Mir Jumla's invasion of Assam

Introduction:

• Mir Jumla II invaded the Ahom kingdom in January 1662 and left it in January–February 1663. He was able to occupy Garhgaon, the Ahom capital, before the beginning of the rainy season, but he and his army were confined mostly to Garhgaon and Madhupur during that period.
• The Ahom king Sutamla had to take flight and hide in Namrup during Mir Jumla's occupation of the capital.
• The defection of Baduli Phukan, a high ranking Ahom commander, precipitated the Treaty of Ghilajharighat in January 1663, with the Ahom king accepting tributary status.
• Mir Jumla died on his way back before he could reach Dhaka, his capital.

Background:

• After Shah Jahan fell sick in 1658, the vassal ruler of Koch Bihar, Pran Narayan, threw off the Mughal yoke and began offensives in the east to recover territories in the erstwhile Koch Hajo.
• Narayan attacked the Faujdar of Kamrup and Hajo, who retreated to Guwahati. This confusion enabled the Ahoms to march against both the Mughals at Guwahati as well as Pran Narayan, and the Ahom kingdom took control of the region right up to the Sankosh river.
• During the Mughal succession war, Auranzeb's general Mir Jumla II pursued Shuja, a rival claimant of the Mughal throne, who escaped to the Arakan. Mir Jumla was made the governor of Bengal and he sent Rashid Khan to recover the erstwhile Mughal territory in Kamrup.
• The Ahoms fortified Jogighopa at Manas river in preparation against the Mughals. Mir Jumla, in the meantime, took possession of Koch Bihar (Pran Narayan having fled to Bhutan) and began his march against the Ahoms on January 4, 1662.
• The Ahom fortifications at Manas were easily overrun.

Mir Jumla's march toward Garhgaon:

• Mir Jumla divided his army into two and advanced east, one division along the north bank and the other along south bank of the Brahmaputra river.[1] By February 4, 1662, Mir Jumla took possession of Guwahati.
• The Ahoms took stand at Samdhara (under the Borgohain) and Simalugrah (under Bhitarual Gohain) in the north and south banks respectively.
• Mir Jumla now transferred his entire army south and reached Simalugarh at the end of the month and overran it with some effort.
• The attack so disheartened the Samdhara fort that it was abandoned in haste and the Borgohain adopted a scorched earth retreat.
• After a night-long naval battle at Kaliabor, the Ahoms again fell back. Mir Jumla then reached Salagrah, which too was abandoned.

Occupation of Garhgaon:

• Sutamla had no option but to take flight, leaving some riches in Garhgaon that fell into Mir Jumla's possession. Mir Jumla entered the capital on March 17, 1662.

Brief description of Keywords:

• Ahom kingdom – The Ahom kingdom was a kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, India, that maintained its sovereignty for nearly 600 years and successfully resisted Mughal expansion in Northeast India. Established by Sukaphaa, a Tai prince from Mong Mao, it began as a mong in the reaches of the Brahmaputra based on wet rice agriculture. It expanded suddenly under Suhungmung in the 16th century and became multi-ethnic in character, the kingdom became weaker with the rise of the Moamoria rebellion, and subsequently fell to repeated Burmese invasions of Assam.
• Garhgaon – Gargaon was the capital of the Ahom kingdom for many years. It was built by the Ahom king Suklenmung in 1540 and it lies 13 km east of present-day Sivasagar town. The palace structures were made of wood and stones, in 1747 Pramatta Singha, son of Rudra Singha, constructed the brick wall of about 5 km in length surrounding the Gargaon Palace and the masonry gate leading to it.
• Dhaka - The old city of Dhaka was the Mughal capital of Bengal, the citys name was Jahangir Nagar in the 17th century. It was a commercial center and the hub of the worldwide muslin. The city hosted two important caravansaries of the subcontinent, the Bara Katra and Choto Katra, located on the riverfront of the Buriganga, the Mughals decorated the city with well-laid out gardens, tombs, mosques, palaces and forts. Dhaka became known as the City of Mosques in Bengal and it was also described as the Venice of the East. The old city was home to various Eurasian merchant groups, at the height of its medieval glory, Dhaka was regarded as one of the wealthiest and most prosperous cities in the world.
• Cooch Behar State – For the present-day district of West Bengal, Cooch Behar District Cooch Behar, also known as Koch Bihar, was a princely state ruled by Rajbanshi clans during the British Raj. The state was placed under the Bengal States Agency, part of the Eastern States Agency of the Bengal Presidency and it is located south of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, in present-day West Bengal.
• Guwahati – Guwahati is the largest city of Assam and Northeastern India, a major riverine port city and one of the fastest growing cities in India, situated on the South Bank of the Brahmaputra River. The ancient cities of Pragjyotishpura and Durjaya were the capitals of the ancient state of Kamarupa under the Varman, many ancient Hindu temples are in the city, giving it the name City of Temples.
• Shah Jahan – Shahab-ud-Din Mu?ammad Khurram better known by his regnal name, Shah Jahan, was the fifth Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1628 to 1658. Emperor Jahangirs death, in late 1627, was a signal for a last paroxysm of fighting among his sons and these fratricidal conflicts were carried out with ruthlessness and Jahangirs third son, Khurram, proved the most ruthless of all. He was crowned at Agra and his name, Shah Jahan, was read at the Jama Masjid there in January 1628.

By: Ziyaur Rahman