a little distance in, but was absolutely prevented
from going further by the Mejus anc^certain Singphos,
the latter, he states, seeming to have considerable
influence over the Mishmis. He was followed in

XI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 143

A MiSH.MI \'ILLAGE AMJ WaKRIOR.

144 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAAi chap.

1845 by Lieutenant Rowlatt, who got as far in as
the Du river, where he met Thibetans who turned
him back at Tuppang village. In 1851 a French
missionary M. Krick, made his way through the
hills under the guidance of a Hkamti chief, and,
avoiding the land of the hostile chief, Jingsha,
reached Walong. Here he was well received and
had a go6d view of the Lama valley, but was not
allowed to enter it. Three years later with a col-
league M. Bourri, he again essayed to pass through
the hills, and actually camped in the vicinity of Rima,
when they were followed by another hostile chief,
Kaisha, who, for motives of plunder, murdered
both Frenchmen. On news of this outrage reaching
India Lord Dalhousie, feeling something should be
done in retribution, permitted Lieutenant Eden to
undertake the work. Eden with a small party of
twenty rifles of the Assam Light Infantry and forty
Hkamti volunteers with a few carriers, moved into
the hills from Sadiya in February, 1855, and made
one of, if not the most, successful of minor expedi-
tions in all our punitive outings in Assam ; for, after
eight days' forced marching, swinging over dangerous
torrents on bridges of single canes, experiencing
bitter cold, and showing wonderful endurance of
great hardships inseparable from rapidity of move-
ment, in the grey dawn of a misty morning he
reached and surprised Kaisha 's village on the Du
river with the aid of a friendly chief Lumling, who
joined in just in time. After a sharp struggle, in
which two of Kaisha's sons and many followers were
killed in open fight, his people were dispersed. The
greater part of the stolen property w^as recovered,

XI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 145

as well as M. Krick's Singpho servant ; and the
victorious little party returned to Sadiya with the
chief Kaisha, who was duly hanged in Dibrughar,
but not before he had managed to kill two warders.
Such an exploit did not fail to astonish and over-
awe the surrounding tribes. The completeness of
Eden's success was, however, somewhat marred by
Government's refusal to assist the chief Lumling,
who shortly afterwards was set upon by a relative
of Kaisha's who, with the aid of the Chulikatta
section, completely exterminated the chief's family
and people. Lumhng was a Meju, and this action
of the Government has led to a lasting and bitter
feeling by that tribal section towards the British.
Twelve years later, Mr. T. T. Cooper, when in their
hills, found this feeling existing. Cooper was a
political official in China, was deputed in 1870 to open
a tea trade route from India to China, and found
his way into south-west China, hoping to reach Assam
via Bhatang and Rima. He, however, only got as
far as the former place when he was arrested by
Thibetan Lamas, and had to return after great hard-
hips, to Shanghai. In the following year he came
to India to make the attempt from the Assam side,
and at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in
Calcutta several routes were discussed, chiefly those
from Bhamo to Talifu ; and from Bhamo through the
Hukong valley to Dibrughar, and so to Calcutta.
On this latter, proposals already had gone up for
the Hukong valley to be properly surveyed. Cooper,
however, favoured and explained the Mishmi route,
which view the Chamber accepted, giving him Rs. 6,000
towards expenses of the journey. Any route lying

146 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

through Thibet was known to be impracticable, as
the Lamas monopoHsed the tea trade and had their
own settled routes further west through Sikkim and
Bhootan, and from the east (China) through Ta-
chien-loo, and forbade private enterprise. Cooper
journeyed up the Brahmaputra, reached the sacred
shrine at Brahmakund, and with the help of a young
Hkamti chief, got as far as the Larkong mountain,
which forms a defined boundary between Assam and
Thibetan ground. He got no further, however, being
stopped by two Thibetan officials and constrained
toeive up the attempt and return.
/[IjCooper makes some interesting remarks on our
border methods, and compares them with those
adopted by the Chinese, condemns the blockade
system to punish tribes as being calculated to produce
lasting feelings of antagonism, and speaks of the
wisdom of relieving the whole of northern Assam
from invasion and violence by Government's system
of " Posa " (which has been described before), which
yearly expenditure of a few hundred pounds has
produced useful and good effects. He favourably
compares China's methods of dealing with her border
tribes, with ours, stating that country centuries back
began subjugating and making friends with them,
distributing " Posa," and thus creating a capital
system of frontier guards, as it were, along her distant
boundaries. The chief of every tribe has also ^
nominal rank conferred upon him, and an annual
stipend, while he is given an official dress which he
is obliged to wear in the presence of Chinese
functionariesT |

In 1885, Mr.' Needham, Political Agent at Sadiya,

XI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 147

reported that he had orot through the hills and reached
the district of Zayul. He was, however, not allowed
near Rima when he got into its neighbourhood on
his return.

The Mishmis have only once given a little trouble
since 1855, namely, when the Bebejiya section mur-
dered four people near Sadiya and carried off three
persons and three guns. For this it was thought
necessary to send a large force into the hills, and
1,200 troops with two mountain guns moved out
from Sadiya on the ist of December, 1899, returning
on the 8th of February, 1900, having encountered
no opposition (which, indeed, was never expected
from the Bebejiyas). A small party only reached
Hunli in the central valley which was deserted, and
beyond a small amount of survey work and a large
expenditure of money, namely, two and a half lakhs,
it may well be said nothing was accomplished. On
this occasion, it might be suggested, Lieutenant
Eden's exploit could have been copied and would
have sufficed.

In 1895 Prince H. d'Orleans made his adventurous
journey from Tonkin across south-west China, eventu-
ally reaching Assam via Rima and Sadiya. No other
European has been allowed through that town or
country until Captain Bailey, late trade agent at
Gyantze in Thibet, when in China in 191 1 success-
fully managed his return to India by a long hazardous
march via Bhatang to Rima and Sadiya. From his
pen we may obtain some very interesting information
as well as from the results of the exploring and road-
making parties at work in this country throughout
the winter of 19 12-13. These latter were employed

L 2

148 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

making a mule road up the Lohit valley to Walong,
a place on the, at present, undefined frontier a little
south-west of Rima, as well as exploring the valleys
of the Dibang and Dri rivers further north in the
Mishmi hills. And we now know from their reports,
on completion of operations in these hills in late
May, 191 3, that the basin of the Dibang river has been
completely surveyed and found to be shut in by a
lofty mountain range which none of the rivers of
Thibet break through. The making of bridle paths
up the Lohit and Dibang valleys proved most labori-
ous work, but was successfully carried out for many
marches in each case.

The Hkamtis

With these people and their neighbours, the
Singphos, we reach the connecting link between the
Assam and Burma border peoples. They are of the
same race as the Ahoms with this difference, that
they are Buddhists, and only arrived in the Sadiya
district in the end of the eighteenth century, where,
first settling on the Tengapani river, they crossed
the Brahmaputra, ousted the Assamese governor of
Sadiya and took that corner of Assam, where the
British in 1825 left them alone on consideration of
their agreeing to keep up a small force for the pre-
servation 9f_order. In 1825 they assisted us against
the Singphos, and in 1835, on the death of the old
Hkamti chief, his son, openly disobeying our orders,
was deported, and a British Political Agent was sent
to Sadiya to administer the country.

Four years later, as we have previously seen, the

XI

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

149

Hkamtis rose and attacked Sadiya, killing Colonel

White and many others. Since this they have never

given further trouble. / Their country, Bor Hkamti,

as the Assamese call it,

and tikamti Long by the

Burmese, is very little

known/ though it has been

visited a few times by

Wilcox in 1828, by Wood-

thorpe and Macgregor in

1884, by Errol Gray in

1892, and in 1895 Prince

H. d'Orleans passed

through the northern

corner of it ; all of whom,

with the exception of the

latter, entered from the

Assam side. _,T heir

country, somewhat less

mountainous than those

further west, possesses

many broad, fertile, and

well cultivated valleys ;

while they themselves are

an intelligent and even

literary folk, and far more

civilised even than the

Assamese. Prince H.

d'Orleans remarks on their

appearance, which strongly resembles that of the

Laos towards French Indo-China, while the dress

of their women is similar. Both sexes are great

smokers, using a long pipe, often three feet long.

A SiXGPHO OF THE EASTERN' PaTKOI.

150 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

with met^ bowl, silver mouthpiece, and bamboo
stem. iJThe Hkamtis are entirely an agricultural folk
— rice, opium, and linseed being largely cultivated
in the valleys. Their villages are always strongly
stockaded, the houses inside rather crowded, and the
numbers of temples and pagodas showing up among
the surrounding forests, give a very picturesque note
to the attractive and wild scenery. Some of their
temples are of great size, one described by Mr. Errol
Gray stands in a forest covered island in the Nam
Kiu river, and is in regular Burmese style, ninety-
five feet high and 125 feet in circumference at the
base ; four flights of stone steps lead up to the plinth
on which it stands, each flight guarded by gigantic
figures of fabulous beings. At each face of the
compass on the plinth are four marble images of
Buddha of excellent workmanship. Hkamti Long
is connected with the outer world by two chief
routes, the western one leading down the Nam Kiu to
Assam, the south-eastern one 120 miles to Tamanthe
on the Chindwyn river. The rainfall in these hills
is very heavy and during the cold weather thick
mists hang about, obstructing all views, often till
mid::ilay.—

/Their neighbours, the Singphos, inhabit both sides
of the Patkoi range, their old home having been in
the Hukong valley on the south and east of that
range. Here they are independent, and have been
but rarely visited by Europeans. Roughly, their
country is bounded by that of the Hkamtis in the
north, the Naga hills and Sadiya district on the west,
the independent tribes of Upper ^Burma on the east,
and Burma proper to the south. The Patkoi range

XI

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

i^i

rises to about 6,000 feet and is easy of passage, the
passes being low and easy and the total distance
across the range is only some seventy miles. The
upper Chindwyn waters the Hukong valley, which
is really a broad, fertile plain fifty miles in length
by a varying breadth of fifteen to forty miles. Dense

Two Hkadmen in .Masungja.mi, Western Patkoi.

forests cover the surrounding hills. The Singphos
are identical with the Kachin (Chingpaw) of Burma,
and are described as a fine athletic race, singularly
honest, and not lacking in intelligence. They were

152 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

addicted to raiding-for slaves, of which they took a
number from Assan]i( but it is averred never treated
them badly. Every village looks after its own interests,
only a few groups of villages are known to combine
under one chief. It is believed they can turn out
close on 10,000 fighting-men who are armed with
spears, daos, and some matchlocks, for which a fair
powder is made in the Hukong valley. At the time
of the Burmese War this tribe had been worrying
the Hkamtis of Sadiya, who appealed to us for assist-
ance. The Singphos, fearing they might be expelled
from lands they valued in the Brahmaputra valley,
came to treat with the British authorities. As this
tribe deals largely in slaves, a procedure not tolerated
by our Government, difficulties arose, and the Singphos
suddenly joined in with the Burmese force advancing
to reconquer Assam in May, 1825. These had reached
the Noa Dihing and were met by Captain Neufville
with 300 Sepoys and two gunboats, when in an action
twenty-five miles from the mouth of the Dihing
river he routed the Burmese with some loss, and
followed them to Bisa on the west side of the Patkoi.
At Dapha, a strong stockaded position held by some
300 Burmese and a few cavalry, was captured on the
way ; and near Bisa Neufville came on a large force
of Burmese and Singphos drawn up in the open in
line, with a force of cavalry on the right. At the
time Neufville had but 200 Sepoys and some Hkamti
auxiliaries, but forming these into line, he attacked
without hesitation. A few volleys created confusion
amongst the cavalry, and a bayonet charge of his line
ended the fight, the enemy broke and were pursued
some miles. Neufville then held the Patkoi passes,

XI

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

153

while his Hkamti and Moamaria aUies scoured the
country and put a stop to all Singpho opposition for
a time. Ten years later the Dapha Gam, one of the
four prominent Singpho chiefs, crossed the Patkoi

The Mokan'g at Nokching, Western Patkoi,

WITH Huge Carved Serpent on Front Supporting

Timber 35 feet high.

from the Hukong country and attacked the Gam of
Bisa under our protection. To repel this invader,
Captain Charlton was ordered out from Sadiya with
300 Sepoys, who had a stiff fight with the Dapha
Gam's force on the way, and finally retook the Bisa

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

stockades by assault, with losses on both sides.
After this, for the better protection of this part of the
country military posts were established at Bisa,
Koogoo, and Ningroo. But for some years the
Singphos were in a disturbed and discontented state
due to their being deprived of their slaves ; and in
1843 they broke out again. The Hukong men again
came over, and both the Koogoo and Ningroo posts
were sturdily attacked ; but as there were British officers
at these posts the enemy were beaten off. At Bisa,
which was only held by a native officer's detachment,
they succeeded in inflicting such loss that the native
officer surrendered, upon which most of his men
were killed at once and the remainder sold as slaves.
A large force coming up from Assam the situation
improved, and ended with severe punishment being
inflicted on several turbulent villages, since when no
further trouble has occurred in this part of the hills,
and a few years later these posts were given up. The
Singphos, however, not appreciating British rule,
have largely returned to the Hukong country, where
slavery still flourishes. In 1892 Mr. Needham
visited this valley and found the people well dis-
posed towards him ; and in 1896, owing to the idea
of linking Assam with upper Burma by railway, a
survey party with a strong escort of the Lakhimpur
Military Police Battalion from Dibrughar under
Captain Roe crossed the Patkoi, went down the Hukong
valley, and at Mayankwan joined hands with a similar
survey party from Burma. No^trouble was experi-
enced here during this work. L How far to the south
of the Patkoi the Singphos extend is not known, but
it is believed they largely form the inhabitants of

XI

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

OD

the extensive tract of country lying between the
upper Chindwyn and the Naga hills district, which
is so-called " unadministered territory " — unmapped
and unexplored.) Two or three punitive expeditions

The Great Morang or Guard House ix Masuxgja.mi
Village, Western Patkoi.

from the Naga hills have penetrated into this area
a little way, and generally found opposition ; and,
in 1910, it was found necessary to send a small column
from Kohima and one from Tamanthe, an outpost
on the Chindwyn, against a strong village of Mak-
warri, a little north of the Saramethi peak. The two

156 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. xi

columns joined hands, punished Makwarri, and did
a Uttle survey work, but were not in the country
long enough to effect much. The Burma Military
Police found their way out of these hills by a more
northern route, coming out on the Chindwyn at
Heinsun.

CHAPTER XII

BURMA BORDER TRIBES

With the last tribe we leave the portion of the
north-eastern frontier administered by the Assam
Government, and enter on the border lands con-
trolled by that of Burma. In 1900, when the Upper
Burma Gazetteer was published, the north and north-
east boundaries had not been finally demarcated, and
although since then several boundary commissions
have been out, the entire line of frontier cannot be said
to have been completely defined.

The results of surveying and exploration work done
in 1911-12 and 1912-13 may complete the line, and
will have revealed much of interest in the unknown
country far beyond Myitkhyina towards Thibet, and
also more to the north-east towards China ..JThe length
of this northern Burma border is roughly 540 miles
from the Singpho hills on the west along the Chinese
border of the Province of Yunnan to the north-
east, and the Chinese Shan States and French Indo-
China to the east. Within these limits, and admini-
stered as semi-independent States, are the Northern
Shan States, the Momeik (Mcingmit) State and
Hkamti Long State, which latter, with the Kachin

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

hills north of the confluence of the Mali-Kha and
Nmai-kha rivers, are only indirectly under our admini-
stration. In the Upper Chindwyn district are the two
small States of Thaungthut and Sinkaling Hkamti.
Peculiar interest is given to these eastern borders by
the fact that we are in this direction brought into

^_direct touch with the Chinese, Siamese, and French.

/ On the southern side of the Chinese boundary, the

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Scenery in the Patkoi Rangp: near Hukong Valley,
about 4,000 feet el.

Shan andjvachin hills are largely imadministered and
unknown.

JJpper Burma is arranged in natural divisions by its
important rivers the Irrawadi, Chindwyn, and Salween,
the first and last rising far beyond our confines in the
unexplored tracts where India, Thibet, and China
meet ; while the Chindwyn rises nearer in, namely,
in the hills south-west of Thama, whence as the Tanai,
it flows through and drains the Hukong valley, and
from whence on it is known as the Chindwyn. These

XII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 159

rivers flow southward, and of those in the Kachin
hills north of the confluence but little is known ; none
of these seem navigable, and, except in the rains, all
are fordable. This part of the province is encircled
by walls of mountains densely forest-clad, and peopled
by tribes of whom but little is known to us ; a few
intrepid travellers, such as Cooper, Woodthorpe,
Prince H. d 'Orleans, and Errol Gray only having
ventured far afield into them.

Of the two streams, the Mali-kha to the west and
the Nmai-kha to the east, which unite some 150 miles
above Myitkhyina to form the great Irrawadi, the
former is navigable for country boats to a consider-
able distance, namely, up to Sawan, while the latter,
owing to rapids is quite impracticable for any sort
of boat. The course of the Nmai-kha is unknown
at present. A little north of these regions the country
was traversed by Prince H. d 'Orleans and party in
1895 from Tonking to Sadiya. They were five
months marching and struggling through this tangled
mass of mountains, forests, and wild strange tribes,
the country quite impracticable for baggage animals
between the Salween and Irrawadi, until they got
distant views of the snowy ranges beyond the Brahma-
putra. Their delight at emerging from endless gloomy
gorges into the more open Hkamti Long country lead-
ing down into the Assam valley can be well under-
stood. The course of the Salween is stated to be
unequalled for wild and magnificent scenery, which,
flowing through stupendous gorges where it comes
into British territory, is likened to that of a deep
ditch with banks 3,000 to 6,000 feet high. The passes
in these regions are all of considerable altitude, many

i6o HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

being of 12,000 feet and over, while the Kachin hills,
which merge northward into the high mountains just
mentioned, present a mass of smaller ranges between
the upper Chindwyn and upper Irrawadi running
north and south and rising up to 6,000 feet or so,
with no flat ground anywhere from the well-watered
plain about Myithkyina, till the Hkamti Long country
is reached, which is practically the upper valley of the

The Irrawadi at Myitkhyina.

Mali-kha. Beyond this, again, Mr. Errol Gray, who
visited this locality in 1891, describes the view over
this terra incognita as that of " a succession of ranges
of forest-clad mountains spreading out like the fingers
of the open hand to the south, converging to the
north until massed in the high snows of the Thibetan
ranges which stretch southwards and, covered with
deep snow, limit the view to the east." This latter
high range being the watershed between the Nmai-

XII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM i6i

kha and Salween rivers. East of these Kachin hills
and north to north-east of Bhamo is a rugged mass
of hills ranging from i,ooo to 10,000 feet, and which
reach their highest point apparently north-east of the
Military Police outpost of Sadon. The North Shan
States which run up to our official border, lie east
of Bhamo across the broad Shweli valley, and are
mostly of the nature of elevated undulating plateaux
at a general height of 2,000 to 3,000 feet, seamed
here and there by mountain ranges, starting from
Thibet and running southwards, which split up and
run into one another, sinking gradually down to the
Irrawadi and Salween valleys to the west and east
respectively. Loi Ling, the highest mountain mass
in this area, attains 8,840 feet ; while several other
peaks are between 6,000 and 7,000 feet high. Across
the Salween the country is much less open, and con-
sists of confused masses of intricate hills. In all this
area the rainy season may be said to commence late
in April, and to continue off and on till August, usually
the wettest month ; the annual rainfall varying between
sixty inches in the more open country to one hundred
in the higher ranges. Such then is the character of
our north-east frontier as carried on beyond the limit
of Assam until French Inda=China territory is reached
on the Mekhong river. I Of all the tribes dwelling
along these borders, the most numerous, powerful,
and interesting are, taking them as met with going
from Assam eastwards, the Kachins (Chingpaw) and
Shans (Tai). But in considering these we will begin
with the latter as they, from the ethnological point
of view, arrived in upper Burma first.

The Shan, or Tai race of Indo-Siamese origin at

M

1 62

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

present is the most widespread and numerous in the
Indo-Chinese Peninsula, being found from Assam to
Bankok and well into the Chinese Provinces of Yunnan
and Kwangsi. The cradle of this, as with all the races
in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, is the region of the
head waters of the Irrawadi and other great rivers
in the mountainous region of north-eastern Thibet,

A Shan Man.

whence successive waves of emigration have popu-
lated the country far to the south. A French savant,
M. Terrien, places this race cradle in the Kiunlung
mountains north of Ssu-chuan, and is of opinion the
Shan migration began towards Siam about the end
of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century a.d.,
and that their earliest settlements lay in the Shweli

XII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 163

valley east of Bhamo. It is generally believed the
Tai peoples migrated first in the far-off past, and,
taking a westerly trend, occupied Siam and the country
to the south of it. Certain it is that they followed
up this migration by one later, when they trekked
west across the Mekhong and Salween, gradually
occupying upper Burma until an outlying portion of
this wave of advance reached Hkamti Long, which
was then inhabited only by a weak Kachin tribe, the
first party of one of the great Kachin migrations
which had begun to move south from north-eastern
Thibet. The Tai race gradually consolidated a strong
kingdom between the upper Irrawadi and upper
Chindwyn, known in early times as that of Pong,
the capital of which still remains in the present town
of Mogoung. But in the long period of time, before
the Pong kingdom could make itself felt, the Kachins
were increasing in numbers in Hkamti Long, and in
course of time expanded across the Patkoi range and
down the Hukong valley, driving the Tai (Shan)
peoples before them, and so isolating the early Shan
colony in Kkamti Long, which explains the presence
of this interesting and somewhat cultivated section so far
from its brethren and now surrounded by other peoples.
The increasing power of the Shans of Pong, however,
arrested the advance of the Kachins and thrust them
back, not in the direction whence they had come,
but in the direction of the Mali-kha river.

Siam is said to have become a kingdom in the very
early part of the fourteenth century, and previous to
this no authentic history of this people exists, nothing
but fabulous tales and legends ; though here and there
ancient Chinese chronicles refer to the growing

M 2

1 64 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

strength of this people. That they had settled forms
of government is shown by the Pong kingdom which
existed long previous to the fourteenth century, and
is proved by Captain Pemberton's discovery in 1835
at Manipur of an old Shan chronicle which, on trans-
lation, was found to contain interesting records of
Shan doings at Mogoung. It was from this kingdom
that, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, Chuk-
apha, the Tai ruler, invaded Assam, subduing various
tribes and establishing the Ahom dynasty, which we
have seen in the history of that province was for six
centuries almost the dominant power in that part of
India. According to Burman chronicles, the earliest
invasion of Wesali Long, as they called Assam, was
in the middle of the twelfth century, when a Tai
king, Samlungpha, marched an army of 900,000 across
the Patkoi, received the submission unopposed of the
Assam ministers, and returned. This, however, is
most improbable, although the Burmese national era,
and with it more or less regular records began about
638 A.D., as the Ahoms themselves make no mention
of any earlier western trek than that which occurred
in the thirteenth century .[_&ut long before either the
Pong or Siamese kingdoms made themselves known,
the Shans had made an earlier State for themselves
in southern China, namely, that of Nanchao (or
Talifu) which, according to Chinese chronicles un-
ravelled by Mr. Parker, was very powerful and quite
independent until the Mongol invasion of Kublai
Khan in 1253 a.d. This Nanchao kingdom appears
to have been most extensive touching Maghada
(Bengal) on the west, Thibet on the north, and Cam-
bodia on the south, which latter State the chronicles

XII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

165

allude to as " the Female Prince State," as a queen
of that country married an Indian adventurer who
came from Camb5d in western India, and gave, the

jiain,e of his original home to his new country.

