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Ahom people

Extended-protected article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Ahoms)

Tai Ahom
tái ahüm
The traditional black attire of Tai-Ahom women.
Regions with significant populations
    Assamunknown
    Arunachal Pradeshunknown
Languages
Assamese (dominance),[1] and Ahom (only used mainly in religious and educational purposes.[2])
Religion
Majority:
Hinduism
Minority:
Ahom religion
Related ethnic groups
other Tai peoples, Morans, Chutias, Bodo-Kachari peoples
Sukapha Kshetra entrance.

The Ahom (Pron: /ˈɑːhɒm/) or Tai Ahom (Ahom: 𑜄𑜩 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨; Assamese: টাই-আহোম) are an ethnic group primarily found in the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. They are the admixed descendants of Tai peoples who migrated into the Brahmaputra Valley and of indigenous populations incorporated into their society over the course of history, through a process called Ahomisation. Traditional accounts place the arrival of the Tai group led by Sukaphaa in 1228 and date the foundation of the Ahom kingdom to the same year. Recent scholarship has, however, questioned this chronology, arguing that the available Tai and Chinese sources may instead indicate that the Ahom polity was established in the 14th century.[3] Over the following centuries, the kingdom expanded across much of the Brahmaputra Valley in present-day Assam and endured until the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826.

The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of Tai[4] and local Tibeto-Burman speakers. A 2024 genome-wide study found substantial admixture of modern Ahoms with local Tibeto-Burman and other South Asian populations, and concluded that they had substantially lost the genetic ancestry associated with their ancestral Southeast Asian homeland.[5] The mixture of immigrants and local peoples who underwent Ahomisation came to be known as "Ahom". Many local ethnic groups that came in contact with the Tai settlers, including the Borahis, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community. Members of other communities were accepted as Ahoms based on their allegiance to the Ahom Kingdom or the usefulness of their talents. A 2004 genetic study has found that in the "tribal" and "caste" continuum, the Ahom people occupy an ambiguous position in the middle,[6] along with the Koch-Rajbanshis and Chutias.[7]

Even though the already admixed group[8], Ahom, made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population; they maintained their Ahom language and practised their traditional religion till the 17th century, when the Ahom court as well as the commoners adopted the Assamese language.

Currently, they represent the largest Tai group in India. Ahom people are found mostly in Upper Assam division in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia (south of Brahmaputra River); and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and Dhemaji (north) as well as some areas of Nagaon in Guwahati.

Etymology

The name Ahom was an exonym; the people referred to themselves as Tai. Banikanta Kakati notes that the Tai migrants who entered the Brahmaputra valley came to be called Asam, Āsām and Ācām by the indigenous population, and derives the modern Assamese ethnonym Ahom through the development Āsām → Asam → Aham → Ahom.[9] Kakati further relates the element -sām to Sham/Shan or Syam, an old external designation for Tai peoples.[a]

History

Statue of Ahom warriors near Sivasagar town, Assam

Origins

The Tai speaking people came into prominence first in the Guangxi region, in China, from where they moved to mainland Southeast Asia in the middle of the 11th century after a long and fierce battle with the Northern Han Chinese.[11] The Tai Ahoms are traced to either Mong Mao of South China (present-day Dehong, Yunnan of China)[12][13] or to the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar.[11]

According to the traditional chronology, Sukaphaa, a Tai prince from Mong Mao, entered Assam in 1228 with a group of followers intending to establish a permanent settlement.[14] They are traditionally believed to have brought techniques of wet-rice cultivation, a system of writing and record-keeping, and traditions of state formation. Recent scholarship has, however, questioned this chronology, proposing that the Ahom polity may instead have been founded in the mid-14th century[15]. Linguistic research has likewise suggested that the Ahom script developed only between the late 14th century and the 16th centuries.[16][17] Scholars have further argued from pre-Ahom inscriptional and Buranji evidence that settled agriculture, wet-rice cultivation and embankment-based water management had important antecedents in Assam before the Ahom entry[18][19][20] and that groups like Kacharis already practised wet-rice cultivation when the Ahoms settled in Assam.[21][22] The migrant group eventually settled in the region south of the Brahmaputra River and to the east of the Dikhow River; the Ahoms today are found concentrated in this region[23] and established the Ahom kingdom, which over the following centuries, expanded across much of the Brahmaputra Valley until 1826.

Initial formation in Assam

In the initial phase, the band of followers of Sukaphaa moved about for nearly thirty years and mixed with the local population. He moved from place to place, searching for a seat. He made peace with the Borahi and Moran ethnic groups, and he and his mostly male followers married into them, creating an admixed population identified as Ahoms[8] and initiating the process of Ahomisation. The Borahis, a Tibeto-Burman people, were completely subsumed into the Ahom fold, though the Moran maintained their independent ethnicity. Sukaphaa established his capital at Charaideo near present-day Sivasagar and began the task of state formation.

