Ahomisation
Ahomisation was an assimilation process in the former Ahom kingdom of Assam by which the people from different ethnic groups in the region became a part of what is now considered as the Ahom population.[1]
History
The Tai settlers brought with them the superior technique of wet-rice cultivation, and believed that they were divinely ordained to bring the fallow land under the plow. They adopted many stateless shifting cultivators of the region into their fold,
The Tai-Ahoms married liberally outside their own exogamous clans and their own traditional religion resembled the religious practices of the indigenous peoples.
This process of Ahomisation went on for till the mid-16th century when the mixed Ahom society itself came under the direct Hindu influence.[17] In the contexts of conquest, the general process is the fact that the subjugated groups normally adopt the language and customs of the conquerors, this was the root of the Ahomisation process. But in Assam even after the process of Ahomisation started in the region, the Ahom kings observed that complete political influence in the country was not possible. And with the expansion of territory of the Ahom kingdom and with the further inclusion of a diverse population a reverse process took place. The conquerors had no other alternative but to sanction the use of the language and culture of the conquered people in the common level of the totality.[6] So after the subjugation of Chutia territories as in Chutia Kingdom, the process of Ahomisation gave way to the process of Sanskritisation (Hinduisation). The process of Sankritisation increased significantly in the 16th and 17th centuries after the expansion of Ahom kingdom westward which led to absorption of many Hindu subjects.[22]
The first Hindu cultural elements came into Ahom royal palace during reign of
Sanskritisation
Gradually, the Ahom royal accepted the influence of Hinduisation, which led to Hindu religion's entry into the Ahom royal palace during the reign of Sudangphaa also known as Bamuni Kowar (reign: 1397–1407). Sudangphaa also appointed a Brahmana as an advisor in the Ahom Royal court and he was the first Ahom king to adopt the coronation of Singarigharutha. Singarigharutha was the traditional coronation ceremony of an Ahom king. It was believed that even though an Ahom prince became a king, he could not attain the status of a full-fledged monarch until his Singarigharutha ceremony was completely performed. Therefore, each Ahom ruler after their accession to the throne tried to organize the ceremony as soon as possible.
Suhungmung (reign: 1497–1539) was the first Ahom king to adopt the Hindu title Swarga-Narayan, a Sanskrit equivalent of Tai-Ahom's Chao-Pha. After the reign of Suhungmung the Ahom king prefer to use their Hindu names in the official records.[24] The kings who were traditionally known with the title of Chao-Pha were replaced by the title of Swargadeo and since then Ahom kings came to be known as the 'Swargadeo'.
The priestly classes of the Ahom like the Mohan, Deodhai and Bailung, mostly remained outside the purview of mainstream Hinduism and continued to express their unwillingness to come into the fold of the Brahmin Hindus.[citation needed] However the traditions of Tai culture and religion can be found to be preserved by some priestly classes in rituals, marriages and festivals which today reflect the Ahom style of living.
References
Citations
- ^ "There, the Ahoms assimilated some of their Naga, Moran and Barahi neighbours and later, also large sections of the Chutiya and Kachari tribes. This Ahomisation process went on until the expanded Ahom society itself began to be Hinduised from the mid-16th century onward." (Guha 1983:12)
- ^ "Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET" (PDF). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ Gogoi 1968, p. 264.
- ^ " The Ahom kingdom's establishment, traditionally dated at 1228, was done by a group migrating from the southeast, large numbers of whom were male army members, who would have taken local non-Tai speaking wives." Morey 2014, pp. 51–52
- ^ Neog 1962, p. 1.
- ^ a b Buragohain, Romesh (13 February 2013). "The ahomisation process in early mediaeval Assam".
- ^ Guha 1983, pp. 11–12.
- ^ a b Baruah 1977, p. 251.
- ^ a b "Ahoms were never numerically dominant in the state they built and, at the time of 1872 and 1881 Censuses, they formed hardly one-tenth of the populations relevant to the erstwhile Ahom territory (i.e, by and large, the Brahmaputra Valley without the Goalpara district.)" Guha 1983, p. 9
- ^ "For instance the Miri-Sandikoi and Moran Patar were the offices drawn from the Miris and the Morans" Gogoi 2006, p. 9
- ^ Gogoi 2006, p. 9.
- ^ "Census of India, 1901". Bombay : Govt. Central Press. 23 June 1901 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Langi Panisiya, the first Borphukan, was a Chutiya by caste"(Dutta 1985:30)
- ^ Barua, Gopal Chandra, Ahom Buranji,p.32.
- ^ "Chao-Thumlung Borgohain of a Tiura(Tai word for Chutia) family.". Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
- ^ Dutta, Shristidhar (1985). "Dutta, Shristidhar, "The Mataks and their Kingdom",p.30" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ a b Guha 1983, p. 12.
- ^ Baruah 1977, pp. 251–252.
- ISBN 978-0-8223-3373-9.
- ^ "Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET" (PDF). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "The Ahom language and Ahom script were relegated to the religious sphere, where they were used only by some members of the traditional priestly clans, while Assamese speech and writing took over in day to day life." Terwiel 1996, p. 276
- ^ Sharma (2009), p. 357: "Hinduisation, however, struck strong roots in upper Assam mainly after the Ahom royalty embraced Hinduism and offered patronage to it from early 16th century, especially as a result of the expansion of the Ahom territory westward which subsumed many Hindu 'Assamese' speaking subjects most of whom were actually already Hinduized autochthons."
- ^ Boruah 2007.
- ^ Gait 1906.
Cited sources
- Boruah, Nirode (2007), Early Assam, Guwahati, Delhi: Spectrum Publications
- Gait, Edward (1906), A History of Assam, Thacker, Spink & Co, Calcutta
- Guha, Amalendu (December 1983), "The Ahom Political System: An Enquiry into the State Formation Process in Medieval Assam (1228–1714)", Social Scientist, 11 (12): 3–34, JSTOR 3516963
- Neog, Dimbeswar (1962), New Light on History of Asamiya Literature, Gauhati
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Morey, Stephen (2014), "Ahom and Tangsa: Case studies of language maintenance and loss in North East India", in Cardoso, Hugo C. (ed.), Language Endangerment and Preservation in South Asia, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, pp. 46–77
- Baruah, S. L. (1977). "Ahom Policy Towards the Neighbouring Hill Tribes". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 38: 249–256. JSTOR 44139078.
- Gogoi, Padmeshwar (1968), The Tai and the Tai Kingdoms, Guwahati: Gauhati University
- Gogoi, Nitul Kumar (2006), Continuity and Change among the Ahoms, Concept Publishing Company, Delhi
- Saikia, Yasmin (2004). Fragmented Memories. Duke University. ISBN 978-0-8223-3373-9.
- Buragohain, Romesh (2013), The ahomisation process in early mediaeval Assam
- Terwiel, B.J. (1996). "Recreating the Past: Revivalism in Northeastern India". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 152 (2): 275–92. JSTOR 27864746.
- Sharma, Chandan Kumar (2009), "Tribe Caste Continuum and the Formation of Assamese Identity", in Medhi, B.K (ed.), Tribes of North-East India: Issues and Challenges, Delhi: Omsons Publications, pp. 354–366