From Parker's translation we learn that the Shans

~in Nanchao were powerful and well organised, and
although Chinese history maintains they formed part
of their empire, yet it is certain that they were an

Shan Tkadeks.

independent community with ministers of state, record
officers, officers of commerce, and an army with its
usual departments. This all ceased to exist when
they were no longer a conquering power, which began
to come about in the middle of the eleventh century ;
and when the Chinese forces, after many efforts,
succeeded in splitting the Nanchao kingdom in two
taking the northern part, of which Talifu was the
most important city. The southern part, left to itself,
spread and acquired supremacy over Siam and Burma ;

i66 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

until in our own times, with the exception of their
Siamese brethren, the Shans deteriorated and came
successively under Chinese, then Burmese, and finally
English rule. _

I The first definite capital the Shans possessed in
upper Burma is said by Mr. Ney Elias to have been
Cheila, now the modern Selan, on the Shweli valley
to the north-west of the present North Shan States.. ^
Selan is now a village of no great size, but has signs
of a bygone importance. It stands on the highest
part of an irregular shaped plateau 200 to 300 feet
above the Shweli, and this plateau is completely
surrounded by an entrenched ditch, in many places
forty to fifty feet deep. There is no doubt a wall
once existed, but this has long since completely
mouldered away. A few miles off across the
Shweli is Pang Hkan, also another old city with
remains of an earth parapet and ditch enclosing a
large area. Burmese history is silent with regard to
this particular Shan power, but Tai chronicles indicate
that it was probably in fair prosperity about the ninth
century ; while Mr. S. W. Cocks, in his work on
Burma, goes so far as to state the Shan rule was prac-
ticably supreme in Burma with the exception of
Arrakan, by the beginning of the fourteenth century.
By the middle of the fifteenth century the Burmese,
however, had established their authority over the
Shans, which condition having lasted one hundred
years, was upset by the Shans of Mogoung, who
revolted so successfully that they conquered the Burmese
and practically reigned at Ava some thirty odd years.

Mogoung bears even now every evidence of having^
once been a large and thriving centre in which can

XII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 167

be seen long stretches of paved streets, while the entire
surrounding country for scores of miles bears traces
of well-used roads and ruins of substantial bridges.
But wars with the Burmese in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and finally its sack by the Kachins,
in 1883, brought about its ruin ; which, but for the

/dv^nt of the British, would have been permanent,
s As in Assam, so in upper Burma, devastating wars
had led in the past to the entire depopulation of once

Ancient "\'allum" and Gateway in Mogoung District.

thriving tracts of country, and the luxuriant forest
growths have covered and obliterated almost all traces
of towns and fortsT] Here and there in the depth of
almost primeval forest one may come upon a '* vallum "
on which stand trees of fifteen feet girth and more ;
this may often enclose a space from one half to two
miles* square, round the outside of which can be
traced the moat, often fifteen feet or more across and
ten feet deep, but now filled with vegetation and cane
break instead of water. The mouldering ramparts are

i68 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

sometimes found to be ten to twenty feet high, and
must have engaged the labour of a host through
several years to build up. Here and there a tumulus
may be found covered by pipal frees and the earth
of jthite ants.

/ The Shans have now become largely assimilated to
'The Burmese, their dress and even language is going ;
while their written character, being less and less used,
will soon disappear, except perhaps in the Hkamti
Long country. Shans are found for more than one
hundred miles north of Mogoung, as also in the
Hukong and Tanai valleys, the latter being the name
of the chief source of the Chindwyn river. They are
now great traders, though usually on a small scale
as they lack capital ; but of late years, with the open-
ing of roads and railways and the general safety of
the same, the volume of traffic which consists in the
main of pickled and dried tea, bullocks, ponies, hides
and horn, sugar, potatoes, and lac, has greatly in-
creased.' Shans almost always surround their villages
with bamboo or fruit and flowering trees, giving
them an appearance of comfort and beauty. They
bury their dead in groves near the village or out in
the jungle. The Chinese Shans dress almost in-
variably in indigo blue clothes, while British Shans
adopt white, and their women incline to copy the
Burmese, using, to quote a certain writer, " a panel
variation in adornment of the identical seductive
garment doubtless invented by some Burmese co-
quette." The chief distinction seems to lie in the
different ways in which Chinese or British Shan
women wear their turbans. Chinese Shans seemed
to have preserved their language far more than the

XII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

169

170 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. xii

rest of their clans, their chiefs only speaking Chinese.
These people as a race are in appearance much the
same as Burmese or Siamese, but are generally fairer.
They are muscular and well formed and dress in short
trousers (bounbees) and a jacket. With the well-to-
do men the trousers are voluminous and the fork so
low down as to look more like a skirt. A great broad-
brimmed, close-woven grass hat is much worn by the
British Shans, while his Chinese confrere uses a blue
turban. Their chief national weapon is a long,
slightly curved, sharp-pointed sword. Shan women
are fair, but lack in face and dress the good looks
and coquetry of their Burmese sisters. They are a
quiet, mild, good-humoured race, and temperate in
heir habits as regards the use of alcohol and opium.
Their religion is now everywhere Buddhist, though
in ancient times, when the Nanchao kingdom flourished,
they were mostly worshippers of spirits, dragons, and
the dead. At one time it is certain the worship of
Shiva obtained a hold over the more western Shans,
and according to old legends. Buddhism in a debased
form was gradually established after 500 a.d., until,
by the middle of the sixteenth century it had gained
ground in a purer form amongst all those who were
in closer contact with Burma. But even now there
is a strong animistic tendency among the Shans in
British territory. With them still each day has its
presiding Nat or spirit, who requires a particular
diet on certain days, diff'erent as the moon waxes or
wanes. With the Shans also monks attend death-
beds purely with the idea of keeping away demons,
and not with the view of religious help to the depart-
ing person.

CHAPTER XIII

THE KACHINS

This strong and widely scattered tribe, called in
Burma " Chingpaw," and in Assam known as
" Singphos " (the meaning of each being simply
" men ") were almost the first of the frontier people
the British came in contact with in upper Burma
after the annexation in 1885., Colonel Hannay of
the Assam Light Infantry, who was an acknowledged
authority on these people, says, ^{Their territories are
bounded on the east and south-east by Yunnan, the
western part of which they have now overrun, on the
west by Assam, south by the 24th degree N. longitude
roughly, while of their northern limits which come
in contact with the Khunnongs to whom they are
allied we know little or nothing."

Their northern regions are inaccessible and explora-
tions almost impossible<^^JIjenerally, then, they may
be said to inhabit the country lying north-north-west,
and north-east of upper Burma, and during the last
seventy years have been spreading further south into
the North Shan States and to Bhamo and Katha —
a procedure which our advent into upper Burma
put a period to7

172 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

The Kachins are broken up into small communities,
each under its own chief ; which arrangement, as it
gave no central authority to be dealt with, produced
for the British no end of trouble for some years,
each little clan raiding or submitting as it felt disposed.
They are essentially a hill-dwelling people, though
their cultivation is often low down in the plains, and
they divide themselves into two great political divisions,
namely, the Kamsa Kachins who have rulers, and the
Kumlao Kachins who have none, and but rarely
even assemble village councils. There is also a sort
of national division of Kachins into " Khakus," or
Northerners, living between the Mali-kha and Nmai-
kha rivers above the Confluence, and the '' Ching-
paw," or southerners, who migrated furthest from the
^ancestral home in the mountains of north-east Thibet.
/ We have seen how the first migration of these
people led them in a small community into what is
now the Hkamti country ; whence, on receiving a fresh
influx of immigrants, they expanded across the Patkoi,
pushing back the Shans in those regions until the
latter, gaining strength in the Pong kingdom, were
in their turn able to thrust the Kachins back but in
the direction of the Mali-kha river, where they were
forced to live until the dissolution of the Shan king-
dom towards the end of the thirteenth century, when
the Kachins again set themselves in motion, migrating
south and south-east. During all this period another
migratory wave of what are now spoken of as Thibeto-
Burmans was gradually advancing down the Nmai-
kha valley further east, and these eventually met the
western stream in the neighbourhood of Myitkhyina
and Mogoung, where they became powerful, ousting

XIII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

173

I J <~\

the Shans, and overaweing them and the Burmarls^^
to such an extent that it was the usual habit of the
latter in the riverine tracts to sleep in their boats
on the rivers, that they might have some chance of
escape from the sudden raids the Kachins constantly

Kachix Girl

indulged in. It is not necessary to dive into the
bewildering mass of tribelets into which this race is
split up ; a look into the Gazetteer of Upper Burma
will satisfy those who need deeper detail on the
subject ; so it will suffice for this history to deal with

^4 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

the five parent tribes only, and two or three others
of the more important " Cognate tnbes," as they are
called ; and who, though descending it is thought
from the same common ancestors, have evolved certain
widely different manners, habits, and even languages,
from those of the true Kachins.

These parent tribes are : —

(i) The Marias, who dwell west of the Mali-kha
river near the Hukong valley round the Jade mine
area, and to the west of the Indawgyi lake. They
are a powerful tribe, and one that has always been
the most friendly disposed towards British authority.
Of these there are fifteen sub-tribes.

(2) The Lahtaungs, who apparently first dwelt in
the area enclose3~1by the Mali-kha and Nmai-kha
rivers, but some distance above the Confluence.
They have now, however, spread southwards till they
reach the upper defile of the Irrawadi river, and
extend into parts of the North Shan hills. This
tribe is split up into eighteen sub-divisions, of which
only one the Sana Lahtaungs, w^ere openly hostile
to British rule, giving cause for various columns to
move against them up to 1896. They dwell now
mostly west of the Irrawadi and north of Mogoung ;
and it was this sub-division that made the well-known
and successful raid on Myitkhyina in December, 1892,
when they burnt the court-house and civil officers'
residences, and generally caused a stampede of all
who were then in Myitkhyina, together with some of
the Mogoung Levy in garrison there.

(3) The Lepais are said to be the largest and most
powerful 'ofTtleKachin tribes and are found in the
country north and north-east of Mogoung, around

XIII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

175

Myitkhyina and away into the Pang Hkan hills south-
east of Bhamo. Some are also found scattered in
the North Shan hills. They are divided up into
seventeen sub-divisions, of whom only two are worth
noticing here, namely, the Thama section, whose

Kachix Men (Mogoung).

hostility in 1889 necessitated a punitive force being
sent against them, when 329 of their houses were
burnt, 124,000 lbs. of paddy destroyed, and many
killed before they submitted two years later ; and the
Kaori section who, occupying the hills east and south-
east of Bhamo dominate the main route for traffic

176 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

with China, and are rather notorious robbers. Of
the other Lepai section, the most troublesome have
been the Szi about Mogoung, the Hpankan south-
east of Bhamo, and the Lakhum east of Bhamo along
the right bank of the Shweli river, against whom in
1886 to 1892 various punitive expeditions had to be
sent before their final submission. Of all the Kachin
peoples these Lepais have shown the most hostility
in the early years after the annexation. '

(4) The N'khums, who dwell in the region south
of Hkamti Long and west of the Mali-kha river with
a few scattered villages along the frontier and in the
North Shan States.

(5) The Marans who are found all along the border
in scattered communities in the country about the
Amber mines and west of the Mali-kha. Both these
latter tribes appear to have given little or no trouble
in the past, and have no particular interest! Of the
so-called "Cognate tribes," who, though of the same
stock as Kachins, are yet different in habits and speech,
the most noticeable are the Marus, Lashis, Yawyins or
'Lihsaws, and Khunongs.H

The first-named are"found chiefly on the border-
land between Burma and China, east of Loi Nju,
near the Confluence, and up the Nmai-kha river.
They are also met with in North Hsen Wi district
in the Shan hills, and even down in the Katha district.
They have no sub-tribes, but every village has its
own chief, and these are not always at peace with
each other. They are also great slave traders. Lieu-
tenant Pottinger, R.A., who has travelled a good deal
amongst these people, says those living along the
border-land are an undersized folk of poor physique,

pLih
^1

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 177

though with more pleasing faces than are usually
possessed by Kachins. The further north one goes
the finer does the tribe become, until the Nanwu
Marus are reached — fine sturdy men with powerful
limbs and generally splendid physique.

The Lashis appear to be confined to the Chinese
border north, north-east, and east of Bhamo, and appear
to be allied to the Marus. During 1891-92 they came
injo collision with the British troops.
y^The Yawyins, or Lihsaws, are not true Chingpaw
(Kachin), as shown by their language, which is entirely
different. They are found chiefly in the vicinity of
Sadon and scattered throughout the higher ranges of
the North Shan States. Usually a bigger set of people
than the Kachins, they are interesting as being closely
allied to the Muhsos, or Lahus, as the Shans call them,
amongst whom Prince Henri d 'Orleans travelled, and
who are said formerly to have been powerful even to
possessing a kingdom in the neighbourhood of east
Thibet, where the great rivers rise which eventually
descend into Yunnan and Burma, vide Colborne
Baber's and Cooper's writings on the subject, who
about 1875 ^^^ ^^11 ?P^ through from Yunnan to
Ta-chien-loo on the eastern Thibet border, and
through Ssii-chuan to Bathang, respectively. The
Khunongs are found east of Hkamti Long (or Bor
Hkamti) and appear to touch even the Salween river.
An old Shan chronicle mentions them as being one
of the important races which assisted in forming the
Pong kingdom (Mogoung) ; and Mr. Ney Elias, one
of the great authorities on these little-known peoples,
finds a very close kinship between them and the
Mishmis of Assam. General Woodthorpe states their

178 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

language resembles that of the Singphos (Chingpaw),
and alludes to them as a small-statured folk, fair
and pleasant of face, timid of disposition, and con-
sequently much oppressed by the Singphos on the
south and Hkamti Shans on the west, to whom they
pay tribute.

They trade with the Chinese, Burmans, and also
with the Lamas of Thibet ; and their most valuable
possessions are the silver mines of Nogmung east of
the Nam Tisang, which were visited by the late
General Macgregor, who describes their rude methods
of extracting and melting the ore in iron vessels over
red-hot charcoal, a draught being kept up by blow-
pipes on opposite sides, and the melted silver run
off in iron pipes. iThe Khunongs never live in large
villages, their houses are usually scattered over the
hills in pairs, more often singly. The tribe is said
to pay tribute to the Hkamtis, and to do a considerable
amount of house building and agriculture for them,
and to be also subject to their more northern neigh-
bours the Khenungs, of whom very little is known,
and who again come under China. The Khunongs
do a considerable trade in gold and beeswax, and it
is said the former is plentiful in their hills. From
native sources of information it is reported that
extensive silver mines exist east of the Nmai-kha
" [er.

Further south in the Kachin country, namely,
between the Hukong valley and Mogoung lie the Amber
and Jade mine districts which produce quantities of
these valuable commodities. The amber is found on
a small range in the south-west corner of the Hukong
valley near and to the south of Mayankwan village.

XIII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

179

The actual mines are pits often nearly fifty fathoms
deep sunk in the hard blue clay in which the resin
is found in small flat blocks up to one foot long by
six inches thick. This trade is chiefly with China,
as is also that of jade which is found in the country
about Kamaing, north-west of Mogoung, and to a
certain extent in the Katha district further south. It
is found in certain valleys in the form of large boulders,
though here and there it is dug out of hill sides at

Cane Bridge in tiik Kaciiin CorNTKV.

a considerable elevation. These boulders are split
by heating, and the jade stone in the centre then
chipped out very carefully. This industry partakes
of the nature of a pure gamble, for it is impossible
to tell with any accuracy how much or in what quality
jade exists in any boulder. All these tribes differ
in appearance, habits, and dialects, and all writers
say those whose habitat lies further north are the
finer specimens of humanity./ Although amongst them

N 2

i8o HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

are to be founclyarious shades of complexion and
shapes of face, yet there can be no doubt as to the
origin of the Kachins, which was Tartar, and their
original home the region south of the Great Gobi
desert, whence migration started southwards. Their
religion in general is that of spirit worship and the
propitiation of malevolent demons; while their marriage
I ceremonies usually partake of the nature of abduction,
which, among the wealthier households is merely
nominal in form, but is actually carried out among
the common folk. Their morals, from our point of
view may be considered somewhat lax, which is the
case with all their neighbours right away to Assam,
as young people are allowed to consort together as
they please before marriage. If they do not care for
each other they separate, and each is free to experi-
ment with someone else. Should they so care, they
marry : and Kachins claim that this arrangement
does away with the chances of lapses in chastity and
consequent trouble thereby after marriage. Should
a child inopportunely arrive as a result of these
intimacies, the man almost invariably marries the
girl or has to pay a heavy fine to her parents.

Kachins bury their dead with a certain amount
of ceremony in timber coffins, offerings of pig and
libations of rice beer being made to the spirits.
The Marus are the only Kachin people who burn
their dead and bury the ashes.

c The weapons of all Kachins and Shans are fairly

similar, namely, cross-bows, spears and dahs, while
amongst those in touch with Burma and China
muzzle-loading guns are also found, and even Win-
chester carbines obtained from Yunnan. 'Old Tower

SHAN AND KACHIN WEAPONS, ETC.

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM i8i

flintlocks of 1800 are often met with, and a few of
the more powerful chiefs used to own jingals and
swivel guns ; but these are a rarity nowadays. They
make their own coarse powder and use iron bullets
and slugs. The dahs used by all Kachins and Hkamti
Shans north of the Confluence are made by the small
Tareng tribe, who are distinct from the Kachins,
whose habitat is north of Hkamti Long, and who
are called by Mr. Errol Gray " the blacksmiths of
the Khakus " (North Kachins). The metal is very
durable, and the dahs are made in four varieties, of
which the so-called " streaked " variety is used only
by the upper classes. The Kachin dah, their national
weapon, is about eighteen inches long, and differs
from that of the Shans or Burmans in its curious
wooden half sheath in which lies the weapon, one
and a half inches wide at the hilt, increasing to two
and a half inches at the truncated tip. The back
is slightly curved, and the whole weapon wonderfully
well balanced. It is used only for cutting, unlike
the Shan weapon which is sharp-pointed for thrusting.
( Up to the arrival of the British on the scene, the
Kachins were inveterate slave traders, which national
custom was kept up by constant raids. Their ideas
of war, like those of the Shans and other tribes, are
chiefly those of sudden raids, and with few exceptions
during our troubles with them after the annexation
of upper Burma, they have acted on the defensive,
planning their stockades and earthworks with rapidity
and skill. The ground in front and flanks of these
they stud with " panjis " (bamboo spikes hardened
in fire) varying from a few inches to four feet long.
Being hidden in long grass these are difficult to see,

1 82 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

and men running on to them get severe and often
fatal wounds. Pitfalls three feet deep " panjied " at
the bottom and neatly covered over are also frequently
used. Favourite spots for the defence of their villages,
which generally straggle among the hills with primeval
forest all around, are usually found in thick jungle,
ravines with steep approaches, or river gorges, where
the Kachins will block and spike the approaches at
suitable spots and have their guns trained on this
ground from above or from the opposite side of the
gorge, to open on the enemy when brought to a halt
by the obstruction. As a result of many difficulties,^
and losses when at first British troops were con-_^
fronted by these Kachin tactics, the following plan
was invariably adopted : * an advance guard of six men
leads, two flanking parties follow at some distance,
for in these wooded regions troops are absolutely
confined to the one path or track, and with the latter
is a mountain gun. As soon as the advance guard
comes on to the stockade or obstruction, word is
passed back and this party disappears into the
jungle at the side. The flanking parties work at
once round each side of the defences, while the gun
is pushed forward to a convenient spot and used
against the works, and the main body then advances.
When Kachins attack they do so at night, preferably
just before moonrise. ^ They are not head-hunters
like their western brethren, the Nagas of Assam, but
cut off the head of an enemy in proof that the Kachin
brave has killed his man ; they then throw the head
away as having no further value.

In character these people are said by all who have
come in contact with them to be vindictive and

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 183

treacherous ; but no doubt there are good points
in them which careful fostering may bring out. For
instance, they have been tried in certain Mihtary
PoUce BattaHons, and those who have had command
of them speak well of their soldierly qualities and the
readiness with which they come under our notions
of discipline, etc. In 1898 they came under fire for
the first time and acquitted themselves in a praise-
worthy manner.

Myitkhyina, the important and most northerly of
our frontier stations in the Kachin country, is on the
Irrawadi some 1,400 miles from its mouth, and in
fairly close contact with the Chinese borderland which
is guarded by the strong outposts east of the river
of Sima, Sadon, Seneku, Htagaw, and to which
Hpimaw has recently been added ; all of which are
in helio communication with Myitkhyina. It lies in
a broad, well- watered plain, and is now a model
cantonment well laid out, with good roads, comfort-
able bungalows, and well-built lines for a strong
Military Police Battalion of Goorkhas, who furnish
the outposts and keep watch and ward over the wild
tract of little-known country which has frequently
been a source of trouble either of raids, smuggling,
or demarcation difficulties. Myitkhyina in its early
days suffered some vicissitudes, and at one time was
so badly raided by Kachins (1893) that an undignified
stampede of all in the place occurred, who fell back
on Bhamo. It is now connected with the outer world
by railway to Mandalay and Rangoon.

i84 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Palaungs, Was, and Panthays.