Ahomisation

The Ahoms held the belief that they were destined by a divine force to cultivate fallow land using their wet-rice farming methods and to assimilate stateless shifting cultivators into their society.[24] They were also conscious of their numerical minority.[25] As a result, the Ahom polity initially absorbed Naga, Borahi and Moran, and later large sections of the Chutia and the Dimasa-Kachari peoples. This process of Ahomisation went on until the mid-16th century, when the Ahom society itself came under the direct Hindu influence.[26] That many indigenous peoples were ceremonially adopted into Ahom clans is recorded in the chronicles.[27] Since the Ahoms married liberally outside their own exogamous clans and since their own traditional religion resembled the religious practices of the indigenous peoples, the assimilation under Ahomisation had little impediment.[26][28]

Genetic evidence

Genetic studies support a substantial contribution from local Northeast Indian populations to the ancestry of modern Ahoms. Earlier studies of paternal ancestry markers identified the East and Southeast Asian Y-chromosome haplogroup O3-M134 (O-M134 in current nomenclature) as the most frequent paternal haplogroup among modern Ahoms.[29] O-M134 and its downstream paternal lineages are particularly frequent among several Tibeto-Burman populations of Northeast India, including a number of Boro–Garo-speaking groups such as the Kachari, Boro (Mech), Rabha and Tripuri.[b]

A 2024 genome-wide study found that modern Ahoms possess substantial South Asian, Trans-Himalayan and other East/Southeast Asian-related ancestry. The authors inferred that the Trans-Himalayan and Indian Tibeto-Burman-related components were acquired after migration into India and concluded that the relatively small ancestral migrant population had lost much of its original homeland ancestry through extensive admixture with local populations.[29] Haplotype-based analyses also showed especially strong affinities with Kusunda, Khasi and Nyishi populations, and the authors found that the sampled Ahoms received more shared genetic segments from Indo-Tibeto-Burman populations than from the comparison populations.[29] They further noted that larger-scale analyses of Y chromosomes among modern Ahoms would be required to identify rarer paternal haplogroups associated with their ancestral homeland, while similarly expanded mitochondrial-DNA sampling would be required to investigate maternal lineages.[29]

Localisation and Loss

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from Mughal and other invaders, gaining them recognition in world history.[34] The rapid expansion resulted in the Ahom people becoming a small minority in their own kingdom, of which they kept control. Eventually, the Ahom court, as well as the Ahom peasants took to Ekasarana dharma, Shaktism and Saivism over the traditional Ahom religion;[35] and adopted Assamese over the Ahom language for secular purposes.[36] The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of the original Tai and their culture[4] and local Tibeto-Burman peoples and their cultures they absorbed in Assam.

The traditional black attire of Tai-ahom men.

The everyday usage of Ahom language ceased completely by the early 19th-century.[37] The loss of religions is also nearly complete, with only a few priestly families practising some aspects of it.[38] While the written language (and ritualistic chants) survive in a vast number of written manuscripts,[39] much of the spoken language is lost because the Ahom script does not mark tone and under-specifies vowel contrasts.[40]

Revivalism

The first political organisation of the Ahoms, the "All Assam Ahom Association", was established in 1893.[41] During the first half of the twentieth century, Ahom identity became increasingly associated with organised political mobilisation. Saikia argues that colonial classification altered the meaning of "Ahom": under British rule the Ahoms were incorporated within the broader Assamese category, distinguished from groups classified as "tribal", while colonial scholarship also represented the Tai-Ahoms as a homogeneous community with a common culture and society.[42] She further characterises the codification of "Ahom" and "Assamese" as a colonial classificatory process that later provided categories for twentieth-century identity politics.[43]

By the 1930s–1940s, Ahom organisations were seeking separate political and communal recognition. During debates over the proposed 1941 census, their leaders opposed classification simply as Hindus, demanded a separate electoral constituency, and petitioned for recognition as a "racial minority community" and Scheduled Tribe.[44] They also sought to distinguish Ahoms from caste-Hindu Assamese and proposed links with the Shan states beyond the Patkai in Burma.[45]

A formal connection with other Tai groups of Assam was established in 1954 through the "Tai Historical and Cultural Society" at Patsaku, which associated the Ahoms with the Khamti, Khamyang, Phakey and Aiton.[46] The movement gained renewed importance during the reorganisation of Assam in the 1960s. Saikia identifies Padmeswar Gogoi's 1968 The Tai and the Tai-Ahom Kingdom of the Brahmaputra Valley as a major stage in this development, arguing that it established the Ahoms as a Tai community in academic discourse and strengthened their association with the wider Tai world.[47] She argues that the growing use of "Tai-Ahom" narrowed the earlier, more fluid meaning of Ahom and linked the community more explicitly with the Tai peoples of Southeast Asia.[48]

