The Tai Ahom National Council Memo Scheduling

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Under the circumstances, it is only travesty of history to suppose that Ahom marriage with the local Mongoloid tribes led them to loose their distinct Ahom identity. Records in the Buranji: The Ahom chronicles are very specific about occasional adoption of non-Ahom into the Ahom fold. Ahom Buranji (cited above pp. 26-38) and Purani Asam Buranji (edited by Pandit Hemchandra Goswami, 1922, pp.27-45)) have recorded the non-Ahom families who had been adsorbed in the Ahom fold. From these historical records the origin of any family of rank can be traced and confirmed. These historical records and family traditions current among the Ahom go to support, rather strongly, that the Ahom were ever conscious of their ethnic identity and social institutions. On the other hand by recording such non-Ahom origin of families, the posterity is indirectly reminded who came from which stock for social matters, and in the days of the kings for administrative purposes. Chronicles exclusively dealing with the origin of families are called Chakari Pheti Buranji. Like a king cobra such chronicle exposes the non-Ahom origin of any Ahom family having any connection with the Ahom administration. A classic example is the case of Kirtichandra Barbarua, one of the highest official of King Rajeswar Singha (1751-69). Kirtichandra was said to be of non-Ahom origin of Jalambata (Chang Sai) family. This caused considerable commotion in the Ahom administration affecting the dignity and status of the office of the Barbarua that Kirtichandra held. Things came to such a pass that in order to retrieve his honour, he brought some of his kinsmen from Nora (Mogaung) in Upper Burma to prove his genuine Ahom origin. This episode of the late eighteenth century goes to show how conscious the Ahoms were about their genuine identity. The Ahom thus maintained their ethnicity. Ahoms have been called a Tribe All Along: L. A. Waddell characterized the Ahom as “tribe “of the Shan family who still possess “fairer colour” and “mongoloid features” (The Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley, first edition, 1901, second reprint, 2000, pp. 17-18). William Robinson as early as 1841 observed that a small portion of the Ahom “still remain unmixed, and retain unaltered their ancient habits and institutions”. In the first regular census taken during 1871-72 in the districts of Sivasagar and Lakhimpur, the Ahom (Aham) population numbering 94, 304 and 43, 942 souls respectively and shown as cultivators, had been classified under head Semi-Hinduized Aboriginals, and not under
Hindu/Hinduized Castes or even Intermediate Castes. (W. W. Hunter, A Statistical Account of Assam, Vol. I, pp. 236-37) . In 1901, B.C. Allen, the Census Superintendent, Assam while declining to enlist the Ahom as Kshatriya admitted that the Ahom are “the aboriginal tribe in Assam”. He writes thus “The Ahom gentry lay claim to the title of Kshatriya, a claim which, if admitted, would place them above the Kayastha; but the claims to the title of Kshatriya made by aboriginal tribes in Assam, can hardly, I think, be taken seriously”(Report on the Census of Assam, 1901, Vol. I, Chapter XI, p. 118). In 1926, Sir Edward Gait observed, “They (the Ahom) are genuine Shans, both in their physical type and in their tribal languages and written character”. (A History of Assam, second edition, 1926, p. 77). In connection with the names of Ahom kings and titles of officials, Sir Edward Gait thus indirectly admitted the Ahom as tribal when he writes “The tribal names of the Ahom kings usually commenced with Su meaning “tiger”, and ended with pha, meaning “heaven”…the kings’ Hindu names were often the Assamese equivalents of those given them by the Deodhais”. (A History of Assam, second edition, pp.244-45). The Ahom is not a Dead Language: The Ahom language is the original language of the Ahom. No doubt in course of time many Ahom adopted the Assamese as their mother tongue, but all records of the early period are made in the Ahom language. Moreover, the Ahom priests in the Ahom language performed all religious Ahom rites and ceremonies, and they do so even today. The Ahom priests read and write, and chant mantras in Ahom language on all rites and rituals. The view that the Ahom language is totally dead is erroneous. Writing in 1662-63, Shihab-ud-din Talish observes, “The language of the Ahom differs entirely from the dialects spoken in Eastern Bengal” which means that all the Ahom people spoke the Ahom language till the middle of the seventeenth century A.D. Chronicles were written in the Ahom language till the end of the Ahom rule, and the Ahom Buranji edited and translated by Golap Chandra Barua is a proof. Land grant copper plates inscribed in Ahom language and issued even by King Chandrakanta Singha (1815-22 A.D.) are in existence. Moreover, coins continued to be issued in the Ahom legends. Ahom Tribal Religious Culture is Distinct from those of non-Ahoms of Assam:
Page 1 and 2: Additional Information and Further
Page 3 and 4: The British followed a subtle polic
Page 5 and 6: abolition of the paik system, even
Page 7 and 8: In recognition to their claim, the
Page 9 and 10: Government of India and His Majesty
Page 11 and 12: Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal; Alexan
Page 13 and 14: further aggravated during the seven
Page 15: All these go to prove that the Ahom
Page 19 and 20: Professor Amalendu Guha thinks the
Page 21 and 22: “The venerable (Deodhais and Bail
Page 23 and 24: The burial mound is called moi-dam
Page 25 and 26: them for fishing as is found among
Page 27 and 28: R. Gurdon in Encyclopaedia of Relig
Page 29 and 30: writes P. R. Gurdon in Encyclopaedi
Page 31 and 32: There thus grew up Ahom ethnic sett
Page 33 and 34: The claim of the Ahom to be include
Page 35 and 36: There is another anomalous situatio
Page 37: Silchar University IIT (Guwahati) A

The Tai Ahom National Council Memo Scheduling

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