A description of the border people of upper Burma
would be incomplete without some reference to these
tribes, who are separate races dwelling in and along
our north-east boundaries. The Palaungs have a
State of their own, called by the Shans " Tawng-
peng," and being a quiet, peaceful folk, have not come
much into notice. They usually inhabit the higher
hills in both British and Chinese Shan country, and
are great cultivators of tea. Ethnological savants
differ considerably as to their original stock, one
connecting them with Mon or Taking, another
with Cambodian origin. From their own legends
they would appear to have been in Tawngpeng long
before the downfall of the ancient Shan kingdom of
Nanchao about the middle of the ninth century.
They are an uncouth-looking but industrious race,
are keen Buddhists, but also keep up a belief in spirits,
whom they worship in trees, hills, and rocks. The
Chinese pagoda on Loi Hpra, for instance, is wor-
shipped by them, as also a very large old tea tree at
Loi Seng which was planted i6o years ago. The men
have now almost entirely adopted the Shan attire,
while their women still keep up their own tribal
distinction in their dresses which are bright in colour,
consisting of a little dark blue jacket, a coloured
skirt and blue trousers ; and on the head a large
hood brought to a point behind the head and reaching
down over the shoulders, the ends of which have
white borders with ornamental bits of scarlet, blue,
and black velvet worked in. The skirts having
panels of various colours let in, the whole attire

XIII

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

185

forms a pleasingly gay effect when seen on gala and
festive occasions. Although both Palaungs and the
Wa disclaim all connection with each other, their
languages have shown conclusively that they must
have had some common origin. /The second tribe,
namely, the Wa, state they are a>ace quite apart

A Palaung Girl.

from the Palaungs and others, and are divided by us
into wild and tame Was — the former living in a com-
pact block of country beyond our north-eastern
frontier running for one hundred miles or so along
the Salween and between that river and the Mekhong,
the boundary of French influence, the latter dwelling
inside our border line. They are a savage and

i86 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

treacherous race, and till visited by a British party
in 1893, had always enjoyed the reputation of being
cannibals, which is not the case. They are, how-
ever, notorious head-hunters, not with the view of
success amongst the fair sex (as with the Nagas),
nor do they seem to regard heads as warlike tokens,
but rather in the light of protection against evil
spirits — without a skull his crops would fail or cattle
die. The heads are set up on posts under the avenue
of trees by which the villages are approached, and
sometimes can be counted by hundreds on either
side of these avenues. It is said they have a tariff
for heads, those more dangerous to obtain, such
as a Chinaman's, being valued at Rs. 50, but the
general rate is from Rs. 2 to Rs. 10. (JTheir villages,
unlike those of the Kachins, are built on bare open
hill sides visible for miles, the only trees in the
immediate vicinity being those of the stately, sombre
avenues of approach. When heads are brought home
after a raid a great drinking bout with singing and
dancing takes place, while the war drum, a huge
tree trunk hollowed out, leaving only a narrow strip
for the sound to emerge from, is frantically beaten.
These drums, like those of the northern Nagas, in
Assam, give out a deep, vibrating sound which travels
a great distance, and are only beaten at tiines of
crisis or of importance in the community./^ In time
of tribal warfare a Wa village, and these are often of
remarkable size, maybe said to be almost impregnable.
They stand high on hill slopes and are surrounded
by an earth rampart six to eight feet high, which is
overgrown with a dense covering of thorn bushes
and cactus, while outside this again is a very deep

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 187

ditch also concealed by shrubs and grass. The only
entrance is through a long sunken road often covered
to form a sort of tunnel which is made to wind, so
as to obviate the possibility of an enemy firing up
it. In time of danger these approaches are sown
with bamboo spikes (panjies), the whole forming a
defence most difficult to get through. The Was
grow a considerable amount of opium, which at great
profit to themselves is taken by Shans and Chinese.
They are also heavy drinkers of a strong spirit made
from rice, and are good agriculturists. Their dress
is conspicuous in both sexes by its scantiness and
unattractiveness. In hot weather neither wears any-
thing except on occasions of ceremony, the men then
simply wearing a strip of cotton cloth passed between
the legs and tied round the waist so that the small
tassled ends hang down in front. The women's only
garment is a short petticoat falling down from the
hips for a few inches only, made of coarse cotton.
But as the women are fair, shapely, and decidedly
pretty, perhaps scantiness of attire is the less to be
regretted. CJs for religion, theirs is mostly that of
spirit worship, though a few profess to be Buddhists.
They bury their dead in the village in front of the
deceased's house with all his personal ornaments.
One writer on these people states that in spite of
their head-hunting propensities which arise from a
mistaken agricultural theory, the fear of evil spirits,
and not from ferocity, they are a brave, independent,
energetic, and industrious lot ; while other tribes
afiirm that the Was are not bad neighbours^
^. North of the Was, and between them and China
proper, come the Lolos and Muhsos or Lahus, tribes

i88 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

of whom but little is known, and only a few scattered
communities of the latter dwell in the Northern Shan
States, namely, in Hsen Wi and Hsipaw.^ The Muhsos
are said to be a warlike tribe, and it is known the
Chinese of Yunnan have frequently been in conflict
with them, and were only subdued as late as 1887,
when a Chinese General found it necessary to use
Krupp guns against them. They are very expert
cross-bowmen, and their arrows are often poisoned.
Prince Henri d'Orleans travelled through their country
in 1895, and speaks of them as having been at one
time Buddhists, though now they have mostly reverted
to their old spirit worship. He also states they have
a written character not unlike Chinese, and assumes
the Lolos and Muhsos to be practically the same
tribe.
^ The Lolos occupy country in south Ssii-chuan,
near the Ssii-chuan and Yunnan border, and are de-
scribed as a tall, energetic race. They mix a great
deal with the Chinese, and have a written character
resembling that called Indo-Pali, having its origin in
picture-writing. They burn their dead, and have a
curious form of religion based on a belief in a future
state of retribution. In a few cases only have Lolos
adopted Buddhism. Mr. Hosie, who in 1883 jour-
neyed from Chengtu, the capital of Ssii-chuan to
YiJnnanfu, passed through their country, and records
the number of Chinese garrisons in mud forts in
the valleys to control this people, while the hill
country is left severely alone by them. In fact, the
Lolos, who appeared a warlike, truculent race and
are continually raiding, were distinctly held in dread
by the Chinese. From the strongly stockaded Chinese

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 189

outposts and guard-houses, everything pointed to
being in a dangerous locahty, and parties of Celestial
soldiery armed with old muskets, swords, and halberts,
escorted him through the Lolo country for days.
In his travels through this country and southern
Yunnan, Prince Henri d'Orleans speaks of the seasons
wet or dry being far less marked than in the country
further south and nearer Burma. The climate of the
upper Mekhong appears very dry, even in the summer
there is a very small rainfall only. This changes
again further north, where in the neighbourhood of
Attentze and Ouisifu, two rainy seasons occur, namely,
July to September and again in February, the latter
being the heavier. The Salween valley, being covered
with dense vegetation, is far damper than that of the
Mekhong, and in the upper Irrawadi basin he says
the two seasons are well marked, and the summer
rains are abundant. Here in winter they noticed a
remarkable and continuous absence of wind, a con-
dition obtaining nowhere else in their long journey
from Tonkin to Assam. Except on the peaks of
Likiang, Dokerla, and Pemachou, there appeared to
be no perennial snow in this part of western Yunnan,
but the party found the ranges dividing the Mekhong,
Salween, and Irrawadi, and the Mekhong from the
Yiang-tse-kiang, to be deep in snow from December
to May, and no crossings are feasible then. He also
states that in winter it is impossible to cross from the
Mekhong to the Salween further north than Lao or
Fey-long-kiao, which lie a little west of Talifu.

This tally of Upper Burman border tribes would be in-
complete without reference to the Panthays, whose chief
settlement on our side of the frontier is at Pan Long in

190 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

the North Shan State of Sdn-mu. Their proper
habitat is, however, south of Tahfu and also in Momein
(Tengyueh), and they are known to us as being traders
and muleteers on the different trade routes between
southern China and Burma. They are Mahomedans,
and are descendants of Mahomedan military emi-
/ grants who settled in far-off times and married Chinese
wives. Mahomedanism reached China through the
more eastern conquests of Tamerlane, when numbers
of his soldiery remained behind in the Chinese pro-
vinces of Kansu and Yiinnan. The Panthays are a
fine and not un warlike race, as their conflicts with
the Chinese in the last seventy years go to show ;
who only crushed out the rebellion by a series of
ruthless massacres of the Panthays, which chroniclers
state cost seven millions of lives between Chinese
weapons and the plague, which disease broke out in
the decimated region, spread in 1893 to Hong Kong,
and three years later to Bombay.

All this part of our borderland, where Shans,
Panthays, and Palaungs are met with, has attracted
all who have made acquaintance with it — its hills
and valleys, woods and plains, picturesque peoples,
affording constant change to the mind and delight
to the eye. The writer in 1901 travelled across
from the Naga hills and reached the Irrawadi at
Katha, and the scenes and interests impressed them-
selves on him greatly so that possibly a part of his
wanderings about the Bhamo border may interest
others. At Katha he was once more in reach of
civilised methods of travelling, and on a comfortable
steamer journeying up river, passing Shwegu, noted
justly (from what he saw) for the good looks of its

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 191

ladies, and Thunyaw Island, where large fairs are
held, and immense numbers of delicately shaped
white pagodas stand out amongst the general greenery.
The lower Defile, seven and a half miles long, was
entered at daybreak, and here the hills rise straight
from the river's edge, which in one place narrows
from 700 to 250 yards across. The entrance to the
Defile, with a little golden pagoda built some way
up a tremendous precipice, is particularly striking.
At Bhamo, which, it is interesting to know, held in
the latter part of the eighteenth century an English
factory, of which the brick ruins in old Bhamo, near
the Taping river, are still pointed out, he found he
was in time to join in with Captain L. of the Military
Police Battalion, who was going out seventy miles
east on to the Chinese border to locate a new out-
post. His company of Sikhs had gone ahead a few
days, so we followed,, riding thirteen miles to Mansi
at the foot of the hills, and thence seventeen miles
up hill, along a vile road through dense forest to
Warraboon at the top of the range. The rains were
just over, and traders were beginning to trek down
to Bhamo from China and the Shan States, and the
road every now and then would be blocked by droves
of Shan cattle or Panthay mules with their loads of
merchandise carried on peculiar-shaped pack saddles
which are not fastened on to the animals as ours would
be, but keep position by balance. The loads are
very easily and quickly lifted on and off, and no sore
backs were noticed. The leading animals in these
droves had most musical bells attached to their head-
gear, which echoed through the forest and along the
hill sides in a most attractive manner. Down below

192 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

in Bliamo it was still hot and stuffy, but Warraboon
at 4,400 feet was distinctly and pleasantly cold, and
the evening view over the Irrawadi from an open
spur near a Kachin rest-house in which we spent
the night was exceedingly fine. The next day the
road followed the top of the range for some miles
till the small bamboo rest-house at Namkai was
reached, in which we rested and tiffined. The hill
sides about here at this season were covered with a
creeper, whose masses of close white blossoms gave
the appearance of a heavy fall of snow. Far off,
and below, a glimpse was obtained of the Shweli
valley backed by the distant blue mountains of the
Shan States and China. That evening Pungkan was
reached, and we found a small two-roomed grass
and bamboo " basha " had been run up for us by the
Sikhs who had arrived and had hutted themselves
in rows of similar shelters on an open stretch of grass
land a little south of the village and close to the
border, which here is the Namwan stream. The
next two days were spent in selecting an advanta-
geous site for the new outpost, in pegging out the
traces for its earthwork defences, and in fishing the
neighbouring stream, but with indifferent success.
The weather was now glorious and the views delight-
ful, especially about evening, while at that time the
chimes from the different Shan monasteries added
to one's pleasure. The first evening there will not
be easily forgotten. We were lounging and smoking
by our small hut, near by the Sepoys preparing their
evening meals, and to our front long stretches of turf
land sloping gently down to the Shweli river six miles
off and rolling through richly cultivated country,

XIII HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 193

beyond the mountains of south-west China, with the
last glow of sunset lingering on them. To our left
and one and a half miles away, a long wooded spur
dipping into the main valley, and at its lower end
a picturesque Chinese fort (Loieng), Pungkan village
lying about mid-way between it and our hut. We
were talking of the extreme beauty of the view, the
shadows lengthen, the sunlight fades on the scene,
when suddenly a burst of most glorious bell music
rises from the Pungkan monastery and floats across
to us ; we sit up and listen intently, the chimes rise
and fall, swelling, mysterious, touching music ; two
far-off monasteries take it up faintly, and before we
realised it, the glorious sounds had ceased, a heavy
silence succeeded, and both of us agreed it was most
beautiful but all too short. Our third day in these
parts was spent in a visit to the great fair at Namkwam,
ten miles across the main valley. An early start was
made, and also' an unsuccessful stalk after geese on
the river, but the birds were too wary. This fair
was on a very large scale on the outskirts of a moderate
sized town, where many years ago we had had an
outpost. Lines and lines of booths were crowded
with thousands of wild, strange types of humanity
— Burmese, Chinese, Shans, Kachins, and Yawyins,
their women with scanty coloured skirts, heavy cane
gartering and marvellous hair arrangements ; and
Palaungs, whose ladies encircle their sturdy waists
with endless coils of cane, wear silk trouserines, and
carry a heavy knife sticking in their girdle. All sorts
of curios and weapons could be picked up here, as
well as good silk and the pretty home-made cloths
beloved and distinctive of the different tribes. But

194 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. xiii

even here many stalls displayed tawdry Birmingham
and Manchester goods and cheap American cigarettes
in thousands ! Mixed up with these were quite
inviting confectioners, whose refreshment stalls
were always crowded ; w^hile here and there one
stumbled across the same old game — the three-
card trick, or thimbles and peas — always presided
over by an acute-looking old Chinaman who in every
case seemed to be doing a roaring trade. Not far
off was the cattle fair with large numbers of excellent
little Shan ponies, mules, and cows picketed in long
lines for sale. Towards noon the Tsawba (chief),
hearing of our presence, sent word hoping we would
rest and spend the heat of the day in his house, which
we gladly did — eating our tiffin in what I suppose
might have been called his audience hall, a fine, large,
airy timber structure, raised off the ground on piles,
with a large number of spears, dahs, and old muskets
ranged round the walls. The illustrious host, to-
gether with his notables, sat quietly round watching us
eat with evident interest ; but conversation lan-
guished, for our only interpreter knew very little
Hindustani. Before leaving we persuaded our host
to let us see and photo him in all his silken finery,
and a very attractive group he and his two senior
officials made. With this a most delightful border
outing came to an end, and Bhamo was reached
again three days later.

CHAPTER XIV

THE NAGA TRIBES

The successful attack in February, 191 3, of the
Trans-Dikku Nagas on a column of Military Police
has turned a certain amount of attention to the tribes
of Nagas who, though not actually living on the
North Eastern Frontier, are sufficiently near to it
and have a sufficiently interesting history to warrant
their being included in this volume. The name by
which they are now usually known, namely, Naga,
has nothing whatever to do with snakes as some
think, but , is a corruption of the word " nanga " — -
naked. TOf all the people in north-east Assam these
are the most powerful, and have given us more persis-
tent trouble since 1832 than any others. They
inhabit the hill country south of the Brahmaputra
valley from the Singphos to the North Cachar hills,
and are divided into four big tribal sections — Angami,
Sema, Aoh, Lhota — and two smaller ones — Rengma
and Kaccha Nagas. Of these, the first-named have
proved the most turbulent and warlike. Their origin
is rather doubtful, some savants ascribing a Mon-
golian origin, namely, that they are an offshoot of the
very earliest migration from the neighbourhood of
the Kiunlung range as carried out first by the Chins,

'95 o 2

196

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

who located themselves far to the south in the hills
between the Lushais and the Irrawadi valley. Others

Angami Nagas in Gala Attire,

in the past have thought that they can trace their
origin to the Dyaks of Borneo, who in some far-off
age, it is surmised, may have trekked north through

)

TVth

A. Cross bow used by Singphos Daphlas and Nagas on the Patkoi Range.

B. Spears used by the same with hair ornamentation. The circles denote owners rank.

C. D. Different kinds of "daos" used by the Patkoi tribes. D is double edged.

E. A bamboo drinking cup adorned with real "poker work."

F. The plain shafted spear used for throwing.

G. Carved wooden pipe used on the Western Patkoi -the bowl represents a human head, and a row ot

monkeys stand along the stem.

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM tff

the Straits, Tenasserim, southern Burma, and Arakan,
until they were brought to a standstill by either the
vast v^^alls of the Himalayas or by the southward
trend of Mongolian peoples. They recognise a slight
resemblance in matters of counting, names for
domestic implements, in a way village architecture,
and their head-hunting propensities, to those of the
Dyaks ; while their love for marine shells (which
they part with but rarely) may seem to point to a
bygone home near the sea ; though now they are a
far inland residing community. The late Colonel
J. Johnston, formerly Political Agent at Manipur,
alludes to this idea of a far southern original home
for the Nagas ; while the traditions of the Maram
tribe of Nagas on the east of the Barail range go to
show that their original home was somewhere far
to the south of where they are now. It is perhaps
worthy of notice that the tribe of Kukis (Lushais)
with similar characteristics are still moving north ;
while across in Burma the great Kachin tribes have
been steadily pressing south even to our day. But
this old theory has practically exploded, and it is now
definitely decided that this people belong to a Thibeto-
Burman stock. The Nagas, particularly the Angamis,
are an athletic and by no means a bad-looking race,
and are in religion spirit worshippers. They are,
for savages, a moral race, the same customs in marriage
obtaining with them as with the Kachins already
dealt with. Their weapons are spears seven feet long
and over, and short assegais which are thrown with
great skill for twenty-five yards and more, a heavy
battle-axe, or " dao," and at one time they possessed
a considerable number of old muzzle-loading guns,

198

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

which have now been gradually taken from them.
Their [villages are built high on the hills, strongly
defended with stockades, stout walls and " panjied "

Ancami Naoas.

ditches. The approaches to most of these are along
narrow winding sunken paths, not unlike those of the
Was in Burma. All Nagas are head-hunters, their
women being the chief incentive to this pursuit, as

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 199

girls will not look on men with favour who have not
taken heads or been in raids. Since our taking over
the Naga hills this, of course, has ceased ; but even
of late years it has occurred that women have in-
duced men desiring their favours to go across the
border and take a head. Any are considered of
value — -man's, woman's, or child's — -and it is curious
to note that where some of the tribes adorn their
shields and house fronts with rough emblems of heads
taken, sometimes one will see a head represented
upside down— this having been taken in pure murder.
Thus do they make some slight distinction between
a fairly taken head and one unfairly taken. Angami
girls have their heads shaved clean until they marry,
when they grow their hair ; so that the interesting
bride by her bristly pate is at once divined, with
whom, as one writer puts it, " the orange blossoms
of virginity are never seen by her husband." Kaccha
Nagas, who are closely allied to the Angamis and
dwell just south of them, who dress similarly, and
whose villages are small and houses different from their
neighbours, display a tribal dress distinction only
through their women, the edges of whose short, bright
petticoats are embroidered with the tribal pattern.
Their girls do not shave the head, but grow the hair
fairly long and cut it into a deep fringe over the
forehead, with rather pleasing effect. The Kaccha
Nagas are a cheery and musical folk, the former
quality being shown in their dances to which they
are devoted and in which they are graceful performers.
These dances are of a quick " heel and toe " move-
ment, either in pairs or quartets of both sexes, and
are not unlike our Highland dances. Their singing

200 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

is curious — no words, and of the nature of an anti-
phonal chant, which is very effective.

Angami dances partake more of the nature of wild
leaping, and they are unmusical save for a rather sad,
long-drawn-out chant. The eastern Angamis of the
Kopamedza range have a most curious form of singing.
A little party of young men and girls will form two
separate circles, girls in one, men in the other, with
a leader in the centre of each. The singing is " bouche

Kaccha Nagas Danxing.

fermee," and one has to be close to hear well. Both
circles accord with each other in the air, which is
most soft and pleasing. Oddly enough, with all their
warlike tendencies, the Angamis are great traders,
continually being seen in distant parts of the Assam
valley, while they have been known to go even as far

^ as Calcutta and Rangoon.

C^_ The Aoh Nagas are found from the Doyang river
almost to the great bend of the Dikkoo river as it

XIV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

201

emerges from the hills into the plains, and they
occupy the three ranges of hills lying between the
latter river and the Assam valley. Neither this tribe
nor their neighbours, the Semas, have given us very
great trouble in the past, though it has been found
necessary to punish for minor raids now and then,
and to finally take over the countries of both tribes.
Aohs are divided into. two big clans — the " Chungli "
and the " Mongsin." / These are difficult to recog-

AoH Naga Girl showing Coiffure and Shell Ne(;klacl

nise ordinarily, as the dress is the same in both ; each
favour certain localities, and their women denote the
tribal distinction in the tattooed ornamentation of their
legs from ankle to knee— one having a diamond
pattern (Chungli), the other plain circles round the
calf (Mongsin), both being finished off with arrow
heads at the knees. The coiffure of an Aoh woman
is most elaborate, the hair being coiled into a large
ornate '* bun " behind, which is added to with false

202 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

plaits twisted in with coils of white cotton wool and
with brass hair pins ; the whole being supported on
either side by enormous heavy brass earrings which
are passed through the helix of the ear and kept in
place by a string over the top of the head. Amongst
the Aohs, for the preservation of order on the border,
the Naga Hill Military Police Battalion have a strong
outpost at Mogokchang (ninety-five miles north of
Kohima) of a hundred rifles in an earthwork fort,
and another of fifty rifles stockaded at Tamlu, forty-
five miles further north-east. Both posts have good
rifle ranges and drill grounds, and are rationed from
Moriani and Nazira respectively, which lie in the
plains, and with which they are connected by good
bridle paths.

The Rengma and Lhota Nagas are uninteresting
people with dirty persons and villages. The latter
are chiefly noted for the very excellent domestic
servants they make.

In the extreme north of the Naga hills are the
Lengta Nagas, a feeble tribe allied to the strong,
fighting clans of the Trans-Dikkoo country, but who
are terrible opium eaters and incapable of any heavy
work. They, or rather their menkind, used to go
naked, but of late years they have adopted a small
blue loin cloth.
/^ The Sema Nagas are the next largest tribe to the
N^ohs and Angamis, but are not quite so warlike as the
latter. They are divided into two large clans, namely,
the " Yepatomi," or those dwelling in the low hills
about the Doyang valley, and the " Zjhumomi "
Semas, who occupy the higher ranges in the neigh-
bourhood of the Tita and Tizoo rivers. These latter

XIV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

203

are a fine sturdy race, and have chiefs among them
with real power to rule. Semas are, however, notori-
ous thieves and drunkards. How far east they extend
beyond the Tita river is at present unknown. The
customs of many of these tribes are interesting and
peculiar. As stated before, all marry when adults,
and all girls and young men can consort openly
together till marriage. Village arrangements and

.,..,,

I^IIKfir'%^HK^^EI^<^i^4iiMHK^s

■BgaBBwP^^^" " mm

S^~ "^SM^V

Se.ma Nauas in War 1'ai.nt.

architecture are different in each tribe, the Angamis
having the larger more permanently built houses, the
Rengmas and Lhotas building smaller and meaner-
looking dwellings, the Aohs and Lengtas again living
in large villages, the individual houses being lightly
built of bamboo and standing high off the ground
on piles. Angamis, Kacchas, Lhotas, and Rengmas
bury in their villages, Aohs smoke dry the late

204

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

lamented and then lay him on a high sort of trestle
thatched over, on which they hang his ornaments
and cloths and stand his weapons in front. The

AoH Naga Graves.

trestles with the dead are placed on either side of
the big shady avenues by which the villages are
approached. In the rains, when dry wood is scarce

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 205

and smoking a corpse long and tedious work, they
are often placed on their trestles with the process
only half completed ; and the passage of these avenues
is then not a matter of pleasure for those of delicate
nostrils. In the north of the district at Tamlu and
over amongst the Trans-Dikkoo people, their dead
are placed in rough-hewn log coffins, or are carefully
wrapped round with leaves, which are then lodged
up in big trees near the villages, the head in some
clans being wrenched off and laid at the base of the
tree. As wind and weather work upon the trees and
coffins these are often dislodged, and the scene is
then more gruesome than curious. In dress Angamis
and Aohs are the most picturesque in their war paint
with short black sort of kilt or a sporran, both adorned
with cowrie shells, ivory or brass armlets, cane head-
dress mounting the tail feathers of the toucan, coloured
cane leggings, huge white seashells worn at the back
of the neck, and their daos and spears with fringes
of gaily dyed hair. Aoh women wear a long blue
shawl covering them entirely, while the Angami wears
a short brightly striped petticoat and small coloured
shawl with brass bangles and large necklaces of
shells, coloured beads, and rough cut cornelians.
Semas and Rengmas are the least attractive in attire,
which is exceedingly scanty. In the north round
Tamlu and at Lakma a little further east the people
go nude ; the men only in the former, both sexes
in the latter, and it certainly made us feel at first
somewhat awkward when the 1900 expedition entered
Lakma to be confronted by the villagers about their
business in what Trilby called the " all together,"
and see men and girls chaffing each other with nothing

2o6 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

but necklace and armlets on. East of the Angamis
come other clans who discard clothes, namely, the
Sohemi folk and the Tankhul Nagas, whose ring-
wearing habit has aroused much curiosity ; though
these latter are only actually nude in the heat. But
as these people come under Manipur, they are outside
the scope of this book.

