The Tai Ahom National Council Memo Scheduling

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of ways. Bihu is the season when both boys and girls meet and often select their life partners. It is the occasion of free mixing. Boys and girls dance together. This is a picture of a tribal society. Tattooing: “Ahom girls are not married till they reach a nubile age – sometimes much later.” And girls did even tattooing. Gurdon writes, “The girls of the Deodhai, or priestly clan, tattoo star-shaped devices on their hands and arms, the dye used being prepared in the Ahom or Nora villages.” (Encyclopaedia, p. 235). Anthropological Survey reports, “A divorcee, a widow, or a widower may remarry. In case a widow remains unmarried, she lives with the husband’s household members till her death. In case she is left widowed with a male child, there is no difficulty for her since her son would inherit the property for the late husband.” ( Anthropological Survey Series, Assam, Vol. XV, 2003, p. 52) Wet-Rice Culture: Wet-rice culture came with the Ahoms to this part of the country. Since the beginning of their arrival in the upper Brahmaputra valley region, the Ahoms engaged themselves in wet-rice cultivation in low-lying or marshy fields. While the local inhabitants of the area- the Barahi and Moran lived on high land and thrived on broad-sowing variety of paddy, and production was at bare subsistence level to feed their small population. (Comprehensive History of Assam, Vol. II, edited by Prof. H. K. Barpujari, p.60).”The Ahoms were an advanced plough-using tribe “, writes Prof. Amalendu Guha. (Medieval Economy of Assam”,.in The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. I, Appendix). “Wet-rice cultivation and a valley type of economy constitute the root of Tai culture”, writes Jean Barlie of Hongkong University. (“A Preliminary Essay on Classification, Globalization, and New Frontiers: A Cultural Overview of the Tai”, Tai Culture, Vol.1 no. 2, 1966, pp25-26) Compared to the Barahi and Moran, the Ahom were valley-dwelling peasantry, the cultivators of muddy and marshy soil inundated by annual flood in their own homeland. They therefore selected and settled on low-lying river valleys right from the beginning. These settlements all located in flooded land avoided by the locals. Soon these were turned into flourishing settlements of the Ahom villages.
There thus grew up Ahom ethnic settlements (ban) centering rive-field (na) or pathar. Pathar or paddy fields concept is thus particularly based on the Ahom na (field) system. Even today many Ahom villages surrounding field (pathar) may be found Being situated in low-lying areas, the Ahom villages lay in the interior where communication was possible either by the country boat during the rainy season or on foot during the dry months. This character of the Ahom villages remained unchanged till the end of the Ahom rule, and even today the Ahom villages in the erstwhile Sibsagar and Lakhimpur are located in outlying or remote areas Hence these are isolated or partially isolated areas without having communication network. During the rainy season, such villages remain cut off for several months. Even at the present time due to constant flood many Ahom villages remain isolated during the rainy season. Ahom Paik System & Communal Land-Holding: Like all tribal societies, the Ahom did not possess land individually. During the Ahom rule, all land belonged to the community, and in this case it belonged to the state. Hence, the Ahoms were not a landholding class like those in other parts of India at any time in history. ((S. K. Goswami, A History of Revenue Administration in Assam 128-1826, 1986, pp.31-32; B.B. Hazarika, Political Life in Assam during the 19 th Century, 1987, p. 170). E. A. Gait says, “The rice lands were redistributed from time to time, but homesteads descended from father to son.” (A History of Assam, 1926, p. 240). There was no purely private land holding in the Ahom state proper. There was no payment of money for rendering services to the state in various capacities. Everyone was paid a certain quantity of land and also certain number of paik (persons rendering physical services to the state) all according to rank and status. These they held so long as they were in office, but on removal or death of the holder, all material benefits reverted to the state possession. This system peculiarly of Tai origin introduced by the Ahom in Upper Assam districts continued uninterrupted till the end of the Ahom rule. It is this system that the British found in 1826. Such a system did not allow any land-owning class to grow, and in fact there was no land-owning zemindsar as existed in the neighbouring Mughal Bengal and Bihar of that time. It also obviated the need for metallic currency circulation. Trade was done by barter; it was the universal system in the Ahom kingdom. Land revenue did not exist in the proper Ahom kingdom, and unemployment was unknown. During 1662-63 Shihab-ud-din Talsh noted, “The bazar road is narrow, and is only occupied by pan-sellers.
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 and 16: All these go to prove that the Ahom
Page 17 and 18: Hindu/Hinduized Castes or even Inte
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: writes P. R. Gurdon in Encyclopaedi
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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