Context: Recently, there has been a controversy in Assam regarding Chaolung Sukapha who founded the Ahom kingdom and the Assam CM ordered the arrest of a political commentator who had described Chaolung Sukapha as a “Chinese invader”.
About Chaolung Sukapha

• Sukapha was a 13th-century ruler who founded the Ahom kingdom that ruled Assam for six centuries.
• He reached Brahmaputra valley in Assam from upper Burma in the 13th century.
• It was in Charaideo Sukapha established his first small principality, sowing the seeds of further expansion of the Ahom kingdom.
• Where the Ahoms ruled the land till the province was annexed to British India in 1826 with the signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo.

Ahoms:

• The founders of the Ahom kingdom had their own language and followed their own religion.
• Over the centuries, the Ahoms accepted the Hindu religion and the Assamese language.
• They created a new state by suppressing the older political system of the bhuiyans (landlords).
• The Ahom state depended upon forced labour. Those forced to work for the state were called paiks.
• Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. A khel often controlled several villages.
• Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods but instead of imposing their own language, religion and rituals on communities living in Assam, they accepted the Hindu religion and the Assamese language.
• However, the Ahom kings did not completely give up their traditional beliefs after adopting Hinduism.
• Ahom society was very sophisticated. Poets and scholars were given land grants and theatre was encouraged. Important works of Sanskrit were translated into the local language.
• Historical works, known as buranjis, were also written, first in the Ahom language and then in Assamese.
• Most of the Sukapha’s people were men who later married women from communities living in Assam. Intermarriage also increased assimilation processes.

Why is Sukapha important?

• Sukapha developed very amiable relationships with the tribal communities living there especially the Sutias, the Morans and the Kacharis. 
• Sukapha’s significance especially in today’s Assam — lies in his successful efforts towards assimilation of different communities and tribes.
• He is widely referred to as the architect of “Bor Asom” or “greater Assam”.