As regards cultivation, two methods are observed
by these tribes — the Angamis mostly cultivate on
terraced hill sides, all other tribes by the system
called " jhooming," namely, clearing strips of hill
side of jungle which is burnt on the ground, the ash
making a good manure. Several crops are grown on
it annually, and the soil is very soon impoverished.
The community then clear fresh hill sides, the former
land being allowed to recuperate for some ten years
by means of the jungle which soon covers it again.
To a stranger suddenly arriving in the Angami
country nothing strikes him with greater surprise and
admiration than the beautiful terraced cultivation
which meets the eye everywhere, on gentle hill slopes,
sides and bottoms of valleys, in fact, wherever the land
can be utilised in this way. In preparation, upkeep,
and irrigation, the very greatest care is taken, far in ex-
cess of anything seen in the north-west Himalayas. The
appearance of the countryside for miles south of
Kohima, for instance, is such as to suggest the handi-
work and labour of a far higher order of people than
these wild Nagas. These terraced fields are often
bordered with dwarf alder bushes, are carefully irri-
gated by an elaborate system of channels bringing
water down from mountain streams, and luxuriant
crops of rice are grown on them. To pass through

XIV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

207

the valley where stand the two powerful villages of
Khonoma and Mozema during late October when the
crops are ripe is indeed a delight for the eye — a

gb

■^ «. ,; 1

m. m. -i

■^■■1

m

k^"' '*

^ ^'

%

•■'^V^

% .m/y- '

\:l i ■

Burial Tree outside Tabhlung Village, Western Patkoi,
A Corpse fastened to Trunk a little way up, wrapped
ROUND with Leaves, Skulls at Base of Tree.

veritable golden valley. The further south and east
one goes beyond this tribe the less attention is paid
to this form of cultivation, though it is still found
in the hills away east of Bhamo ; but in upper Burma

2o8 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

the " jhooming " system, or " tawnya," as the Bur-
mese call it, is far more in vogue. Amongst -all these
Naga tribes social customs demand that the young
unmarried men sleep in a house set apart for them ;
while in some tribes, such as the Aohs, the unmarried
girls also sleep together in a small house apart from
their families. Where the young men reside is known
as the " dekha chang," and in it are hung spoils of
the chase, of war, and weapons. Amongst the Aohs,
Semas, Langtas, and Trans-Dikkoo Nagas are seen
" Morangs," not unlike those found in Borneo among
the Dyak villages, namely, large substantial timber
and thatched houses of peculiar shape, one of which
stands close to the entrance of the " khel," or parish
one might call it, into which all Naga villages are
divided up. Alongside of these '' Morangs," which
are of the nature of guard-houses, stands the war
drum hollowed out of a huge tree trunk, and beaten
in times of peril to the community to call the men
back from the distant fields, or on occasions of festivity
and ceremonial. The sound emitted is deep, vibra-
ting, and travels far. All young men have to put in
a certain period of duty at the " Morang," which
forms a rude sort of military system, and when ended
the man cuts a slab of a certain tree and sets it up
in front of the guard house, in token that his tour
of duty is over. Amongst these tribes heads taken
and other trophies of war are hung in their " Morangs,"
and some of the enormous timbers supporting the
roofs will be found elaborately carved with repre-
sentations of elephants, lizards, toucan heads (the
greater hornbill), and nude human figures. All these
tribes are head-hunters, but such trophies are seldom

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 209

AoH Naga Chief's liousE.

210 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

seen on om- side of tlie border nowadays ; though
just across the Dikkoo river (the border) this pastime
is indulged in as vigorously as ever. The writer
recalls having seen, when at Yasim village on a punitive
expedition in 1900, the two headmen's house fronts
adorned, one with thirty-seven, the other with forty-
two, human skulls attached to a sort of trellis work,
each skull being embellished with a goat's horn fixed
on each side. These people are usually very friendly
disposed, courteous in their independent way, and
willing to assist Europeans. It is only in the nearer
proximity to our headquarter stations and civilisa-
tion that these pleasant qualities are found somewhat
lacking. Much intercourse with Europeans seems to
breed bad manners, impertinence, and refusal of aid ;
and it must be said that the pampering of them
frequently by English officials, and the absence of
adequate punishment for insolence, has only fostered
these undesirable feelings. Most Naga villages —
certainly amongst the Angamis — have wealthy funds
from which they pay with ease the paltry fines regarded
as ample punishment by some of our officials, and
which the people do not regard as anything approach-
ing to what they know should be meted out to them
on occasions. So wealthy are some of these funds
that when carriers were being raised amongst the
tribes for transport work in the Abor expedition of
191 1, a certain village was known to have given men
of less rich villages Rs. 100 a man to those who would
go as substitutes for their own unwilling men. The
first time the Nagas are noticed in history is through
the Ahom " buranjis," and show that as far back as
1530 the Nagas of Namsang and Tabhlung on the

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 211

Dikkoo river, within twelve miles of our present
Military Police outpost at Tanilu, were sufficiently
powerful to defeat an Ahom force and capture
several guns. Mention is again made in 1648 of
considerable trouble with the Nagas of Lakma, a big
village lying some fifteen miles into the hills east of
Charaideo, which in 1900 was visited by the Deputy
Commissioner and an escort who found them any-
thing but a warlike folk. The end of that century

Trans Dikkoo Naga and his "ilEADs."

saw more Naga raids put down drastically, and
an embankment called the Naga Alii raised as a
protection against their incursions. It seems that
they, in common with all the different tribes, seized
the opportunity of harrying the Assam plains during
the chaotic conditions arising in Gaurinath's reign
in the early part of the nineteenth century. But it
is not till 1832 that Englishmen came into contact
with them, when Captains Jenkins and Pemberton,

p 2

212

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

on duty with the Manipuri durbar, crossed with a
large escort into the Assam valley from that State,
coming out at Nagura, and had to fight the whole

1 '-~^^'*<.nk ,^/%<'v^\V.^v)^L^W/"-^<-^.i

^'':\}:i^:-^

Corner in Berema Village, Kaccha Naga.

way. This passage through their country irritated
the Nagas to such an extent that British troops were
sent to Mohun Dijoa, on the eastern border of our
Nowgong district, to protect that part of the border

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 213

which then ran along the foot of the hills. To
obviate any trouble accruing to ourselves from these
tribes it was proposed that the Manipur State should
control all the Naga hills as far as the Doyang river
and down to the North Cachar hills ; and in 1835
the forest land between the Dhansiri and Doyang
rivers was declared the boundary between Assam and
Manipur. In the same year trouble arose through
our villages in North Cachar being subjected to Naga
raids and exactions, and as neither Manipur nor
Tularam, who ruled in the North Cachar hills did
anything to stop the outrages, and as it was found
that Manipuri occupation of the hills only exaspe-
rated the tribes. Government found itself obliged to
take some action. An English official, Mr. Grange,
Assistant at Nowgong, was in 1838 empowered to
raise a small Cachar levy — the starting-point of the
present well-known Naga Hills Military Police Battalion
— to preserve order and to defend the border. In the
following year continued trouble led to the first
British expedition into the Angami country, but
owing to insufficiency of troops and transport. Grange
only got as far as Berema and retired out of the hills,
visiting Samaguting a large village on the outer
range east of Dimapur, where he strongly advocated
the establishment of a permanent military post in-
stead of the unhealthy one at Mohun Dijoa.

It was now determined to re-align another definite
boundary between Assam and Manipur, and the
watershed of the great Barail range was settled on,
our side of the same being controlled from Nowgong.
In 1840, to receive the Angami 's submission and to
meet and define this boundary with the Manipuri

214

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

officials, Grange again entered the hills at Sama-
guting and reached Paplongmai, where he found the
Manipuris had turned back without waiting for him,
so he followed them on for two marches. At Tog-
wema, finding the Nagas avowedly hostile to Manipur,

and they deeming Grange
to be an ally of their
enemies, he was attacked
by a combination of
villages, of which he
managed to burn five
before leaving the hills.
The eflfect of this outing
apparently stopped raid-
ing for a time, and a
Lieutenant Biggs was
sent into the Angami
hills in 1 84 1 to prospect
for a suitable route to
Manipur and to make
friends with villages. He
met wdth no opposition,
concluded friendly agree-
ments, and opened a salt
depot at their request at
Dimapur. Satisfactory
arrangements over the
boundary not having
been yet arrived at, in 1842 Biggs marched through
to Manipur, and in conference with Captain Gordon,
then Political Agent at Manipur, the actual boundary
was laid down in detail almost as it is to this day.
But proposals for a British post at Paplongmai

A 'I'ankiu 1. \ai,a I

MAMI'UR.

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 215

and a road to Samaguting were negatived. In
1844 an Assistant from Nowgong entered the hills
to collect the tribute agreed upon by them with
Biggs. The chiefs, however, defied him, and
practically chased him out of the country, falling
at the same time on one of our outposts, which
they completely destroyed. This led to Captain
Eld's expedition in 1844, which exacted considerable
retribution and burnt some villages, for which Eld
in the end was censured, as it was believed a village
was burnt which should have been spared. After
this the need of occupying the hills with a military
post was again discussed, but a middle course was
thought best ; and in the following year Captain
Butler led a force through part of the country, mapping
it, and conciliating the chiefs who paid him their tribute
in ivory, cloth, and spears. But the moment he
was out of the hills the old raiding parties started
again. Butler led another expedition to the Angamis,
and the same farce of agreements -and oaths was gone
through ; but he succeeded in starting a market at
Samaguting, and in making a road there from Dima-
pur, which had now become quite a trading centre.
Butler had left behind him a police official named
Bogchand at Samaguting with authority over the hill
people. This official, while proceeding to settle dis-
putes at Mozema, was attacked at Piphima where,
disdaining precautions, his escort was dispersed and
he himself was killed. To avenge this. Captain
Vincent headed a force armed with powers to destroy
villages' and granaries of any who were hostile ; it
having been pointed out to Government that our
punishments were too mild, and the Nagas thought

2l6

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

far more of the Manipuris than of us. Vincent
entered the hills in December, 1849, ^^^ was not
successful, due to the Commandant falling ill ; two
villages were burnt, but the troops had to retreat,
and the Nagas celebrated the occasion by serious
raids on the plains. Signs of hostile stirring were
manifest amongst other sections than the Angamis.

Kl.i^lvI.MA, A.M.A.Ml .\Ai,A \ U.I.AGi: SHOWING THE CURIOUS HORNED

Ornamentation to Houses of Wealthy Men.

Manipur was fermenting the disturbances by intrigue,
and strong repressive measures were eminently re-
quired. In 1850 Vincent therefore led a stronger
force over the border, and succeeded in penetrating
to the two chief offending villages of Khonoma and
Mozema, which were attacked and burnt. He then
established himself in a strong stockade commanding
this part of the tribal country, from which he made

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 217

tours and punished several other sections during the
summer. Next winter another column under
Captain Blake with two guns was sent up to assist
Vincent, when a Naga fort was captured near Kho-
noma, and the two officers with a strong force visited
Kohima and part of the eastern Angami country,
being opposed at Kekrima village, where the Angamis
fought well in the open, and Vincent only won after
what the official reports styled " a bloody battle."

Many arguments now took place over two lines
of policy, namely, retaining military hold of the
hills, or abandoning them entirely ; the latter course,
from economical considerations, being finally adopted,
all troops were withdrawn entirely from the hills
and their immediate vicinity, the Nowgong border
being protected by a line of outposts from Golaghat,
namely, Borpathar, Mohun Dijoa, Asaloo, Gunjong,
and the tribes were left to riot at their own sweet
will. It is amusing and interesting to note the
immediate and natural results of this policy. Reports
of those days show the jubilant Nagas when once
they realised they were left alone, celebrated the
new conditions by making twenty-two serious raids
that year into British territory, i.e., down into the
main Assam valley where the tea industry was pro-
gressing. This alone showed the impracticability of
non-interference ; yet in spite of the urgent protests
of the frontier officials, and requests to be allowed
to make reprisals, the game went on until 1862, when
the Commissioner represented to Government the
intolerable state of affairs. It was four more years
before this simple matter was definitely taken up,
and Government then directed a strong outpost to

2l8

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

be located at Samaguting, on the outer fringe of the
hills, where Lieutenant Gregory was sent as Deputy
Commissioner, armed with powers of punishment.
This produced a good effect for a time, and about

jvF^A 1/ ■•■■■ ' ' ^' '(^■'W'^,'''

^"^^i^a

AxGAMi Naga Grave— Man's

1874, ^s ^11 seemed quiet, survey operations were
extended into the hills with disturbing eifect. Two
parties entered, the northern one under Captain
Badgeley and Lieutenant Holcombe with a strong

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 219

escort from Sibsagor ; the southern one under Captain
Butler from Samaguting into the Lhota Naga country.
Both parties were attacked, the northern one in 1874
coming utterly to grief at Ninu, three marches into
the hills, when the Nagas attacked the camp treacher-
ously and made a huge bag (as is related elsewhere),
namely, Holcombe and eighty men killed, Badgeley
and fifty wounded ; while later, in 1875, Butler's
party walked into an ambuscade at Pangti village,
he losing his life and his men being dispersed. A
punitive column under Colonel Nuthall with some
of the 44th Sylhet Light Infantry and of the 42nd
Native Infantry were sent into the hills, stayed a
short while, met no opposition, and, having exacted
an incomplete amount of retribution, returned to the
plains.

Gregory at Samaguting meanwhile had had to
punish neighbouring villages at different times, and
both he and Butler in the early days of the new out-
posts were able to make several satisfactory visits to
large villages in the hills. But after the disasters
to the survey parties, the Chief Commissioner urged
a forward policy most strongly, and the establishment
of a post well into the hills from which to dominate
these turbulent people, as the present state of affairs,
he said, was most discreditable to our rule. Before
any decision could be arrived at by Government,
the large village of Mozema started raiding, and a
force of 230 sepoys under Captain Brydon, with
Mr. Carnegie as Political Officer, advanced from
Samaguting, and in December, 1877, attacked and
burnt Mozema. The defenders dispersing and joined
by the villages of Jotsoma and Khonoma, harried

220

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Samaguting and the line of communication ; and
a hundred sepoys of the 43rd Assam Light Infantry
were sent up to reinforce Brydon. The end of these
operations can only be described as ridiculous, for
the Political Officer Mr. Williamson, who succeeded
Mr. Carnegie, on the latter being killed accidentally
by one of our sentries, let off Khonoma and Jotsoma
scot free, while he merely imposed on Mozema a

"'^"■j^a^/^-^^

■•'.'*

A.NGAMi Naga Grave — Woman's. IIkk Baskets, Weaving Sticks,
AND Domestic Utensils.

fine of Rs. 50 and made them give up four of their
guns, and w'hat they had looted from three constables
and a mail bag. These absurdly lenient terms having
been complied with, the force returned to Samaguting.
The Chief Commissioner's forward policy was now
approved of, and Kohima being decided on as a
suitable situation to control the Angamis from, and
Wokha for the same purpose in the Lhota Naga

XIV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

221

country further north, in 1878 troops were sent up,
and stockaded posts built at both places, Mr. Damant
being detailed as Deputy Commissioner of the Naga
hills. For a year all went well, till in May, 1879,
Damant found that the large village of Khonoma
was collecting arms and ammunition, and before long
this section showed decided hostility. The fact being
the people now realised the existence of this garrison
(200 rifles) effectively stopped their head hunting

KoHiMA Village — Angami Na(;a— 900 Houses.

and raiding pursuits, entailed payment of tribute,
the supply of men as transport carriers ; and all this
they resented. In spite of evidences of unrest, such
as an abortive attack on the post at Piphima, Damant
did not believe it was likely to be serious, and before
starting out for a tour in the north he visited Khonoma
(twelve miles off) to find out the temper of the people.
In October, 1879, with an escort of twenty-five
Regulars and sixty-five Military Police, he passed
through Jotsoma and reached the foot of the hill

222 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

on which stands Ivhonoma. Leaving his baggage at
a Httle stream below, he ascended the narrow path
with only one or two sepoys, the rest of the escort
coming on leisurely. On arrival at the village gate
he found it closed, and his demands for admittance
were answered by a volley which killed Damant and
the Sepoys with him, and the next moment the escort
was attacked, beaten back down the narrow path,
and almost annihilated at the stream where the
baggage was looted. Fifty-seven in all were killed and
wounded, and the remainder got back to Kohima
as best they could. This station, in which were
Mr. Cawley of the Police, with Mrs. Cawley and
Mrs. Damant and i8o rifles, was at once besieged,
and a few days later received a small reinforcement
of twenty-two rifles under Mr. Hinde from Wokha,
and were only relieved a fortnight later by Colonel
Johnstone, Political Agent at Imphal, with 2,000
Manipuri soldiers and forty sepoys of the 34th N.I.
The Kohima garrison had an uncommonly unpleasant
experience, being surrounded by some six to seven
thousand Naga warriors, who spared no eff^ort to
fire the thatched buildings and attacked the stockade
repeatedly by rolling heavy timbers forward along
the ground behind which they sheltered and fired.
General Nation was now directed to assemble a
force of 1,135 iTien with two mountain guns at
Golaghat, and in early November these moved forward
and entered the hills, not without considerable oppo-
sition at the villages of Sephema and Sachima.
From the latter place as a base four miles from the
objective, Nation attacked Khonoma on the 22nd
November, 1879. ^^ "^^^ ^Y riature very strong,

XIV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

223

and had been rendered far more so by the Nagas
with infinite labour and skill ; and standing as it does
on a steep spur jutting out into the valley, it formed
a difficult nut to crack, the surrounding hills being
too far oflF and too difficult to permit of good turning

.nUuriiiHIUiitUt ;.

'.=1

Carved Front to a Wealthy Naga's House.

movements. The assault lasted all day and slowly
the troops forced their way up through the lower
village defences until the upper ones were reached,
but not till nightfall. Many hand-to-hand confficts
occurred, and many were killed and wounded, and
it was decided to stay the night on the ground won

224 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

and assault the upper works at dawn. This was
done, but the works were found deserted, the Nagas
having withdrawn in the night to the Chakka Fort
far up in the Barail range overlooking the village.
Our losses in this affair were two British officers
and the Subahdar Major of the 44th S.L.I, killed,
two British and two Native officers wounded, and
forty-four sepoys killed and wounded. Khonoma
was strongly garrisoned, and the rest of the force
visited and punished various other villages ; while
for months the Khonoma men held the Chakka
position and carried on a guerilla war, even raiding
as far as the Baladhan tea garden, eighty-eight miles
off in Cachar. The supplies also of the Khonoma
and Paplongmai posts were frequently interrupted
and looted, so a strict blockade of the Chakka Forts
being made and reinforcements reaching both posts,
the Nagas finally gave in and submitted on the 28th of
March, 1880. It is also conceivable that the drastic
punishment meted out by Colonel Johnstone on
Phesema village who attacked his convoys during
the winter may have somewhat taken the heart out
of the Angamis, who were in the end well punished
by fines in cash and grain, unpaid labour, the sur-
render of firearms, and demolition of defences ;
while Khonoma in addition had all its cultivated lands
confiscated, and its inhabitants dispersed among
other clans.

Since then this powerful tribe have remained quiet,
though in 1 891, at the time of the Manipur rebellion,
it was found that the rebel durbar of that State was
intriguing with Khonoma, so a Sikh regiment (the
36th) was brought to Golaghat, whose presence near

XIV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

225

their hills was instrumental in keeping the Khonoma
people quiet. It may here be remarked that after
a few years Government permitted the resumption
of their old village site by this section of the Angamis.
This marked the end of serious trouble and hostility
in the Naga hills, but it was found desirable during
succeeding years to extend our rule northwards to
the Aoh and Lengta Naga country to still further put

Stockaded Entrance to Mongsin ^'ILI.AGE, Trans Dikkod.

an end to petty raids in the plains, and in 1890
the Naga hills revenue paying district extended from
the Henema outpost in the south close to the North
Cachar hills to the Tamlu post in the north at the
corner where the Dikkoo river turns to emerge into
the plains, a length of some 250 miles. This latter
river has up to now been our border line here, which
further south becomes the line of the Tizoo and

226

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Lanier rivers, east of which the country is " unad-
ministered," the wild tribes being left to themselves
as long as they do not worry our side of the border.
This, however, they have done now and again,
notably in 1888, when the big village of Mongsemdi
w^as badly raided by the men of the Trans-Dikkoo

Sema Chief's Housp;. Carved Tree Trunks denote Wealth.

villages of Litam and Noksen, which called forth a
punitive expedition and both villages were burnt
with some opposition. It has frequently occurred
that the Trans-Dikkoo villages more adjacent to our
border have begged to be taken over by us, when
the condition of " alarums and excursions " to which
they are subjected by their savage neighbours would

XIV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 227

be ended. This further extension of the border up
to the present has naturally not found favour in the
eyes of Government. As showing the condition
of preparedness against attack in which these people
constantly dwell, the writer was across the border
at Bor Tabhlung in 1899 with a Civil Officer and a
small escort to inquire into some land dispute, when
the women of the village were seen going out in the
morning to work in their fields armed like their men
with heavy " daos." This, in order to be able to
protect themselves against surprise attack by another
village which had started raiding. A state of in-
security for the people, which must become intoler-
able at times, although they have ever been accustomed
to it.

All the outposts are now connected with the head-
quarter station at Kohima by good, well-graded bridle
paths which are now extended in several directions
into the Sema hills with comfortable rest-houses at
all stages, A broad metalled cart road also connects
Dimapur on the railway with Kohima, forty-seven
miles, continuing on through the hills eighty-eight
miles further to Manipur.

Q 2

CHAPTER XV

REGRETTABLE INCIDENTS, TREACHERY,
METHODS OF FIGHTING, ETC.

