Chaolung Sukaphaa (1189 – 1268 AD) - First Ahom King of Assam

=> Chaolung Sukaphaa, also Siu-Ka-Pha, the first Ahom king in medieval Assam, was the founder of the Ahom kingdom. A Tai prince originally from Mong Mao, the kingdom he established in 1228 existed for nearly six hundred years and in the process unified the indigenous ethnic groups of the region.

=> According to Ahom tradition, Sukaphaa was a descendant of the god Khunlung, who had come down from the heavens and had ruled Mong-Ri-Mong-Ram. During the reign of Suhungmung, which saw the composition of the first Assamese chronicles. Sukaphaa brings a divine diamond chum-Phra-rung-sheng-mung in a box, a divine tusked elephant, a divine chicken Kaichengmung, a divine embroidered cloth, a divine pair of drums, a divine sword Hengdan.

=> According to Phukan (1992), Sukaphaa was born to Chao Chang-Nyeu and Nang-Mong Blak-Kham-Sen in the Tai state of Mong Mao, close to present-day Ruili in Yunnan, China. Chao Chang Nyeu was a prince from Mong-Ri Mong-Ram, who had traveled to Mong Mao possibly on an expedition. Mong Mao was then ruled by Chao Tai Pung. Chao Chang Nyeu was later befriended by Pao Meo Pung, the son of the ruler, who gave his sister Blak Kham Sen in marriage. Sukaphaa was born of this union not later than 1189 CE and was brought up by his maternal grandparents. Pao Meo Pung, who eventually ruled Mong Mao, had no male heir and Sukaphaa, his nephew, was nominated to succeed him. A son born late to Pao Meo Pung’s queen ended Sukaphaa’s claim to the throne of Mong Mao.

=> After his 19 years as crown prince came to an end, Sukaphaa decided to leave Mong Mao. According to tradition, his grandmother advised him thus – “no two tigers live in the same jungle, no two kings sit on the same throne.” Accordingly, Sukaphaa is said to have left Chieng-Sen the capital of Mong Mao in the year 1215 CE.

Migration to Assam:

=> According to most Buranjis, Sukaphaa left Mong Mao in 1215. Some Tai chronicles from outside Assam record the journey of Sukaphaa from Mong-Mit Kupklingdao in 1227 where he was the ruler. Sukaphaa followed an older known route from Yunnan to Assam that passed through Myitkyina, Mogaung and the upper Irrawaddy river valley.

=> On his way, he stopped at various places and crossed the Khamjang river to reach the Nangyang lake in 1227. Here he subjugated the Nagas very ferociously and established a Mong. He left one Kan-Khrang-Mong there to guard the passage back, and proceeded to cross the Patkai hills at the Pangsau pass and reached Namrup (in the Brahmaputra valley) in December 1228.

=> He was accompanied by three queens: Ai-Me-Chao-Lo, Nang-Sheng-Chum-Hpa and Yi-Lo-Weng-Ching-Chum-Hpa, two sons and a daughter; chiefs from five other dependent Mongs; members of the priestly class and soldiers—a total contingent of 9,000. Sukaphaa had with him 300 horses fitted with saddles and bridles and two elephants. Heavy arms were transported along a different route.

King of Ahom kingdom:

=> The journey, from Mong Mao to Namrup thus took Sukaphaa about thirteen years and the year he reached Namrup is considered as the year the Ahom kingdom was established.

=> Even though Sukaphaa treated the people of the Patkai hills very severely on his way to the Brahmaputra valley, his approach to the population in Assam was conciliatory and non-confrontational. He married the daughters of Badaucha, the Matak Chief and Thakumatha, the Barahi chief and established cordial relations with them. As he began establishing his domain, he avoided regions that were heavily populated. He encouraged his soldiers as well as members of the Ahom elite to marry locally.

=> A process of Ahomization bolstered the process of integration. The Barahi and the Moran, speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages, called Sukaphaa’s people “Ha-Cham”, that later on developed into “Assam”, the name of the kingdom; and “Ahom”, the name of the people.

=> With the help of local recruits, he established three large farms for sali rice cultivation.

=> At the time of his death in 1268, his kingdom was bounded by the Brahmaputra River in the west, the Disang River in the north, the Dikhow River in the south and the Naga Hills in the east.

Ahom Capital:

=> Over the next few years, he moved from place to place searching for the right capital, leaving behind his representative at each stage to rule the colonized land.

=> Having reached Namrup, Sukaphaa bridged the Sessa river, and went upstream along the Burhi Dihing river looking to establish a colony for wet rice cultivation. He did not find the region conducive to cultivation and returned downstream to Tipam.

=> In 1236, he left Tipam for Abhaypur. A flood made his move again in 1240 down the Brahmaputra to Habung. Another flood and he moved again in 1244, down the Brahmaputra to the Dikhowmukh, and then up the Dikhow river to Ligirigaon. Leaving a detachment at Ligirigaon, he moved again in 1246 to Simaluguri.

=> In 1253, he abandoned Simaluguri for Charaideo, his final capital, where he finally died in 1268. He built his capital city at Charaideo near present-day Sibsagar town.

=> The capital of the Ahom kingdom changed many times after this, but Charaideo remained the symbolic center of Ahom rule.

Memorial:

=> Since 1996, December 2 has been celebrated in Assam as the Sukaphaa Day, or Assam Day (Axom Divawkh), to commemorate the advent of the first king of the Ahom kingdom in Assam after his journey over the Patkai Hills.

=> An award is given by State Govt. that day to a prominent personality.

=> Sukapha Samannay Kshetra – Inaugurated on December 2, 2015, at Mohbondha, Jorhat.