Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre

In News

• Recently, the Vice-President inaugurated the Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre on Guwahati’s Barphukanar Tila, meaning Barphukan’s Hillock. 
  • The Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre has been set up in a nearly 150-year-old bungalow in Guwahati, Assam.

Key Points

• The hillock by the Brahmaputra, mentioned in ancient scriptures as Mandrachal, was from where Ahom General Lachit Barpukhan launched the Battle of Saraighat in March 1671 to inflict the most crushing defeat on the Mughals.
• The bungalow used to be the 17th-century military office of the Ahom rulers.
• Barpukhan was a post equivalent to Governor-General created by Ahom king Pratap Simha or Susengpha (1603-1641).
• Saraighat is regarded as the “greatest naval battle ever fought in a river”.

Ahom Kingdom 

About:

• The Ahom Kingdom was a late medieval kingdom established in 1228 in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam. 
• Sukapha was a leader of the Ahoms. He founded the Ahom kingdom.
• They created a new state by suppressing the older political system of the bhuiyans (landlords).
• It is famous for its multi-ethnic makeup and for retaining its sovereignty for 600 years fighting at one point fighting the Mughal Empire to successfully preserve its independence.
• Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. A Khel often controlled several villages.
• Ahoms worshipped their own tribal Gods but instead of imposing their own language, religion and rituals on communities living in Assam, they accepted the Hindu religion and the Assamese language.

Contemporary time Ahom:

• The founders of the Ahom kingdom had their own language and followed their own religion. Over the centuries, the Ahoms accepted the Hindu religion and the Assamese language.
• King Sukhpa, founder of Ahom has successful taken efforts towards the assimilation of different communities and tribes. He is widely referred to as the architect of “Bor Asom” or “greater Assam”.
• The Ahoms managed to group a diverse mix of people in such a politically sensitive region crisscrossing South Asia and South-East Asia. 

Source: TH