It may not be generally known that the various
disasters and regrettable incidents that have from
time to time occurred in the past on this north-
eastern border have all been due to neglect of proper
precautions, half-hearted measures, and unprepared-
ness. Prominent examples of this are to be found
in White's disaster at Sadiya in 1839, Lowther's in
1858, Holcombe's at Ninu in 1874, Butler's at Pangti
the following year, Damant's at Khonoma in 1879,
Manipur in 1891, and others. Of these it may be
as well to give in detail the story of Holcombe's
affair, while the incident in Shimong village towards
the end of the recent Abor expedition, although
no blood was shed, proved the Abors' intention,
and goes to show what the treachery of these tribes
is like and which, ever to be guarded against, was
in both these cases neglected. Holcombe and
]Badgeley, w^ith a strong military escort and train of
coolies, had gone some three marches into the hills
(east of Sibsagor) for survey work, and had camped
in the vicinity of Ninu village. The next morning
early a large party of Nagas, apparently friendly,

CH. XV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 229

entered the camp and approached Holcombe, who
was strolling about. The sepoys were all cooking
their food, only one sentry was posted over the front
of the camp, and Captain Badgeley was still dressing
in his tent. Through an interpreter Holcombe chatted
with the head man of the party, one of whom asked
to be shown a rifle. The nearest one happened to
be that in the sentry's hand, which Holcombe took
and showed. This was the signal, for the next
moment the savages threw off^ their blankets, under
which each had his " dao," Holcombe and the sentry
were cut down dead at once, and the enemy rushed
through the camp, cutting down sepoys before they
could get to their weapons, and everyone within
reach. Badgeley was cut at and wounded as he
left his tent, but succeeded in collecting a few sepoys
and making a stand while rifles were got out. The
stand, however, was of short duration, and a retreat
had to be made fortunately well conducted, or none
would have returned at all. The aflE"air was over in
a very short time and the camp and its vicinity
swarming with the exultant enemy, who had accounted
for Holcombe and eighty men killed, Badgeley and
fifty wounded, and were now busy making their bag
of heads. Badgeley with his small party effected a
retirement out of the hills with such of the wounded
as they could take.

When the Abor expedition, 1911-12, was drawing
to its close and an exploration and survey outing
was in progress, a party of some one hundred rifles
and six British officers reached the neighbourhood
of Shimong and camped below, sending word up
to the village of their presence and calling on the

230 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Gam (head man) to come in. This was met by
a refusal either to come in or to allow the party
to pass up further. Next morning the Civil Officer
in charge with all the British officers and ten rifles
only, started ahead, leaving the remaining rifles
to come on with the Naga carriers. They entered
the village, and in the large sort of open market-
place in the centre found a gathering of some three
to four hundred armed Abors who at once drew
their " daos." The Civil officer, waving a hand-
kerchief, called to them that we had no hostile
intention, whereupon they put up their weapons,
broke up, and began to mingle with our people, the
sepoys, who had moved forward on seeing the hostile
attitude, having been ordered back behind the British
officers. Through the interpreter our officers talked
with the Gam, the while his warriors began pushing
in between our people ostensibly to examine their
clothes, equipment, etc., till the little party were all
separated, some being so handled by Abors as to
have buttons and shoulder straps pulled off, while
one sepoy had his rifle snatched away, which, how-
ever, he regained next moment. When the Gam in
reply to an officer's remark that they were now going
on, said, " No, you are not," and following it up by
adding, " and you are not going back either," things
were realised to be exceedingly serious. Fortunately,
all kept their heads, and the parley continued, the
while every member of the party was firmly held
— in many cases with their arms behind their backs
■ — by three or four Abors. Presently the head of the
column, a Native officer with some twenty-five rifles
appeared at the far end of the village, and the officers

XV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

231

asking to be allowed to sit in the shade of a big tree
in the open space, the tribesmen released them,
and the party moved to the tree, the ten rifles im-
mediately taking post in front of the Abor gathering
at the same moment as the Native officer's party
swung into the market-place, who, grasping the
situation, at once moved his men to the other side of
the hostile crowd. These, now between two fires
had they attempted any rush, began to laugh and
treat the episode as one of humour and joke, which
it most certainly was not.
Had the Abors only made
up their minds at once all
would have been over with
the entire party, for not
one could have done any-
thing in self-defence. As
it was, they delayed just
too long and their oppor-
tunity passed. The little
force returned to its camp
below that night, and next
morning, well closed up and
with bayonets fixed, they passed through Shimong
village, which now held only about one hundred Abors,
and pursued their route up the Dihang. Not long after
a post of fifty rifles was established here from Kebang
as one of the supply depots to Bentinck's party
exploring up the Dihang. Another account says the
force did not pass through this village again, but
proceeded on by another route. This very danger-
ous episode came about by approaching a village of
hostile intentions in a happy-go-lucky way more

"Jekia,"' a Se.ma Naga Cuiek.

232 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

worthy of schoolboys than men, and also was due
in a measure to the strict adherence to orders not
to fire unless in self-defence, and generally, in fact,
to subordinate all dignity of procedure to the present-
day absurd sentiment of." making friends " or " back-
patting," and this in a hostile country !

Butler and Damant both came to grief, in the Lhota
and Angami country respectively, by approaching
villages of doubtful temper with no ordinary military
precautions. It is generally said that none of these
tribes ever fight in the open or have any heart for
aught save night surprises and village defences, or
wherever treachery points the way to success. This
is certainly, generally true, but it must not be for-
gotten that instances have occurred of fighting
in the open. Captain Charlton's operations in 1845
against the Singphos included an open daylight fight
near Bisa ; while in 1851, near Kekrima village in
the eastern Angami country. Captains Vincent and
Blake were resolutely attacked on a rolling open
plateau below and about a mile from the village
defences, the Angamis making a great efi^ort against
Blake's two guns and only drawing off with great
loss, while ours was by no means inconsiderable.

The late General Macgregor, who had extensive
experiences amongst these various tribes, used to
speak well of their bravery on occasions, particularly
of the Angami Nagas, and cited several instances
when he had seen them come out into the open
under our fire and carry off their wounded.

In February, 1900, the Deputy Commissioner of
the Naga Hills and the Commandant with one hundred
rifles of the Kohima Military Police Battalion, were

XV

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM

233

en route to the Sibsagor Hinterland to exact punish-
ment for a series of petty raids, and while crossing
a strip of " unadministered country " were seriously
attacked by the inhabitants of a large and hitherto
unvisited village of Yachumi. Here the tribesmen

Sema Warrior Wearing their Curious Tail Ornament.

attacked the column on the side of a hill a little
distance from their village about noon, coming on
in a large mob of armed men after they had executed
a war dance, which was seen through glasses by the
Deputy Commissioner and the Commandant. Only

234 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

as a last resource and to keep them from getting
near enough to create a panic among the cooHes,
did fire open ; and it was then seen that these people
had no idea whatever of firearms, the first rounds
going over did not attract their attention ; the next
hit two men, and struck up the ground in front of
the mob, who at once stopped to look at the wounded,
while others began digging in the ground with spear
butts to see what was being thrown at them with
so much noise. It did not stop the rush, however,
which came nearer, until nineteen or twenty were
down close in front of the advance guard. This
checked them, and as our flankers on the slopes
above called down that the Nagas were gathering in
strength in the forest above to attack the flank of
the long, winding column, the Commandant, taking
a section of twenty-five rifles, climbed the hill and
cleared the gathering away. The enemy retreated
into their village and stoutly opposed our entrance,
losing many more in so doing. They used spears
and daos and a heavy cross-bow with short poisoned
arrows which carried over 150 yards. This village,
a large one of 500 houses or more, was then burnt
and the little column proceeded on its way north by
another route, as too much hostility was anticipated
from other large villages seen in the neighbourhood.
This people attacked in the open, and did not give
way until some forty-five of them were killed, while
on our side three men were badly wounded by spears
and several more by " panjis."

The attack of Trans-Dikkoo Nagas of the Chin-
long and Chinkoi villages, just across the Dikkoo
river from Tamlu, on a Military Police column of

XV HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 235

some 200 rifles in February, 191 3, who were en route
to punish the tribe for raiding for heads on our side
of the border, took place in the day time and on
fairly open hills and spurs. Being absolutely surprised,
although warning had been given that these people
did mean to fight which was generally disbelieved,
the column lost several sepoys and many transport
coolies both shot and cut down ; and at one time,
as panic set in amongst the coolies, things looked
for a bit extremely awkward. Of the losses to the
Nagas little or nothing was known, but they drew
off towards evening. A stronger force was shortly
afterwards sent up which, having a practically free
hand, went through those hills and exacted possibly
the most complete amount of reparation of any
previous expedition since the " 'fifties," and did it
in a remarkably short time. The operations of this
column have now led to the placing of a military
post in the Tantok hills to preserve order, the border
line having been advanced eastwards some distance.

From these and other instances of fighting in the
open it is apparent that the original tactics of these
tribes have been modified to suit the situation of
contending with an enemy generally better armed
and, in these days, with modern rifles, when attacks
en masse Can only have a disastrous ending to those
making them. Surely then, they can with greater
justice be called astute rather than altogether cowardly.
Their tactics are the best that can be devised to suit
their numbers, weapons, and country, so we can
hardly blame these savages for not more often meeting
us out in the open. For instance, in the Chin hills,
whose people and country are not very dissimilar

236 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM ch. xv

to those we have discussed, Mr. Carey, in his account
of the subjugation of this tribe, describes how when
he first met them they fought in the open, but soon
found they and their flintlocks were no match for
our sepoys and rifles. They then changed their
tactics and fought from covered-in trenches as at
Tartan in 1889. The following year it was found
that they had again changed their methods in hope
of withstanding our troops, and the lines of guerilla
warfare were followed — harrying convoys, cutting up
small parties, planning ambuscades, firing into camps
at night, and so forth.

CHAPTER XVI

THE NORTH-EASTERN FRONTIER GENERALLY
AND ITS MILITARY POLICE FORCES

Having traced the history of this long stretch of
borderland from old times, the reasons which brought
the English up to it, and the tribes dwelling along
the same, we can turn to the present outlook of affairs
and see what future possibilities may hold for us.
We have seen that the last big expedition against
the Abors had a greater importance and interest
owing to what is spoken of as the awakening of China
and the modernising of her forces. The new con-
dition began to call for notice by the European nations
brought into touch with her about 1908, the matter
concerning us at first over Chinese action in Thibet
— a country whose unknown south-eastern districts
are in touch somewhere with the Abor and Mishmi
tribe. Our having given over Thibet practically to
Chinese rule after the Thibet expedition of 1904-05
resulted a few years later in the latter's troops over-
running the country, garrisons being established at
Phari and in the Chumbi valley, contiguous to the
Sikkim border, which is directly under British control.
The Chumbi valley had been held by our troops
until Thibet had paid the war indemnity, when they

f

238 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

were withdrawn to India. Chinese rule in Thibet

during 191 1 became weakened by risings of the

people of the country, and more troops were sent

in there from Ssii-chuan to restore order but failed,

largely owing to considerable difficulties due to the

opposition of tribesmen in south-eastern Thibet,

where in several actions the Chinese were barely able

to hold their own, and such reinforcements as could

be spared were sent down the Tsan-Po from Thibet ;

such action more or less coinciding with the opening

of the Abor expedition of 1911-12. About the same

time reports came to hand that the Chinese who

had occupied Rima east of the Mishmi hills were

I sending emissaries amongst that tribe to secure their

I submission. Various aggressive acts of the Chinese

at points along the Burma border then occurred,

notably west of the Salween-Irrawadi divide in 19 10-

II, when a Military Police Force was sent to the

I Hpimaw group of villages for their protection. Our

frontier outpost line was then extended to Htawgaw,

I some sixty miles from Myitkhyina and east of the

; Nmai-kha on the Ngawchang river. Later Chinese

'I \ activity in this direction tending to disturb the equa-

I nimity of the tribes led to a Military Police outpost

being located at Hpimaw itself in 1913, and the

frontier road extended up to it. A few miles east

I of Hpimaw two easy passes cross the range over-

j looking the Salween river and form a small trade

route into the Tengyueh Province of China. The

new Hpimaw post stands at an elevation of 8,500

feet and will be held by one hundred rifles under

two British officers. It lies sixteen marches from

Myitkhyina among the tribes of Lashis and Yawyins,

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 239

of whom the latter only are held in considerable
estimation by our officers, who are disposed to have
them tried as fighting material formed into a sort
of frontier militia. It is known the Chinese utilise
numbers of Yawyins in their Yiinnanese forces.

In fact it would seem that China had been
desirous of extending her rule right up to our borders,
and that this was possibly a fixed principle of her
statesmen in the past. It may so happen that under
a new and stable government and a rapidly modern-
ising China this idea will come to the front again.
Hence much interest has been shifted from the north-
west to the north-east borders of India, and eflForts
are being made to lift the veil hitherto covering this
vast tract of country, as we have seen, by various
exploring and survey parties. The success of their
efforts from Assam has been mentioned, and simi-
larly those from Myitkhyina in Upper Burma have
increased our knowledge of the unknown lands between
the Mali-kha and Nmai-kha rivers and the important
watersheds between the Irrawadi and Salween rivers,
while the parties which entered the little-known
region of Hkamti Long have effected much in explora-
tion and survey. Thus on the Burma borderland
we now see the results of the survey operations,
1911-12-13, in an accurate survey of the Salween-
Irrawadi watershed up to latitude 28^ 20', which
nearly joins up with the work of M. Bacot and Captain
Bailey in 191 1 at the sources of the Irrawadi. In
fact, there is now only a gap of some 10", so that for
all practical purposes this watershed can be fixed
on the map as far north as latitude 28 45', where lie
the northernmost sources of that river. The course

240 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

of the N'mai-kha, the most easterly and hitherto
unknown tributary of the Irrawadi, has also been
traced and mapped throughout, and its main tribu-
taries, the Taron and Nam Tamai, have been sur-
veyed up to latitudes 28' 20' and 28^ 15' respectively.
Our knowledge of the great Irrawadi basin is thus
practically complete.

The efforts of Captains Pritchard and Waterfield
were most successful along the Nam Tamai river
(or Adungwang as it is called in its upper reaches)
up to the village of Lama-nay, which was found to
be the furthest inhabited spot ; while their journey
up the Taron, the easterly tributary of the N'mai-kha,
extended as far as latitude 28"^ 20', where they were
then within only a few days' march of the Mekhong-
Rima route which was traversed by Captain Bailey
in 191 1. The lamented death of Captain Pritchard,
who was drowned in the Taron river in the late spring
of 191 3, put a stop to the further efforts of this party,
and lost to us an intrepid explorer and one whose
work in the recent past has been invaluable. Behind
these parties road-making has been pushed on as far
as possible towards the border land, a good bridle
path having been completed and telegraph communi-
cation established between the garrison of Myitkh-
yina and the outposts of Htawgaw and Hpimaw.
Other remotely possible contingencies connected with
Thibet and the more distant parts of this borderland
no doubt exist, but their very remoteness renders
it undesirable to allude to them at present.

Large schemes for defence have hitherto only con-
cerned the other side of India, defence against internal
trouble alone being arranged for in Assam. This

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 241

country has no main roads bridged or metalled
throughout, while the chief means of transport are
the Brahmaputra steamers and the Assam-Bengal
Railway, the latter being of but limited capacity.
In view of the unexpected always occurring, and
trouble coming from without, to be most likely
accompanied by trouble from within, a grave situation
might arise in regard to these rich provinces of Assam
and Upper Burma.

The interest into which this borderland has sprung
may, it is hoped, favourably affect the matter of
communications in both provinces, as the present
condition of most roads would prove a very con-
siderable difficulty in moving large bodies of troops
in the event of prolonged and extensive military
operations in either Assam or Upper Burma.

Many people argue that there is no danger to this
side of India owing to its difficulties in the way of
mountains, forests, and rivers ; but they are probably
unaware of the fact that China carried out only a little
over one hundred years ago what has been spoken
of as " the most remarkable military achievement
known," namely, when she moved an army of 70,000
men over 2,000 miles of most difficult mountainous
country at great altitudes through Thibet into Nepal,
defeating the Goorkhas at Tengri Maidan and crush-
ing them at their capital. What they effected then
in setting all these impediments at naught, it is not
unreasonable to suppose could be done again.

The Burmese also, as we have seen, invaded and
took Assam early in the last century, the forests and
difficulties of the Patkoi mountains proving not insur-
mountable to them. Huge stones set up and carved

242 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

with the peacock — the royal bird of Burma — denoting
the halting-place of some general and his troops,
have been found in the heart of the Naga hills,
showing that they did not all move by the more easy
passes of the northern Patkoi. Against the establish-
ment of military posts among these tribes it is
frequently argued that it means taking over the whole
area and thereby adding to the burden of administra-
tion ; but this need not be the case. It was not so
in the Singpho country, where such posts were held
for a few years and withdrawn when the tribe was
settled and recognised our power. We have not been
into their country since, nor have they given us
further trouble. The establishment of military posts
was found to be the only way of impressing the Nagas
with ideas of law and order ; in this case, however,
it was found desirable to take over and administer
the country, but it does not follow in all cases that
this would necessarily be carried out.

These posts among savage tribes are the only
means of really controlling them, and must prove
cheapest in the end, when we see the great expense
occurring and recurring of punitive expeditions enter-
ing only the outer fringe of the hills and coming out
again, often without exacting what the tribes recognise
as punishment, and which system they are too prone
to look on as a sign of weakness.

The Military Police Force.

The early years after the annexation of Upper Burma
being times of much trouble and the employment of
large numbers of regular troops, brought about the
establishment of MiHtary Police Battalions, to augment

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 243

the Civil Police and also to assist the Regular troops.
These latter ceased to be on a field force footing
about April, 1888, and were reduced ; and at the same
time the Military Police Force stood at a strength
of 13,300, which a year or so later was increased to
18,000 men.

They are a force entirely under the Civil Govern-
ment, dressed, drilled, and trained as regulars, but
for political reasons in the matter of arms they are
kept, as one might say, a pace behind, i.e., where
the latter are armed with the latest patterns of rifles,
the Military Police Battalions have Martinis. To
work this large machine officers are lent from the
army to the Civil Government as Commandants and
Assistant Commandants for a term of two to five years
to train and discipline these battalions, while numbers
of Native officers and men are transferred from the
Indian Army to assist in the same purpose. The
particular corps which keep watch and ward over the
Upper Burma borderland are the Chindwyn Military
Police Battalion with headquarters at Monywa, and
detachments far up that river almost to the Hukong
valley ; the Myitkhyina Military Police Battalion with
headquarters at that station on the Irrawadi river in
the extreme north of Burma, with strong detachments
at Sadon and Sima facing that part of the China
border, and which has lately located outposts some
distance up the Nmai-kha river ; the Bhamo Military
Police Battalion with outposts far up the Taping and
Shweli rivers ; the Northern Shan States Military
Police Battalion with headquarters at Lashio and
outposts stretching along the northern border from
the Shweli to the Salween rivers. These outposts

R 2

244 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

of each battalion arc more or less closely linked with
each other, while the Chindwyn Military Police
Battalion with its western outpost at Tammoo links
up the chain with the outposts of the Manipur State,
and these again further north with the Military
Police Battalion of the Naga hills in Assam. So that
for purposes of resisting tribal aggression the chain
is fairly complete. Further east and south our out-
posts of the southern Shan States Military Police
Battalion, which locality does not however come
within the scope of this work, face those of the French
at no great distance in the Trans-Salween country
and Mekhong valley.

These Military Police Battalions have had changes
in organisation since their starting-point in 1886.
For instance, for many years there were two Chindwyn
Battalions — the upper at Kendat, the lower at Monywa ;
while the old Mogoung Levy, which did such good
hard service under Captain (now General) O'Donnell
in the early days of constant raid and trouble, ceased
to exist as Military Police on the establishment of
the Myitkhyina Military Police Battalion, when
Mogoung, at one time the headquarters, dwindled
down to an outpost. Peaceful conditions all up the
Chindwyn similarly did not require two strong corps,
and now one is sufficient for duty in that locality.
These frontier Military Police Battalions mostly enlist
men from Northern India, but have also two or
three companies of Goorkhas recruited from eastern
Nepal, while the Myitkhyina Military Police Battalion
is entirely composed of this latter class, and the
Bhamo Military Police Battalion has two companies
of Kachins who are spoken of very favourably as

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 245

soldiers. In Burma most of the Military Police
Battalions have two or three companies of Mounted
Infantry belonging to them, and these owing to the large
number of cavalry officers who take service in this
force are very carefully attended to and trained. In
1890 a number of old Madras regiments were dis-
banded, and in their place arose the first three Burma
Regiments formed from Military Police Battalions,
of which one was the old Mogoung Levy, and at the
same time the strength of the force was reduced to
12,000 men, which again in later years it has been
found necessary to increase.

In Assam a Military Police Force has been organised
since about 1830, first as an armed Civil Force known
as the Cachar Levy, and then as a Frontier Police
Force. This force, as Assam was opened up and came
entirely under our rule, was distributed in posts
along the foot of the hills from Cooch Behar to Sadiya,
thence, crossing the Brahmaputra, the posts ran along
the foot of the Naga hills up the Dhansiri valley,
through the North Cachar hills into Silchar, where
they linked up again with the posts guarding the
Lushai border. LTp to 1880, although their duties
were practically entirely military they were styled
constables and were officered by Civil Police officials
and inspectors. There were in those days as a reserve
to the Frontier Police four Regular regiments stationed
in Assam, the headquarters of two of them being at
Shillong, of another at Dibrughar, and of a fourth
at Silchar. These again had detachments about the
country, the principal ones being at Gauhati, Tezpur,
Golaghat, Jaipur, Sadiya in Upper Assam ; and at
Monierkhal, Alinagar, and Chargola in Silchar (Cachar).

246

HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

Some of these were right on the border, and on the
re-organisation of Assam's internal defence in 1880-81
the Frontier Pohce were increased and given entire
charge of the border posts, the Regulars being reduced
to three regiments, namely, the old 42nd, 43rd and
44th Assam Light Infantry. Two years later, for
the improvement of the Frontier Police in their
military duties, discipline, etc., it was found desirable
to break the old force up and reconstitute it into

UscAL Form of Our Stockades on N.E. Fkontiek.

battalions of Military Police and to borrow officers
of the Regular Army as commandants to train them
for a period of five years, while uniform, equipment,
etc., were attended to, and the old " Brown Besses "
discarded for Sniders. The force was thus organised
into three full strength battalions, namely, the Lak-
himpur Military Police Battalion with headquarters
at Dibrughar ; the Naga Hills Military Police Batta-
lion with headquarters at Kohima ; the Lushai

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 247

Military Police Battalion with headquarters at Aijal ;
and two battalions of lesser strength in the Garo
hills at Tura, and in Cachar at Silchar. These
battalions, at first of mixed enlistments, now take
as many Goorkhas and Jaruas (the fighting class of
Assam) as they can, the latter being good soldiers,
excelling in woodcraft, rafting, building, etc. ; and
are, like the Goorkhas, not bothered with over much
religion or caste prejudice. For many years the Lushai
Military Police Battalion was the only corps in Assam
which had more than one British officer — the com-
mandant; this being due to a mutiny which occurred
at Aijal about 1891 when, to bring the men into order
again, two other British officers were sent as Assistant
Commandants, and the retention of one of these was
'' managed," to obviate fear of another mutiny. The
transfer to this battalion of Lungleh in the south
Lushai country with its Military Police companies
who hitherto had belonged to Bengal, also necessi-
tated an additional British officer being added to the
now increased battalion strength. It can thus be
seen that Commandants of the other corps had
their work cut out for them in order to keep their
units up to a respectable condition of efficiency.
And so much good work did these Commandants
alone put in (with the aid of first-class Native officers,
of course) that for very many years now the Assam
Military Police Battalions have been perfectly fitted
to stand alongside of their Regular brethren, and
when employed on frontier '' shows " with them
have invariably earned hearty praise for their atten-
tion to duty, hard work, and discipline. People are
only too prone to belittle this force generally, and

248 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chap.

to speak of them rather contemptuously as " PoHce,"
whereas they are only that in name, to distinguish
the armed and discipHned forces of the Civil .Govern-
ment from those of the Regular army. Their duties
are of an arduous nature and are purely military.
I'hat C.O.'s of regiments formerly looked askance at
one of their officers going to or returning from Military
Police employ is not due to the corps or the service,
but simply to the bad name induced by numbers
of British officers taking service with Military Police
Battalions for the sole purposes of relieving the strain
on their pockets and of having a slack time as they
imagined, and as, of course, in their isolated positions
they could have. Of course " hard bargains " of this
sort did not improve during their few years in Military
Police employ (if they were kept as long) and were
a serious crux to their C.O.'s on return to their regi-
ments and a proper energetic form of life. This
undesirable state of affairs has now more or less
ceased to exist. Commandants and Assistant Com-
mandants who have been added to all battalions
in the last eight years are carefully selected.
Where in the neighbourhood of Regulars, in Assam
at least. Military Police units are allowed to join
in military work such as camps of exercise, etc., and
Brigadiers are invited to inspect Military Police head-
quarters and outposts whenever they find themselves
in their vicinity, which was invariably done, and it
is to be hoped is kept up still. This particular method
of attaining to and keeping up a reasonable degree
of military efficiency does not hold in the Burma
Military Police force, where pride in being " Irregu-
lars " and a dislike to approaching anything like

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 249

military rule, has led to a very distinct gulf being
fixed between the two forces, and neither mix in any
way even at assaults-at-arms. The Assam Military
Police Battalions are also *' Irregulars," but do not
avoid methods of efficiency by which Commandants
and Assistant Commandants know that they and
their men may now and then come under the eye
of the Military Head, although they are for the time
being in Civil employ. It seems a pity that so little
notice is ever taken of the good work which numbers
of Army officers put in with the Military Police
Forces, which Forces would gain considerably in
efficiency if the British officers were as regularly
reported on as they are in their regiments, and if at
the end of their tour of service it was ordered that
notes should be entered in their regimental confi-
dential reports as to good work done or the reverse.
The knowledge of this might stimulate honest workers
and deter the class alluded to as " hard bargains "
from either going into Military Police employ to the
detriment of the same, or from staying in it any
time. The writer has recently heard a useful sugges-
tion regarding increased efficiency of this force,
namelv, whether it would not be advisable to institute
a post of Inspecting Officer for the entire mass of
Military Police Battalions, whose duties would be
constant touring amongst the units, seeing their
w^ork, efficiency, and reporting at once on what was
good, bad, or indifferent ; with a view to the last
two items being remedied at once. This particular
officer to be independent of local Governments, and
to deal direct with the Government of India. As
things stand at present, regimental C.O.'s are usually

250 HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM chai-.

unaware of any good work done by their officers when
attached to MiUtary Pohce units. The only thing
they are made unpleasantly aware of is when an
officer is glaringly unsatisfactory and is ordered back
to his regiment — which is too rarely done. Military
Police Battalions are essentially the eye and not the
hand of the executive, which work falls to Regular
troops on serious matter arising. But in the past,
as of late years, punitive columns entirely of Military
Police have been utilised and have done hard and good
work which sometimes has included a small action,
which (they not being Regulars) is never announced in
the public papers, so they go without the benefits which
accrue from advertisement. Military Police Battalions
are accustomed to life and work on these borders, they
can start out at a moment's notice at the wish or order
of the Deputy Commissioner of the District only in
time of need, coolies are impressed at once, rations
weighed out, ammunition issued, the hospital assistant
gets his medical pannier out, and off they go. Should
a brush with a tribe occur and a casualty or two
happen it is taken in the ordinary course of events
and not made the subject of worry or advertisement,
as is invariably the case where Regular troops are used.
Hence it is obvious that to bring this very useful
mobile force under the hard red-tapism of military
regime would in no way prove to its benefit, which
apparently is w^hat is feared would occur in Burma
if the two forces had anything to do with each other,
except, of course, on actual service.

An interesting comparison can here be made touching
the matter of expense of these Regular and Military
Police expeditions. In 1889-90 an expedition (Regu-

XVI HISTORY OF UPPER ASSAM 251

lars) of 1,200 troops went into the Mishmi country,
to which allusion has been made earlier in these
pages. The troops were out about four months, but
only 120 penetrated into the main valley, and the
results of the operations were disappointing ; there
was no active opposition at all, and the expedition
cost two and a half lakhs. At the same time a small
punitive outing was in progress in the hills on the
south side of the Brahmaputra towards the Patkoi
range, with which the late Mr. Noel Williamson
went. Its strength was three British officers, two
Native officers, one hundred rifles (Military Police)
with 170 coolies. This little force was absent from
headquarters two months, three weeks of which were
spent beyond the border in most difficult and un-
mapped country, and where opposition was actually
met with on one occasion. Its work was completed
and the extra cost involved in this punitive outing was
Rs. 1,766 only — truly a remarkable contrast in cost-
liness. That Military PoUce life then is good for
officers, or should be, goes without saying. They
are paid liberally and draw travelling allowances when
on duty out of their stations, while they learn what
it is to be independent, what initiative and responsi-
bility really mean, how to deal with men, and to what
extent hard work can be laid upon them. Life in
regiments does not teach young officers this, at least
but rarely, and mostly only when they are nearing
the top of the regimental tree.

APPENDIX

Routes.

The chief routes towards the actual north-eastern
frontier from Assam are those leading up the Dihang
and Dibong rivers into Thibet now being explored,
and that up the Lohit from Sadiya to Walong, some
thirty odd miles from Rima, and along which latter
it is thought eventually to have a cart road.

Further through the Hkamti Long country, or
rather into it, the only known routes towards China
are those used in 1885 by Colonels Woodthorpe and
Macgregor from Sadiya via the Nonyong Lake and a
low pass of 3 ,960 feet in the Patkoi range up the Loglai
valley past Turong Ku, who, crossing the upper
Dihing, reached Hkamti through Kumki and the
Chaukan Pass ; while Macgregor on another occasion
explored a route across the Patkoi into the Hukong
valley, and then turning north via Ntupntsa reached
Hkamti. This is recorded as particularly difficult.

The best Hne of communication between Hkamti
Long and China is said by the inhabitants to run east
to the Mali-kha river, thence down the right bank
to a place spoken of as Marai Salar, whence the valley
is crossed, and the path continues over ranges to the
Nmai-kha and so into Yunnan.

In 1892 Mr. Errol Gray, also starting from Sadiya,
explored an easier route up the Dihing valley to
Kumki over the Chaukan Pass and up to the Phangma
river to the Nam Kiu valley and Hkamti, a route

353

■54

APPENDIX

said to be the chief one used by the people trading
between Hkamti and Assam. These people are
generally on the move between November and March,
the rest of the year the passes are impossible either
owing to heavy rainy seasons or by being blocked
by snow.

Another route from Assam to Hkamti Long as yet
untravelled by Europeans, and described only by the
people, lies up the Lohit for ten days where the
Ghalang river joins in, thence seven days up this,
passing many Meju Mishmi villages to the Nam-kiu
valley, crossing en route a very high and difficult range.
This route is spoken of as being only open during
October and November. A route from Hkamti Long
is spoken of (also only by the people) as connecting
with Thibet and running along the watershed of the
Nam-kiu and Brahmaputra (Lohit branch) across the
Mishmi hiMs. Beyond this is said to be a Thibetan
fort armed with cannon which guards the pass.

Hkamti Long is connected with Burma by routes
to the Hukong valley and Mayangkwan, and further
north and east by a route leading to Sachyi on the
Mali-kha, and thence down the Irrawadi to Myit-
khyina. But these are only known about from native
sources of information ; it is known, though, that
a quantity of rubber is brought down along them.

From Myitkhyina the best known routes into China
are those via Sadon and Sima to Tengyueh, and
which are regularly used by traders, the second via
Sima being the easiest and most resorted to.

From Bhamo run several trade routes, the chief of
which are those to Tengyueh via Momauk, via Sing-
lamkaba, via Lwejebum, which are good bridle paths
up to the border, and thence on become rough
country tracks. A cart road is made up the Taping
river from Bhamo, which eventually will be continued
up to the Chinese border at Nampaung.

From Lashio in the North Shan hills, which forms

APPENDIX 255

the headquarters of the frontier posts on the extreme
north-east of our borderland, a good bridle path runs
120 odd miles to the further outpost on the Chinese
border at Hsawn Peng, while from Lashio east a good
track connects with the Kunlon ferry on the Salween
river. This latter is also a trade route, but a very
difficult one between this part of Burma and Yiinnan
Fu. It was at one time intended to continue the rail-
way line from Lashio on to the Kijnlon ferry, and
possibly even further, thus to tap the trade from
Southern China, but monetary considerations pre-
vailed as well as physical difficulties against this
scheme reaching fulfilment. The line was stopped
at Lashio, and it was left for the French across the
Mekhong to carry their railway inland from Tonquin
to Yunnan Fu.

The chief means of lateral communication between
Upper Assam and Upper Burma are : —

(i) From the Assam-Bengal Railway (Manipur Road
Station) via Kohima and the Naga hills to Imphal
in Manipur. A good, well-graded, metalled and
bridged cart road, forty-eight miles to Kohima (the
headquarters of the Naga hills district), and thence
on eighty-eight miles to Imphal, the capital of the
Manipur State. Good rest-houses at every stage, of
which there are twelve. From Imphal on sixty-four
miles of good bridle path and Tammoo, the Burma
Military Police outpost in the Kale Kabaw valley,
is reached, and thirty-six miles further the Chindwyn
river at Sittaung, on which Flotilla steamers ply.

(2) Further south another route connects Silchar
on the Assam-Bengal Railway with Imphal (Manipur)
by an excellent bridle path well graded and bridged,
and with small rest-houses at each of the nine stages.

(3) To the north is the Hukong valley route from
Dibrugarh to Ledo, thence over the N'bon pass on
the Patkoi range into the Hukong valley to Mayang-
kwan and thence through the Amber and Jade Mine

256 APPENDIX

country to Mogoung on the Upper Burma Railway
system. This has been surveyed and explored by
parties from Assam and from Burma, who met at
Mayangkwan, and the results of their visit proved
the feasibility of the proposed railway to connect
Upper Assam with Upper Burma over a length of
284 miles.

(4) An alternative route to Manipur, but which
could only be traversed by small parties of troops,
is that from Shillong to Juwai and Haflong, a Civil
station in the North Cachar hills, and from there
via Gueilon to the Henema outpost in the south of
the Naga hills. This was in the past a good bridle
path throughout, but has been almost abandoned east
of Gueilon for very many years. A new alignment
is, however, now being cut east from Haflong, and
the disused section to Henema will probably be
re-opened out. From Henema to Manipur is five
long marches along roughish village tracks and through
a mountainous, difficult country.

SKETCH MAP
SHOWING TRIBES ON THE

N.E.FRONTIER

Scale of Miles

r

INDEX

INDEX

A

Ai!A Bakr attacks Alimiis, 35

Abdul Fazul's account of Bengal, 21

Al)haypur, 37, 38

Ahois, 109-140; habitat, 109; charac-
teristics, 109; country little known,
1 10 ; estimated strength, 1 10 ; sub-
divisions of, III; weapons, 1 1 1 ;
religion, in ; first visited by
British, 112; first troubles with,
112 ; outrages on British territory,
113 -19; Vetch's expedition
against, 113; Lowther's expedition,
1 13-14; Hannay's expedition,
1 14-15; Maxwell's expedition,
116-19 ; treaty with, grant of
Posa, 115; close trade route in
Meshmi country, 115; raid Mirri
village, 116; murder Williamson
and Dr. Gregorson, 2, 121 ; Bovvers'
expedition against, 121 ; objects of
Bowers' expedition against, 122 ;
details of Bowers' expedition, 121-
28 ; summary of results of expedi-
tions against, 128 ; result of ex-
peditions on, 136; causes of failure
of expeditions against, discussed,
131-33; survey of country, 129;
results of survey, 135

Ahoms, rise of, 10, 11; history, 28 et
seij. ; value of Buranjis, religion of,
place of origin, 28 ; adopt fire-
arms, 31 ; value of their fleet,
34 ; introduction of Hinduism,
38, 71; position in 1401, 30;
internecine wars, 45 ; condition in
reign of Rajeswari, 49 ; strength
begins to decay from Sib Sing's
reign, 49 ; proposal to become
tributary to British, 61 ; royal
funerals, 38 ; dynasty, establish-
ment of, 164 ; conflicts with
Kacharis, 14 et seq., 29. 30 ; final
Assam 2 =

defeat of Kacharis aTid Cliuti\as,
},}) ; defeat IMorans, 14 ; found
Charaideo, 28 ; capital moved to
Charguja, 29; defeat Chutiyas, 14;
subdue Chutiyas, 29, 30 ; Chutiya
revolt, 34 ; capital moved to
(iarhgaon, 34; coniiuer Tipani,
29 ; wars with Kocches, 29 et seq.,
34 et seq. ; join Kocches in rebel-
lion against Mahomedans, turn on
Koches and become masteisofall
Assam, 39 ; struggles with
Mahomedans, 30 et seq., 34 et seq. ;
defeat and capture Piroz Khan,
defeat Moghuls under Raja
Ram Singh, 44 ; drive out
Moghuls, 45 ; first combats with
Naga tribes, 32 ; wars with Naga
tribes, 38 ; punish Nagas and
Mirris, 45 ; war with Nara Raja
of Mayankwan, 34 ; force sent to
assist ^^anipur against Burmese,
48 ; call in Burmese to assist
against Moamarias, 61 ; struggles
with Burmese, 62 ; defeated by
Daphlas, 105 ; build forts to re-
strain Daphlas, 106

Aka Alii made by Gadardhar Sing, 45

Akas, expedition against, 103, 104

Aka Hills, 2

Akhliar, receives deputation from Nar
Narain, 26

Akhbarnamah, 26

Alexandria, merchants from. visit
Siam, 8

Allahabad pillar, inscription on, 7

Amber mines, 178

Angamis, allied to Kaccha Nagas, 199 ;
dances, singing, trading, 200 ;
houses, 203 ; burials, 203 ; dress,
205 ; cultivation, 206 ; village
funds, 210; expeditions against,
211-25 ; fight in open, 232

Animism, the earliest religion, 71

S 2

26o

INDEX

Aoli Nagiis, luihiliil, 200; suhilivi-
sions of, laltooiiiij ot women,
coifture of women, 201 ; architec-
ture, 203 : l)roughl under British
rule, 225

Apa Tarangs, subdivision of Daphlas,
105 ; raids by, 108

Assam, general ignorance regarding, i :
early sources of information regard-
ing, 9, 10 ; earliest inhabitants, 9,
13 ; formerly flourishing and
populous, 2 et seq. ; natural
higluvay to further India, 8 ;
legendary history of, 19 ; earliest
conquest of Indian Khettri kings,
71 ; ruled by Gupta dynasty, 7 ;
by the Pal, 7; by the Senas, 8 ;
divided between Kacharis, Koc-
ches, and Ahoms, 9, 10 ; first
Mahomedan invasion of, 30 ; inva-
sion of Mahmoud Bakhliyar, 21 ;
first English intervention in, 52 ;
Welsh's expedition, 53 et seq. ;
Condition of, after Welsh's force
retired, 60 ; pillaged by Burmese
as far as Jorhat, 61 ; invaded by
Burmese, appearance of English,
II, 63 ; Shan invasion, 164 ; con-
dition on occupation by British,
64 ; arrangements for admin-
istration by British, 66, 67 ;
Thibetan invasion of, averted, 94 ;
chief military station moved to
Dil)rughar, 68 ; boundary between
— and Manipur fixed, 213,
214

Assam, commercial history of, 67 ct seq. :
tea industry, first plantation, 67 ;
coal found, 68 ; oil found, 69 ;
lirst railways, 68, 69 ; connnunica-
lions in, 67 ; trade with Thibet,
lOi ; climate of, efi'ect on inhabit-
ants, 4 ; different religions in
vogue, 6, 7 ; early religion of, 71 :
introduction of Hinduism, 71 ;
called Wesali Lfing l)y Buddhists,

73
Assam Bengal Railway, 3 ; construction

(jf, 69 et seq.
Assam brigade, f<ill\' of abolishing,

132-3"

Assamese, characteristics of, 4

Assam Light Infantry, origin of, 65 ;
how disposed, 66

Assam, upper, boundaries and ex-
lent, 6

Aurangzebe, sends Raja Ram Singh to
attack Ahoms, 44

r.

];ahkr, Coi.hokne, travels from

N'iinnan to Thibet, 1^77
Bacot, M., survey work, 239
Hadgeley, leads survey parly into Xaga
"hills, attacked and routed, 219.

228, 229
iiagmara, held by Moamarias, 56
I'ailey, Capt., his proposed route, 136 ;

successful journey from China to

Assam, 147; survey work in 1911,

239
Baladhun tea estate, raided l)y

Khonoma men, 224
Baliapara, ancient ruins, 2 ; massacre

of, 103 ; raid on, 104
Balla, British capture, 100
Barail range, 6 ; chosen as boundary
between Manipur and Assam, 213
Barail i, 34

Bathang visited by Cooper, 177
Bebejiya, section of Mishmis, 147
Bedford, first to visit Abors, 112
Beltola, stormed by Mir Jumla, 41
P>engal, Bhootanese aggression on, 94
Bentinck explores Dihang, 231
Berema visited by Grange, 213
Bhamo, ancient English factory at, 191
Bhatang, visited l)y Capt. Bailey, 147
Bhoora, Bhoori (Bora Bhoori) 24, 75 ;
Buddhist origin of, 86 ; temiDle
described by Ilannay, 86
P>hootan, Pemberton's description of,
91 ; Mr. Claude White's account
of, 92 ; Eden's mission to, Britisli
attack, 96 et seq. ; 2nd phase, 100 ;
liDundary fixed, lOl
P)hootanese, influence in Assam, 92 ;

aggressions on Bengal, 94
Biggs, Lieut., visits Dimapur, 78 ; visits
Manipur, settles boundary, 214
Bijni, Raja of, assists rebels against

Ahoms, 60
Bisa, captured by Neufville, 152 ; oul-
jMist placed at, 154: captured l>y
llkamtis, 154
Hishenpur, battle, 36
Bislunaknagar, extensive ruins, 2 :
cause of abandonment, 6 ; original
builders of, II ; vi'k Kundina, 84
pjislinalh, 18
l^)isoo, reputed founder of Kocch

dynasty, 20
Blake, Capt., joins Vincent, 217, 232
Hlochmann, 4

lilockades, of Akas, 103, 104 ; Uaplilas,
loS

INDEX

261

Bodo or Mecrli, 20

Hogchand, allack 011, 215

Boka, 34

Bonijour lakLii, 116

Bon Abors habitat, no

Bordak, advanced depot Maxwell's

force, 118; massacre at, 1^19
Bor Hkaniti, Assamese name fnr

Hkamti country, 149
Bourri, M., companion of Krick, death

of, 144
Bower, General, 2 ; command Abor

expedition, 1 2 ct seij. ; force

returns to India, 128 ; casualty list

of, 128; cost of expedition, 129
Brahminical Hinduism, introduction

of, 7
Brahmins, grants t)f land to, 8
Brahmaputra, variation of course, 5 ;

existence of falls on, discussed, 136 ;

138

British finally occupy Assam, 64 ;
difficulty of early administration,
65 ; arrangements for administra-
tion, 65, 66 ; war with Bhortan,
96 et set]. ; dealings wiih Akas,
103, 104 ; expeditions against
Daphlas, 106, 107, 108 ; first
contact with Nagas, 211

lirooke, Lieut. ((_)f Sarawak), 55

Bruce, Mr. R., finds indigenous tea,
opens first tea plantation, 67

Brydon, Capt., V)urns !\Iozema, 219

Buchanan, Hamilton, 2

Buckle, engineer, Assam Bengal rail-
way, 3

Buddha, said to have died at dauhati.

Buddhism, probable introduction into
Assam, 7 ; proofs of introduction
into Assam, 71 et seq. First
and second Synods, 73

Buranjis, 10 ; first mention of Hill
tribes, 32 ; first mention of Nagas
in, 210

I)Urlton, Lieut., exjilores Mishnii coun-
try, 142

Burma, penetration of, by Hindus, 8 ;
northern l)order of, 157 ; Chinese
encroach on, 237

Burmese inva.sion of Assam, 11, 241 ;
enter Assam at Chandra, Kant's
invitation, 61 ; first expedition
into Assam, 61 ; second expedition.
62 ; ravage Assam, driven back by
British, 63 ; defeated by British at
Namdang and Jorhat, 63 ; final
defeat, 64; defeated by Capt.
Neufville, 152 ; invade Manipur

and Cachar, defeated by English,

19 ; invade Manipur, 49
Butler, Capt., expeditions into N'aga

Hills, 215 ; leads survey party,

attacked and killed by Nagas, 219;

disaster, 228, 232
Buxa, colunm in Bhootan War, 9

Ca( 11. \k, origin ol name. 10 : occupii'd
by Manipuris, Burmese, Knglish,
19: finall}' cleared of Burmese, 64

Cachar levy, raising of, 213

Calcutta exhibiii<jn, effect on .\kas,
104

Cambodia, founded liy Indian, 8 :
marches on Nanchao, 164 ; origin
of, 165

Cannon, first record ofu.se, 30

Carey, Mr., account of Chins' tactics.
236

Carnegy, Mr., appointed Political
Officer, 219 ; accidentally killed,
220

Cawley, Mr. and Mrs., besieged in
Kohima. 222

Chakka Fort held by Nagas, 224

Chandradhoj, Ahom king, conflicts
with Moghul, 44 ; 45

Chandrakant, Ahom king, calls in
Burmese, 61 ; deposed, rein-
stated, flight, 62

Charaideo, ancient temp'es, 2; Kachari,
king's head sent to, 15 ; Ahom
king flies to, from .Mir funda, 41 ;
present condition of, 81 ; burial
place, 38 ; 29

Charjuga, Ahom cajiital, 29

Charlton, Capt., defeats Dapha Gam,
recaptures Bisa, 153, operations,
232

Cheila, reputed first Shan capital, 166

Chiampa, vide Siani.

C'hina, possible home of Kacharis, 12

Chindwyn, source of, 158

Chinese activity north of Mishmi Hills,
141 ; on the North-Fastern
frontier, 238 ; action in Thibet.
237 ; system of managing border
tribes, 146 ; occupation of Lolos
country, 188 ; war with Nep.il,
241 ; wars with Panthays, 190

Chinese clironicles, 8 ; refer to Shans,
163; account of Nanchao, 164;
split Nanchao kingdom 165

Chingpaw, division of Kachins, 172

262

INDEX

Cliinkcii, attack Militaiv Police, 234

Chinlong, attack Military Police, 254

Chins, inclliods of tigluing, 235, 236

Choiina, trade mart, loi

("hukapha, invades Assam, 164

Chulikalta, section of Mishmis, 142

t'lunnarchi, taken by British. 98

(luniibi, Chinese occupy, 237

(,'luinpiira, 84

Cinitiyas. liistory i»f, 11 ; Kndle"s theory
regarding, 12 ; defeated by Ahonis,
14 ; crushed by Ahoins, ^^^ '• habi-
tat, 28 ; revolt against Ahonis.
34; subdued by Ahonis, 30;
religion of, 71

( 'oal, finding of, 68

("ocks, Mr S. W., views on .Shan his-
tory, 166

•' Cognate Tribes," 174, 176

Communications, in Assam and Binina.
insufficiency of, 251 ; improvement
of, near Myitkhyina, 240

Coocii Kehar, 2, 10

Cooper, Colonel, appointed assistant to
(jovernor-General's Agent, 65

Cooper, Mr. T. T. , remarks regarding
former condition of Assam, 3 ;
remarks on policy of Government,
65 ; his explorations between
China and Assam, 145, 146;
travels from V'iinnan to Thibet, 177

Copper plates, 7, 8, 21 ; as sources
of history, lO

Cornwallis, Lord, decides to intervene
in Assam, 52 ; give Welsh a free
hand, 53 ; disapproves of Kangpur
prize money, 55

Cory, Major, commands column against
Daphlas, 107

Cresswell, Lieut., successful action at
Culihi, death, 58

Crump, Lieut., 52

Csomo de Karos, opinion regarding
Buddha's death place, 73

Culihi, battle of, 58

Cultivation, among Nagas, 206

Curzon, Lord, " Partition,"' i

D

D.M.HOtJsii:. Lord, sanctions expedi-
tion against Mishmis, 144

Daling, column in, Bhootan war, taken,
98

Dalpani stream, 85

Dalton, Colonel, .-iccnunl <il human
sacrilices, 75

Dances, of Kaccha Nagas, 199; of

Angamis, 2CK>
Damant, Mr., appointed I)y. Commis-
sioner Naga hills, 221 ; death of,

222 ; disaster, 228, 232
Damant, Mrs , besieged in Koliima,

222
Dambuk, attack on, 116
Dampuk river, 14
Damroh. advance on, decided, ilS;

retreat from, 1 19
Damroh, visited by Colonel Macintyre,

127
Dapha, stockatle captured !>)• Capt.

N&ufville, 152 ; Gam attacks Bisa

Gam, 153
Daphlas, 38, 105- 109 ; attack Sib

.Sing, 48 ; visited by .Macabc,

105 ; suppressed by Kamaleshwar,

60 ; defeat Ahonis, 105 ; their

claim to " Posa," 106, 107;

British expedition against, 106,

107 ; raids i)y, 107
I )arika river, battle of, 58
Darrang, cleared of banditti, 58 ;

district Dooars added to, 93
Deb Raja, 94

Defences, of Wa village. 186
Dekha Chang, or young men's house,

208
Demara. ancient Kachari town, 16-18
Deopani, monolith at, 80
Deori Chutiya, jiriests perform liinnan

sacrifices, 75
Deosham river, loi
Detsing, made king by .\homs, 15
Dewangiri, Bhootanese defeat British

at, 96, 99 : column in Bhootan

war, 97 £i sc<y., captured, 98, 1 00
Dhansiri river, 3, 6
Dhansiri valley, 14 ; relapses into

jungle, 15
Dharla, valley followed by Kacharis, 12
Dharni Pal, alias Itari, founder of Pal

Dynasty, 7
Dharm Raja, 94
Dharmtika, .\homs defeat Kacharis at,

17 : battle of, 35
Dhodar Alii made by Gadardhar Sing,

45

Dhubri, captured from Kocch by
Moghuls, 26, 27

Dil.ang valley followed by Kacharis,
12 ; exploration of, 148

Dibong river, 2, 82

Dibrughar, district formerly well cul-
tivated, 2 ; made chief military
statiem, 68

Digarus, opposed to Mejus, 142

INDEX

263

Dihang river, explored by Kinlliui),
120 ; exploration of, 133 ; iileiUity
with Tsanpro, 127, 135 ; passage
<if by column of Bowers' force, 125

Dihing river, 28, 29

Dihing Company, ancient remains on
estate, 87

1 )ihong valley "followed liy Kacharis,
12

Dijoa, Ahoms defeat Kacharis at, 17

Dilli river, 39, 41

Dikkoo river, 14, 28, 39; crossed by
Welsh, 58 ; boundary of Naga
hills, 225

Dikrang river, 2, 82

1 hmapur, ancient Kachari capital, 3 ;
occupied by Ahoms, 1 5 ; sacked I))'
Ahoms, finally abandoned, 16 :
ruins described, 76 ; becomes a
trading centre, 25

Disasters, causes of, 228

Doboka, ancient Kachari town, 16 ;
Ahoms defeat Kacharis at, 18, 60

1 )onabyu, 62

Dooars, annexed by British, 93: British
pay compensation for annexation
of, 94, lOI

Dopgarh embankment, 38

il'Orleans, Prince li., reaches Sadiya
from Tonkin, 147 ; visits Hkamtis,
149; country explored by, 154;
travels among Muhsos, 177 ; re-
garding climate of country tra-
versed, 189

Douglas, Mr., 52

Doyang valley, 14; relapses into
jungle, 15

Dri, exploration of, 148

Dress, Angami, Aoh, Sema, Rengma,
Nagas, 205 ; absence of among
northern Nagas, 205

Drums among Was, 186

Du, river reached by Rowlatt, 144

Dual control, results of, 129 et scq.

Duimunisila, Ahoms defeat Mahonie-
dans at, 30, 31

Dukku, reached l)y Maxwell's column,
118

Dumsong, taken by British, 98

Dundas, first ]iolitical agent, at Sadiyas,
133 ; good work done by. 135

E

Karthijuake, 1897, 5
Kden, Lieut., his successful expedition
against Kaisha, 144, 145

Kid, Capt., expedition against Xagas,

215

lOlephanls, wild, 3S

Elias, Mr. Ney, his opinion regarding
first Shan capital, 166 ; finds kin-
ship between Khunongs and
Mishmis, 141, 177

Kmlle, theories as to Kacharis, 12. 13

English, arrival of, li

European, first mention of, by Ahoms,
36 ; first visit of, to Upper .\ssain,
49

1'"ai,i.Aci)1 TA, annexed !>}■ liiiii>li, 95
Ferguson's report on Dimapur, 78
Eirdusi, his account of Kocch, 20
Firearms, introduction of, 34 '

F'iroz Khan, demands payment frcjm
Ahoms of war indemnity, 43 ; is de-
feated by Ahoms and captured, 44
Fitche, Ralph, visits Kamatapur, 36
Forlong, his researches, 8
French Indo-China, 157
]'"uneral customs )f Ahom kings, 38 ;
customs of Kachins, 180 ; of Was,
186 ; of Lolos, 188 ; of Angamis,
Kaccha, Lhota, Rengma, A(jh
Nagas, 203 ; among Trans-Dikkoo
tribes, 205

(lADAKDiiAK Sixc;, king of Ahoms,
4S ; persecutes followers of Shankar
I)eb, 76

CJait's, Mr., history of As.sam, 4

(ialongs, attitude of, uncertain, 122 ;
C(jlumn enters country, 124

(lambhir -Singh, Raja, drives IJurmese
out of Manipur, 64

(iarhgaon, made Ahom capital, 34:
captured by Nar Narain, 24 :
occupied by Kocches,34; aiiand-
oned by Ahoms to Mir Juiiila, 41 ;
description, 37 ; ruins ()f old
capital, 2, 86

Garston, connnands expedition against
Abors, 115

(iauhati, 2; visited by lluien Tsiang,
9 ; reputed site of Buddha's
death, 73 ; looted by Moghuls,
25 ; recaptured by Ahoms, 39 ;
occupied by Mir Jumla, 41 ;
occupied by Welsh, 53 ; Welsh's ac-
count tf, 58 ; Macdonald's account
of. 58 ; regained by Chandrakant.
62 ; occupied by British under

264

INDEX

Richards, 63 ; made British
headquarter station, 67

Gaur, Brahmins from, introduce their
religion into Assam, 71

Gaurinath Sing, Ahom king, persecutes
Moamarias, who rebel, calls on
Kacharis and Jaintia>, and Mani-
puris for help, calls in English,
50 ; joins Welsh's force, asks his
assistance in Upper Assam, 53 ;
asks further help from Welsh,
56 ; appeals against order recalling
Welsh, 57 ; forms army on Eng-
lish pattern, 59 ; flees to Jorhat,
death, 60 ; Naga raids during
reign of, 21 1

Gegun-shar trade marl, 102

(jelong Raja, quarrel with Thibet, 94

Ghiladari, Burmese defeat Ahoms at,
61

Goalpara, Kocches drive out Moghuls,
39 ; reinforced against Burmese,
63 ; held by English, 52

Gobi desert, original home of Kachins,
180

Godwin, visits Upper Assam, 48

Gold, Abors claim to, 112

Gordon, Capt., settles Manipur boun-
dary, 214

Grange, Mr., raises Cachar levy, 213 ;
expeditions against Nagas, 213-
214

Gray, Errol, visits Hkamtis, 149 ;
description of Tareng, 180 ; de-
scription of country north of
Hkamti Long, 160

Gregory, Lieut., appointed first Deputy
Commissioner of Naga hills, 218 ;
punishes certain \inages, 219

Gregorson_ accompanies Williamson
into Abor hills, 120 ; murder of,
121

Griffiths, Dr., stopped by Mejus, 142

Gupta dynasty rules Assam, 7

Gurkhas, Eighth, 55 ; 2nd form part of
General Bowers' column, 121

Gyala Sindong, falls at, 121

Gyasuddin, advances to Sadiya, 22

H

H AJAR A, 71

Hajo, founds Kocch kingdom, marries
his daughter to a Mecch chief,
20

Hajo, 5, 44 ; battles of, 35, 36 ; cap-
tured by Ahoms, 39 ; Buddhist
remains at, 72

Hamilton, his report on Assam, 75 ;

account of trade between Thibet
and Assam, loi

Handia, 34

Hannay, Major, his opinion regarding
Hindu conquest of l\amarupa, 7 ;
opinion of Chutiya language,
regarding, Bishmaknagar and
Prithiminagar, 11 ; opinion of
Kamali Alii, 24 ; opinion regard-
ing introduction of Hinduism, 71 ;
opinion regarding Buddhist re-
mains at Sadiya, 73 ; descripticin
of Kundina and Prithiminagar,
82 ; account of Tamasari IVIai
and Bhora Bhoori, 84 ct seq. ;
ineffectual attempt on Kebang, 1 14;
account of Kachins, 171

1 lead hunting among Was, 186 ; among
Nagas, 199 ; aniong Trans-Dikko
tribes, 210

Heinsun, visited by Burma Military
Police, 156

Hemachal or Nepal, 22

Hill, General Sale, commands column
against Akas, 104

Hill tribes, first mentioned in Buranjis,
.32

Hinde, Mr., reinforces Kohima, 222

Hindu conquest of Kamarupa, 7 ;
conquests, in Burma and further
India, 8

Hinduism, introduction of, 71 ; adopted
by Kocch, 21 ; introduced among
Ahoms, 38 ; adopted generally by
Ahoms in Sib Sing's reign, 48 ;
Brahminical, introduced by mis-
sionaries from Gaur, 71 ; spread

Hkamtis, occupation of Sadiya by,
65 ; rebel against British, 66, 67,
148-50 ; religion of, 148 : occupy
Sadiya, 148 ; murder Colonel
White, 149 ; characteristics, 149 ;
description of villages, 150 ; trade
routes, 150; Hkamtis, allies of
British, 152-3

Hkamti Long, Burmese name for
Hkamti country, 149, 157 ; occu-
pied by Shans, reoccupied by
Kachins, 163 ; explorations in,
239

Hpimaw, occupied by Military Police.
238 ; road opened to, 240

Hodgson, Bryan, theories as to Kach-
aris, 12, 13 ; his work on Kocch
and Bodo people, 20

Holcombe, Lieut., accompanies Capt.
Badgeley, murdered, 218, 219,
228, 229

INDEX

265

Hosie, Mr., travels of, 1S8

Hsen VVi, inhabited by Marus, 176

lltawgaw, outposts extended to, 238 ;
road to made, 240

lluien Tsiang, 19, 20; liis accoimt of
Assam, 9 ; report on state of
Buddhism in Assam, 73

Ilukong valley, natural highwa)' to
further India, 8 ; proposed railway
to Burma down, 70, 154 ; Burmese
pass into Assam via, chiefs join
Burmese, 61 ; amber in, 178, 179

Human sacrifices, 75; performed at
Tamasari, 85

Ilunli reached by cokunn, 147

I

Igar strkam stockade on, attacked by
8th G. R., 124

Inner line explained, 139

Irrawadi, river, 158; sources of sur-
veyed, 239 ; 240

Irvine, Lieut., 55

Itari, see Dharm I'al, 7

J

Jade mines 178 ; 179

Jaintias defeated by Kacharis, 17 ;
rise against Kacharis and are sub-
dued by Ahoms, 18 ; dealings
with Rudra Sing, 47, 48

Jaintiapur, captured by Ahoms, inhabi-
tants massacred, 18 ; destruction
by Ahoms under Rudra Sing, 47

Jamaguri, ruins at, 80

Janakhmukh, construction of stockade
at, 124

Java, Hindu kingdoms in, 8

Jenkins, traverses Naga hills from
Manipur, 211

Jetinga valley, 19

1 booming, 206

Jogighopa, Ahoms defeated at, 36 :
captured by Mir Jumla, 40 ; held
by English, 52 ; reinforced
against Burmese, 63

Johnstone, Colonel, relieves Kohima,
222 ; destroys Phesema, 224

Jorhat, 15 ; surrounded liy Moamarias,
relieved by Macgregor, 54 ;
reached by first Burmese expe-
dition, 61 ; occupied by British,

63
Jorhat, railway, 69

jtsoma, joins Mozcina in attacking
Samuguting, 219 ; ])arduned, 220

Kaccha Nagas, country or Morang
tract, 9; defined, 12; description
of 199

Kacharis, formerly highly civilised, 3 ;
earliest immigrants into Assam, 9 ;
original habitat of, 9 ; route follow-
ed by, 9, 10; present haljitai, 10;
theories as to origin of, 12, 13 ;
history of, 12 et seq. ; aborigines
of Assam, friendship with Kocch,

Kacharis, connection with Bengal,
(jreat Builders, 13 ; position of at
beginning of 17th century, 16 ;
conflicts with Ahoms, 14 et seq. ;
attack Jaintias, 17 ; attacked b\-
Jaintias, ask help of Ahoms, 18 ;
join Moamarias against Ahoms
and are defeated at Doboka, 18 ;
subdued by Manipuris, 18, 19 ;
by Burmese 19 ; struggles with
Ahoms, 30 ; finally defeated by
Ahoms, 33 ; dealings with Rudra
.Sing, 46, 47, 48 ; war with
Kamaleshwar, 60 ; present con-
dition of, 19 ; connection with
Dimapur, 79.

Kachins, 171-83; same as Chingpaw
and Singpho, iji : Hannay's
account of, 172 ; habitat, 172 ;
internal structure, migrations of,
172; raids of, 173; five "parent
tribes," 174-76 ; " Cognate
tribes," 176-78; of Tartar origin,
180 ; religion, customs, morals,
weapons, 180, 181 ; slave deal-
ing of, 181 ; methods of warfare,
181, 182 ; tried as military
police, 183; raid Myitkhyina,
183 ; struggles with Shans, 163.
Kaisha murders Krick and Bourri,
144 ; village burnt, Kaisha hanged,

145
Kaitara Hill, 30

Kala Pahar captures Gauhati, 25
Kali, worship of, 75
Kalinga, connection with Java, 8
Kalling, dual control of by 1-iritish anil

Bhootan 93
Kamaing, jade found near, 170
Kamakhya, temples of, 2 ; destroyed

by Moghuls, 25 ; Buddhist origin

of, 72 ; worship of, 75 ; Tamasari

temple dedicated to, 85

266

INDEX

KiiniHlcslnvar, Ah'jni kiiij;, supiUL^scs
Moaiiuiiias, imnislies Daplihis, 6o

K imali Alii, ancient liiyliway, i ; built
1)V Nar Narain, 24

Kaniriip, cleared of banditti, 5S; Uuoars
added to, 93

Kamanipa, ancient name of Assam, 7 ;
definition of, 9; first authentic
information of, 9 ; Koches drive
Moghuls out of southern, 39

Kamalapur, ancient ruins, 2 ; visited
by Fitclie, 36 ; connected with
t'hunpura by ancient road, 85

Kamsa, division of Kachins, 172

Kansu, Mahomedans in, 190

Kanit(jya river, 9, 26

Karkoi, important trade centre, 127

Kebang, Abor village leads raid in
1858, 113; repulses Lowther, 114;
repulses Hannay, 114; objective
of Bowers' main column, 122 ;
reached by Bowers, 125

Kekya'r Monying, time wasted at, 124 ;
capture of stockade at, 125

Kekrima, \'incent meets with resistance

at, 217, 232
' Khakus, division of Kachins, 172

Khamjang Nagas, 32, ^^

Khasias, worship of stones by. 88

Khaspur, occupied by Kacharis, 17 :
visited by Mr. Verelst, 19

Khenungs, 17S

Kiiettri Jvings, first rulers of Assam, 7,
19 : occupied Bishmaknagar and
I'rithiminagar, 11 ; conquer Assam,

Khonoma, burnt by \ incent, 216 : joins
Mozcma in attacking Samuguting.
219 ; pardoned, 220 ; head's rising
kills Damant, 221 : attacks
Koiiima, 222 ; captured liyCJeneral
Nation, 222-224 ; punishment of,
224 ; Manipur intrigues with, 224

Khoosroo Mulk defeated by Chinese,
22

Khowa Gt)hain given charge of Sadiya,
65 ; dispute with Chief of .Matak,
66

Khunongs, Kachin cognate tribe, 176 :
particulars regarding, 177 ; related
to Mishmis, 141

Kinney, Mr., knowledge of Dibrughar,
2

Kinlhup, explorer, 120 : verification of
his work, 135, 136

Kiunlung, reputed cradle of .Shan race,
162

Kocches, rise of, 10 ; histor)' of, 20
/;/ .sYi/. ; kingdom founded by Ilajo,

20; dominiinis in Nar Xaiain's
time. 26; religion of, 26. 71 : adopt
Hinduism and Mahomedanism,
21 : invaded by Suleiman Kara-
rani. 25 ; forces in Lakshmi
Narain"stime,26: finally annexed by
.Moghuls, 26, 27: Kocches struggles
with Ahoms, 34 ^/ sa/. ; rebellion
against Mahomedans, 39 ; king
assists rebels against .\homs. 60 ;
Raj, absijrbed by the K. India
Company, 21

Kohima, visited by N'incenl, 217; first
stockade built at, 220 ; siege of,
222

Koliabar, .Vhcmi:^ defeat Mahinncdaii^
at, 30; Ahoms defeated b)Miig]i\ils
at, 41

Koogoo, outpost placed at, 154

Kopili, \alley of, 6, 14

Korang, attacked, 124

Krick, M., explores Mishnii country as
far as Walong, murdered near
Kima, 144

Krishna Narain, defeated l)y Cajitain
Welsh, 53 : submits, is made Raja
of Darrang, 54

Kublai Khan, invasion of, 164

Kumhuj, division of Kachins, 172

Kundilpur, rnde Kundina, alias Bish-
maknagar, 2 ; account of. 82

Kusinagra, reputed site nf l!uddha"s
death, 73

L

Laiitaungs, Kachin tribe, 174
Lahus, see Muhsos

Lakma Naga«, 39 : trouble .\homs, 21 1
Lakhimpur Military I'olice hold

stockade at Balek, 121 ; form part

of General Bowers' coluiiui, 121
Lakshmi Narain, Kooch king, 26
Lama valley seen by Krick, 144
Land measurements, Moghul system

introduced by Gadardhar Sing, 45
Landers, Mr., opens first coal mine, 68
Laos, resemblance to Hkamtis, 149
Lashis, Kachin cognate tribe, 176 ;

habitat, 177
Ledo, coal-field, 69
Ledum, objective of second column

Bowers' force, 122 ; column rejoins

main Ijody, 125
Lengta Nagas, 202 ; architecture, 203 ;

brought under British rule, 225
Lennon, Lieut., 52
Lepais, Kncliin Irilie, 174

INDEX

267

Lhota Nagas, 202 ; house f>f, 203

Lihsaws, see Vawyins, 176

Lint;aiii worshipped at Taiiicisaii Mai,

Lister visits Upper Assam, 49

Litam, raid iMont^semdi, hurnl, 226

Ldhit valley, mule road up, 148

Lo Ilpra, jiagoda worshipped hv
I'alaungs, 184

Loi Ling mountain, 161

Lui Nju, 176

Loi Seng, tea tree at, worshipped hy
I'alaung, 1S4

Lolos, 187 : Prince d'Orlcans' opinions
regarding, 187 ; habitat and char-
acteristics of, 188, 189

Lowther, Maj(ir, • expedition against
Kebang, 113 ; repulse of, 114, 228

Lukshmi Sing, A horn king, his reign,
captured by Moamarias, released,
renews persecution of Moamarias, 50

Luniding Junction, 3

Lumling helps Eden, 144 ; sad fate of,

Lumsden, accompanies Williamson to
Kebang, I20

INI

MAtAlili, Mr., visits Apatanangs, 105
Macgregor, Force-Adjutant to \\'elsh"s

force, distinguishes himself, 53
Macgregor, General, opinion of Naga

bravery, 232 ; visits Nogmung.

.'78
Macintyre, Colonel, visits Dainroh, 127
Maghada (Bengal) marches on Nanchao

kingdom, 164
Maha I3andula, defeats Alioms at

Mahgarh, 62
-Mahadeo Mountain, 82
Mahmoud Bakhtiyar invades Assam,

21
Mahomed Hasem's account of Daphlas,

106
Mahomed Shah Tughlak attempts to

invade China, 22, 23
Mahomedan historians of early Assam,

10; records, 21; invasion, first

record, 30 ; conflicts with Ahoms,

30 f( seq. ; assist rebels against

Ahoms, 60
Mahomedanism adopted Ijy Koccli,

21 ; origin of, in China, 190
Maihong, second capital of Kacharis,

15; demolished by Ahoms, 17;

ruins at, 80

Makuni coal and oil, 69
Makwarri, expedition against, 155. 156
Malaya, Hindu Kingdoms, in, 8
Mali-kha, one source of Irrawadi, 159 ;

explorations near, 239
Manas river, 36, 97, lOI
Manipur, chronicle of Shans found in,
164 ; proposed railway route to
Burma, 70 ; ferments \aga risings,
216; occupied by Burmese, 19;
intrigues with Khonoma, 24 ;
invaded by Burmese, calls on
Ahoms for help which is given,
49 ; cavalry detachment at Kang-
pur, 55 ; jonis Burma in entering
Assam, 61 ; cleared of Burmese,
64 ; given control over Nagas,
control withdrawn, 213 ; boundary
with Assam fixe<l, 213, 214 ; troops
relieve Kohima, 222 ; disaster at,
228, ill effects of dual control at.

Manipuris, 29 ; occupy Qichar, 19
Manku, A bor stockade at, 114
Maram monoliths, 88
Marams Kachin tribe, 176
Marangi, Ahom earthwork, 15
Margherila, foundation of, 69
Marips, Kachin tribe, 174
Marriage customs, of Kachins, 180 ;

among Nagas, 203
Marus, Kachin Cognate trilie, 176
Matak, vide Moran, Chief (juarrels with
Khowa (lohain, 66 ; Chief (jf, made
tributary, 65
Mather, Captain, leads force against

Daphlas, 106
Marhurapur, yj ; Mir Junda collects

force at, 41
Maxwell, Captain, comuiands lifili

Abor expedition, 116
Mayangkwan, Chiefs join Burmese in
expedition to Assam, 61 : Assam
and Burma survey parties meet at.
154 ; amber found near, 178
Mehdi, Aka stockade occupied, 104
Meju, section of Mishn.is, 142
Mekhong, climate of upper, 189
Membu, first Abor village visited In-
British, 112; burnt by Maxwell,
119
Menyong, Abor clan lial)itat, ill;

still unsubdueil ; 126
Mikir Hills, 3

Military Police, constitution of Burma :
243 ef set/. ; of Assam, 245 ei set/. :
value of, 247 el set/. ; suggestions
for improving, 249 ; value of train-
ing to officers, 248 f/ .vifry. ; economy

268

INDEX

111 lining instead of Regiilais. 250,

-5'.
.Mill visits Upper Assam 49

Miinasipu, destroyed by Ikitish, 118.

Mir Junila, 31 ; invasion of Assam,

39-43 ; death, difficidties of his

expedition, 43
Mirris, 38 ; punished by Ahf)ms, 45,

105-09, subject to Abors, 109 ;

mentioned l)y Neiifville, no;

village raided by I'ashi and

Menyong Abors; 115
Mishmi Hills, 6 ; invaded by AlK)rs, 1 15
Mishing, objective of 2nd column

Bower's force, 122 ; garrisoned

by two companies Military Police,

'25

Mishmis, 109, 141-48 ; closely allied
to Khunongs habitat, 141 ; sub-
division t)f, 142 ; related to
Khunongs, 177 ; explorers of the
country, 142 ; murder four persons,
subsequent expedition, 147 ; ap-
proached by Chinese Emissaries,
237

Mleccha, 20

Moamarian Rebellion, 18 ; cause of,
50 ; ]5rogress of 51-61 ; Welsh's
operations against, 51 et seq.

Moamarias, difference between, and
Shankar Deb's followers, 76 ; or
V^ishnubites, 48 ; allies of British,

153

Moghuls seize Assam, 2 ; expeditions

into Assam, 39-43, 44 ; driven out

by Ahoms, 45
Mogokchang, Military I'olice outpost,

described, 202
Mogoung, capital of Ahoms, 28; capital

of Pong, 163 : signs of former great-
ness, 166; sacked by Kachins, 167 ;

]iroposed railway junction with

Assam at, 70
Mohun Dijoa, occupied by British, 212
Momeik State, 157
-Mongmit, see Momeik
Mongsemdi, raided by Trans-Dikkoo

villages, 226
Moran, 28 ; defeated by Chuliyas, 14 ;

Religion, 71
Morang tract, earliest habitat of

Kacharis, 9
" Morangs " among \agas. 208
Morshead, Captain, 136
Mozema, burnt by \'incent, 216; raids

and is burnt, 219 ; lenient terms

granted, 220
Muhsos, allied to ^";^wvins. 177, 1S7.

188

MyilhUyina, 159, 160; raided by
Kachins, 174 ; station described,
183 ; extension of frontier near,
238 ; communications improved
near, 240

\

N'aija Am, I, construction of, 34, 211
\aga Hills, 3; first Deputy C<jmmissioner

surveys of, commenced, 219 ;

appointed, 218 ; extent of, 225 ;

communications in, 227
Naga Hills Military Police, raising of

213 ; attacked at Vachumi, 233,

234

Naga tribes, 195-227 ; attack Ahoms,
38; punished drastically- by Ahoms,
45 ; origin of name, 195 ; habitat,
195 ; maindivisicins of, 195 ; origin
of, discussed, 195-197 : general des-
cription of, 197 ; villages, 198; head
hunting, 198-99 ; methods of fight,
ing, 232-236; worship of stones by-
88 ; first contact with British. 211 ;
vacillating policy of Government
regarding, 217 ; forward policy
regarding — sanctioned, 220

Nalbari, 5

Nambhor Forest, formerly inhabited by
Kachari clans ; not more than 200
years old, 3 ; origin of, 15

Namchea Barvva mountain, 135

Namdang Bridge, held by Welsh's force,
held by Burmese, 55 ; British
victory at, 63

Nam Kiu river, trade route from Hkamlis
to Assam, 150

Namkwam fair, 193

Xamrup, 3 : Ahom king Hies to, from
Mir jumla, 41

Namsang Nagas, 32, t,}, ; defeat Ahoms,
210

Namsanga range coal mine, 68

Nam Tamai, tributary of Nmai-kha, 240

Nanchao, Shan kingdom, account of,
164, 165

Nanwu Marus, 177

Nara Raja, 34

Narainpur, 2

Nar Narain, builder of Cooch Behar,
attacks and defeats Ahoms, 24 ;
defeated by Moghuls, 25 ; defeats
Ahoms, 34

Nat worship by Shans, 170

Nation, General, commands force,
attacks Khonoma, 222: subsequent
iiperalions, 223, 224

INDEX

269

Navvab of I);icca, ;ill;icks DInibii and
defeats Kocch, 26, 27 ; attacks
Ahoms and occupies territory up to
Bar Naddi, 37

Needham, Mr., 131 ; reaches Zayul,
147 ; visits Hukong Valle\', 154

Nepal defeated by China, 241

Neufville, Capt., defeats Burmese at
Bisa, 64, 152 ; appointed Assistant
to Governor-General's Agent, 65 ;
mentions Mirris and Abors, 1 10

Nizam Ghat, outpost estal)lished at, 115

N'khunis, Kachin tribe, 176

Nilachal hill, 75

Ningroo, outpost placed at, 154

Ninu, disaster at, 219, 228

Niubihan, battle of, 35

Xmai-kha, one source of Irrawadi,
banks inhabited by Marus, 15S,
176 ; silver found to east of, i7<S ;
explorations near, 238, 240

Xoa Dihing, battle of, 152

Nogmung silver mines, 178

Noksen raid Mongsemdi, burnt, 226

North Eastern Frontier, increased in-
terest in, 237 et seq.

Nuthall, Colonel, leads expedition into
Naga Hills, 219

G

On. found, 69

Opium eating, cause of present apathy

of Assamese, 2
Outposts, value of, 242

P., CArXAlN, experience with Abors,
137.

I'adam, Abor clan, habitat, in ; atti-
tude of, 126

Padu burnt by Maxwell, 1 19

I'aganini, Chevalier R., Chief Engin. ,
69

Pal Dynasty, 7, 19; kings grant lands
to Brahmins, 8

Palaungs, description of, 184 ; dress of
women, 193

I'andoo, battle of, 35 ; capture of, 36 ;
occupied by Mir Junda, 41 ; forti-
fications of, 58

Panghi, Al)or clan, habitat, in ; atti-
tude of, 126

Pang Hkan, ancient Shan city, 166

Pankang, expected rendezvous of

survey parties, 134
Pangti, disaster at, 219, 228
Pan Eong, Panthay chief settlement,

1 89, 190
Panthays, 189-190

Paplongmai, visited by Mr. Grange, 214
Parker, Mr., translator of Chinese
Chronicles, 164

Pasighat, first objective of Bower's main
column, 122; main column con-
centrates at, 124

Patkoi Range, 6, 29; described, 150;
passes in the natural highway to
further India, 8 ; crossed by return-
ing Burmese, 61 ; passes held bv
Neufville, 152 ; crossed by Sarn-
lungpha, 164

Peacock Island, temple built li)-
Gadardhar Sing, 45

Pemakoi peak, not visited, 134

Pemberton discovers Shan chronicle in
Manipur, 164 ; traverses Naga
Hills from Manipur, 211

Phari, Chinese occupy, 237

Phesema destroyed by Colonel John-
stone, 224

Phuleswari, Queen of Sib Sing, supports
Sakta sect against Visnubites, 48

Plague, origin and spread of, 190

Poison, used by Abors, in

Political agent stationed at Sadiya, 133

Pomed, Thibetan Province, 141

Ponaka, ca]5ital of Bhootan, 96, 100

Pong, 10; kingdom of, founded, 163:
chronicle of, found in Manipur,
164

Posa, system, Mr. Cooper\s views on
the, 146; granted to Abors, 115 :
stopped, 119

Pottinger, Eieut., description of Marus,
176

Pratap Sing, Ahom king, 17; declares
war on Mahomedans, 35 ; chases
Mahomedans as far as Goal para,
36 ; death of, review of reign, y]

Prinsep, 4

Pritchard, Capt,, work of, death of,
240

Prithiminagar, cause of abandonment,
6; original builders of, 11 ; Han-
nay's description of, 82

Pungkan, author's journey to, 190-92

Punjabis assist rebels against Ahoms,
60

Purandhar Sing, rebel king of Assam,
flies to British territory from
Burmese, 62 ; entrusted with
administration by British, 66

270

INDEX.

K

l\\ll\, _^4, aiiLiciU Kacliari louii, 1(1;
Kacharis defeat Ahoms at, 17

Railway, lirsl, 68, 69 ; pioposed to
Burma, 70; possible route via
I lukong valley, 154

Kaja^riha, site of first Buddhist svnod, 73

Uajeswari, Ahoni king assists Mani-
pur, 49

Ram Singh's expedition against the
Ahoms, 44 ; dealings with Kudra
Sing, 47, 48

Rangpur, 3 ; captured by Welsh's force,
55 ; Durbar at, 56 ; British cap-
ture from Burmese, 63, 64 : Ahom
remains at, S7

Rangpur Levy, 55

Rausch, Hanoverian merchant at Cloal-
para, counsels English intervention
in Assam, 52 ; his death, 60

Rcid, General, builds church at
Dibrughar, 68

Religion, early forms of in vogue in
Assam, 7 ; religions, 71 et scq. ;
of Abors, III ; of Lolos, 188 : of
Kocches, 26, 71 ; of Was. 187 ; of
Muhsos, 188

]\engma Nagas, 202 ; houses of, 203

Richards, Coh^iel, commands British
force in Assam, occupies jorhat,
defeats Burmese at Nanidang
river, 63 ; final victorv, 64

Riuia, capital of Zayul, 141 ; visited by
Prince II. d'Orleans, by Cajn.
Bailey. 147

Rivers, variation of course, 5

Roads, ancient, i, 2, 3

Rock, cut inscription-;, 6 ; sources of
early history, 10

Roe, Capt., commands column against
Daphlas, 109; explores I lukong
Valley, 154

Rotang reached by Bower's column, 124

Rowlatl, Lieut., explores Mishmi coun-
try, stopped by Thibetans, 144

Rudra Sing, Ahom king, attacks
Kacharis,. 17-8 ; his reign, 45-8 :
progressive administration, 46 :
wars with Kacharis, 46, 47 ; with
Jaintias, 47, 48

Ruins, of former cities, 2, 3 ; in I'ppcr
Burma^ 167

Runkang. Abor stockade. 114

S..\l',ANsiki. valley followe<l by Kach-
ari-i, 12

Saili)a iVcintier post, starting point
Alior cspedilion, 2, 5; attacked
by Burmese, 64 ; entrusted to
Khowa (Johain, 65 ; made head-
(juarters of Political Agent, 133

Sadon, militar)' police outpost, 161

-Safrai, river, 38 ; coal found on, 68

Saikwa (Ihal, railway opened to, 69

Sakta, see 'I'antric

.Salagarh, Mahoniedans defeat Ahonis
at, 31, 34; Rudra Sing holds
Durbar at, 18, 47, 48

.Salika, action at, loi

.SaUveen, river, 158 ; course described,
159; climate cf, 189; KhuiKjngs
on, 177

Samaguting, occupation reconnnended
by Grange, 213; road to, con-
structed, market opened, 215 : oul-
|)ost formed al, 218

Samdhara, 38; abandoned by .\homs
to Mir Jumla, 41

Samlingpha, reputed invasion of Assam,
164

.Samudra of Gupta Dynasty, exacts
tribute, 7

Samudra, ruled in Burma, 8

Sankosh river, 26; valley followed b\-
Kacharis, 12

Sappers and Miners, form pan of
General Bowers' column, 121

.Saramethi peak, 155

.Scott, Mr. David, marches across
jaintia hills to join Richards, 63 :
appointed first Agent to fJovernor-
General, 65; appointed first f'om-
missioner of Assam, 66

Sebundy Corps, 66

-Selan, see Cheila

.Scma Nagas, subdivisions of, habiiai,
character of, 202 3

-Sena Dynasty, 8

Sessa river, 44

.Shah Jehan, 39

Shakaldip, first chief of Kocch, 20

Shankar Deb, Hindu reformer, 76;
preaches to the Kocch, 26

Shajis, led by Hindus into Siam, 8 ;
description of, 51, 161-70 ;
habitat, 162 ; craclle of, 162 ;
migrations of, 162-6; kingdom
between Upper Irrawadi and
Upper Chindwyn, 163 ; struggles
with Kachins, 163 ; found kingdom
of Siam, 163 ; aTicient chrom'cle
discovered by I'emberton, 164 :
invade Assam, 164 ; found
Nanchao kingdom, 164 ; struggles
with Chinese, 165 ; ancient cities.

INDEX

271

166, 1G7 ; (licss of, 16S ; cliiuac-
Iciislics, villages, 168 ; iippeaiancc,
weapons, religion, 170
Slian chronicle, mentions Khun<ings,

177
Shan States, 157 : iiDiiliern (iescriplion

of country. 161
Shimong Abor clan, habila', iii
Shiniong, disaster at, just avoidetl, 127,

228, 229 et seq. ; outpost placed at,

Shiva, worshipped at Tamasari .Mai,

S5
Shore, Sir John, orders Welsh to
return from Assam, 56 ; disastrous
results of this order, 60, 64
Shwegu, beauty of women of, 190
Shweli, earliest Shan settlements in

valley of, 162
Siam, approached through Assam, 8 ;
Shan migrations into, 162 ; fust
kingdom of, 163
Sibsagor, excavation of tank, 34
Siij Sing, Ahom king, his reign, 48
Sidli, column in Bhortan War, 97 d siuj.
Sikh, pioneers, 32nd, form part of

General Bowers' column, 121
Sila, 38 ^

Silarai, Kocch general, 24
Silluk, destroyed by, 118
Sil Sake, ancient bridge, 5
Sinda-garh, stormed by ^Iir Junda. 41
Singing of Angamis, 200
Singiri, occupied by Ahoms, 30
Singphos, 150-6; habitat, 150; iden-
tical with Kachins, 151 ; strengih
of, 152 ; slavery among, 152 ; join
Burmese, defeated by Neufvilie at
Kisa, 152 ; attack Bisa, defeated
by Charlton, 153 ; reoccupy Bisa,
severely punished, retire to llukong
valley, 154 ; assist Burmese, 64 ;
aid Ilknmtis, 66 ; fight in open,
232 ; value of outposts among, 242
Sinkaling Ilkamtis, State, 158
Sirpo river, reached by Bowers' column,

. . 124 . .
Sisi, district inhabited by Mirris, no
Siyom ri\er, visited by survey party,

Slavery, prevalent in Hukong valley,
154 ; among Singphos, 152 ; among
Kachins, 180 ; stoppage of, result.
66

.Sohemi tribe discard clothes, 206

Son-mu, 190

Srighat, battle of, 35, 36; occupied by
-Mir Jiimla, 41

Ssu-chuan, visited by Cooper, 177

Stafford, Colonel, connnaiids cojuinn

against Daphlas, 107
Steamers, first ply <jn Brahmaputra, 67
Stockades, different uses by Abors,

Singphos and Nagas, 1 1 1
.Stones, worship of, by Khasis and

Nagas, 88 ; memorials of Burmese

trivmiphs, 241
Sualkuchi, Moghuls annihilated at, 36
Sukmungnung, Ahom king, 15 ; record

of his reign, y^
Sukhlemning, Ahom king, introduces

coins, makes Naga Alii, excavates

tank at Sibsagor, 34
Suleiman Kararani, attacks Kocch, 25
Symond's, General I'enn, ojierations

against Chins, 130

Tabiii.ung Nagas, 32, 33 ; defeat

Ahoms, 210
Ta-chien loo, Baber's travels, 177
Tagi Raja, career of, 103
Tai, vide Ahoms, and Shans
Talifu, taken by Chinese, 165
Talup, railway opened, 69
Tamanthe, outpost on Chindwyn, 150
Tamasari Mai, 24, 75; llannay's des-
cription of, human sacrifices at, 75
Tamerlane, 190

Tanilu, military police outpost, 2,},^ 202
Tamradhoj, Kachari king, 17 ; dealings

with Rudra Sing, 47, 48
Tanai or Chindwyn, 158
Tangkhul Nagas, 29 ; ring-wearing

hal)it, 206
Tantok, outpost placed at, 235
'I'antric form of Hinduism, 74 ; ibe

State religion in Kamanipa. 76
Tareng tribe, 180
Taron, tributary of Nmai-kha, 240 ;

Captain Prilchard drowned in, 240
Tartan, iortifications of. Chins, 236
Tartar, origin of Kachins, 180
Tavernier, 32

Tawang, trade route to Bhootan, 102
Tawngpeng, Shan name for I'alaung.

184
Tengapani, Ilkamtis settle on, 14S
Tc-ngrai Raj Alti, ancient road, 3
Tengri Maidan, Goorkhas, tlefealed at.

by Chinese, 241
Tengyueh, trade route to, 238
Terrien, M., his views on Shan

history, 162
Tezpur railwa}', 69
Thibet, expedition, of 1904-05, residl

of, 237 ; marches on Nanchao,

272

INDEX

104 ; pobbiblc liuiuc i,)l Kacharis,
12 ; Imde with Assam, lOi
'I'hihetans, thicnten to invade Assam,

94
Thama, souice of Cliindwyn near, 158
Thaunijlliiil state, 158
'riiornhill, engineer Assam licngal

Railway, 3
Tipani liills. coal found in, 68
Tipam tribe, conquered by Ahoms, 29
Tippera people ousted by Kacharis, 10
Tista river, followed by Kacharis, 12
Togweuia, monoliths at, 89 ; Grange

attacked at, 214
Trans-Dikkoo Nagas, position of, raids
by, ask to be adniinisteretl, 226 ;
operations against, 234, 235
Tsan I'o, river, explored by Kinthup,
120; identity with Dihang estab-
lished, 127, 135, course of, 135
Tugril Khan, killed by Kocch, 22
'1 iilarani, unable to control Nagas, 213
I'uppang, Lieut. Rowlatt stopped at, 144
Turbak Khan, wars with Ahoms, 31

U

Udai.gCri, trade mart, 102
Ujjain, kingdom of Vikramaditya, 7

\'

V'Ef.iiTATlON', rapid growth of, 6

Venters, engineer Assam Bengal Rail-
way, 3

\'erelst, visits Khaspur, 19

\'etch, Capt. , selects site for 1)1-
brughar cantonment, 68

\'etch. Major, commands first expedition
against Abors, 113

N'ikramaditya, copper plate inscription
of, 7

N'incent, Capt., leads expeditions into
Naga hills, 216, 217, 232

X'ishnubites, persecuted by Gadardhar
Sing, 45 ; persecuted by Phules-
wari, wife of .Si') Sing, 48 ; fol-
lowers of Shankar Deb, 76

\V

\Va TRIBK. description of, 185-7
W'addell, Colonel, his report regarding

falls on Brahmaputra, 136
VValong, mule road to, 148
Waterfield, Capt., surveys of, 240
Welsh, Capt., appointed to command
in Assam, 53 ; first successes near
Gauhati, 53 ; advances in Upper

Assam, 54 : occupich Rangpur,
distributes prize money, Cornwallis
disapproves, 55 ; holds Durbar at
Rangpur, ordered to retire, his
report of February 1794, 56 ; com-
mences retirement, 58; reaches
Bengal, 59 ; appreciation of his
work, 57'
W'csali I-ong, l^uddhist name for Assam,

. .73
White, Mr. Claude, accouni of HluHitan,

.92
White, Capt., appointed assistant to

Governor General's Agent, 65 ;

killed by Hkamtis, 66, 149 ;

memorial church to, built at

l)ii)rughar, 68; disaster at Sadiya,

228
Wilcox, Lieut., first to visit Abors, 112;

enters Meju country, 142 ; \isils

Hkamtis, 149
Williams, Lieut., appointed to Assam

expeditionary force, 53 ; defeats

enemy at Mangaldai, 53
William.son, Mr., grants lenient terms

to Mozema, 220
Williamson, Mr. Noel, his career, 120 ;

murder of, 121 ; punishment of

murderers, 126 ; reasons for visit-
ing Kebang discussed, 139
Wokha, first stockade built at, 220 ;

garrison of, reinforces Kohima, 222
Wood, Lieut., surveyor to Welsh's

force, 53, 54
Woodthorpe, visits Hkamtis, 149 ;

opinion on Khunong language, 17S

\'

Vachumi, attacks Naga Hills Military
Police, burnt, 233-34

Vamne river, 1 18

\'awyins, Kachin cognate tribe, 176 ;
particulars regarding, 177 ; value
as fighting men, 239 ; Chinese,
desire to extend their rule, 239

Vemsing, occupied by 8th Gurkhas, 126

\'oni, Tamasari temple dedicated to,

^ iinnan, province of, 157 : Baber's and
Cooper's travels, 177; Mahomedans
in, 190

Z

Zayul, Thibetan province,
reached by Needham, 147

141

R. CI,AV ANU SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK ST., S.E., AND IIUNGAV, SUFFOLK.