From the 1980s, transnational contacts further reinforced this Tai orientation. Interaction with Thai scholars, especially after the 1981 International Conference on Thai Studies in New Delhi, stimulated renewed interest in the buranjis, the Ahom language and non-Brahmanical religious traditions, and, according to Saikia, transformed the movement from a local into a national and international one.[49] Organisations such as the "Ban Ok" promoted the collection and interpretation of buranjis, the reconstruction of Phra Lung practices and the revival of the Ahom language.[50] Saikia argues that, in attempting to constitute a modern Tai-Ahom community, Ban Ok initially brought together "Assamese Ahom" groups with Tai-speaking Aiton, Phakey, Khamyang, Khamti and Turung communities.[51]

Society

Ban-Mong Social system

The Tai Ahom people's traditional social structure, called Ban-Mong, revolved around agriculture and centred on irrigation methods.[52] The Ban or Ban Na is a unit composed of families that settled by the side of the rivers. Many Bans together form a Mong, which refers state.[52]

Photo from 1900 showing the typical face of an Ahom man(top).

Ahom clans

Ahom clans, called phoids, formed socio-political entities. At the time of ingress into Assam, or soon thereafter, there were seven important clans, called Satghariya Ahoms (Ahoms of the Seven Houses). There were Su/Tsu (Tiger) clan to which the Chao-Pha (Sukaphaa) belonged; his two chief counselors Burhagohain (Chao-Phrung-Mung) and Borgohain (Chao-Thao-Mung); and three priestly clans: Bailung (Mo-plang), Deodhai (Mo-sham), Mohan (Mo-hang) and Siring.[53][54][55] Soon the Satghariya group was expanded—four additional clans began to be associated with nobility: Dihingia, Sandikoi, Lahon and Duarah.[54] In the 16th-century Suhungmung added another great counselor, the Borpatrogohain and a new clan was established. Over time sub-clans began appearing. Thus during the Suhungmung's reign, the Chao-Pha's clan were divided into seven sub-clans—Saringiya, Tipamiya, Dihingiya, Samuguriya, Tungkhungiya, Parvatiya, and Namrupiya. Similarly, Burhagohain clan were divided into eight, Borgohain sixteen, Deodhai twelve, Mohan seven, and Bailung and Siring eight each. The rest of the Ahom gentry belonged to clans such as Chaodangs, Gharphalias, Likchows etc. In general, the secular aristocratic clans, the priestly class, and the gentry clans did not intermarry.

Some clans admitted people from other ethnic groups as well. For example, Miri-Sandikoi and Moran-Patar were Sandikoi and Patar from the Mising and Moran communities,[56] while the founders of Chetias and Lahons were from the Chutia community.[57] This was true even for the priestly clans: Naga-Bailung, Miri-Bailung and Nara-Bailung.[53]

Culture

Clothing

The early Ahoms traditionally wore black clothing. Lila Gogoi notes that the Ahoms formerly dressed in black and later abandoned it in favour of white clothing; he compares their earlier dress with that of related Khamti, Phakial and Shan communities, among whom black clothing continued to be used.[58][c] The character of Ahom dress changed considerably with the expansion of the kingdom and its interaction with the populations of the Brahmaputra valley. According to the Naoboicha Phukanar Buranji, an Ahom king, acting on the advice of his ministers, introduced the use of muga and paat silk at the royal court and employed a thousand muga rearers and weavers from the Chutia community to manufacture royal garments at the capital.[61][d]

By the later Ahom period, dress had become closely associated with rank. Royal and aristocratic garments were made from fine varieties of silk, including muga, paat, gomseng and mejankari, while particular garments, fabrics and forms of ornamentation were restricted according to social status.[62] Men's dress included forms of churia or dhoti, shirts and coats, cheleng wrappers, waistbands and various kinds of headgear, while women's dress developed around the mekhela, riha and upper wrapper or chadar.[60][e] Court dress continued to absorb new styles during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Different forms of shirts, robes, turbans and footwear were adopted, while fabrics and designs of neighbouring courts were incorporated into royal costume.[f]

Festivals

Me-dam-me-phi

Me-dam-me-phi is the communal ancestor worship festival of Tai Ahom. It's observed in the month of Duin-Ha (March–April)in the ancient times but now it's celebrated in 31 January.[64]

Poi cheng ken

Poi cheng ken is the traditional spring festival of the Tai Ahom people, celebrated during the Ahom month of Duin-Ha in the Sexagenary cycle.[65] The festival includes rituals such as washing, particularly bathing household cattle, honoring ancestors, and worshipping the insignia Chum Pha Rueng Sheng Mueang.[65] The customs of Cheng Ken are documented in the ancient manuscript Khyek Lai Bet.[65] As stated:

Duin ha jao pai ka duin ruk Poi cheng ken ao ma, hu ap nam, khai ap nam...., lit. ''the month of Duin-ha is over. Poi cheng ken arrives in Duin-ruk. Cows and buffaloes are bathed in water.'

Housing

Like the rural Thai people of Thailand, the house rural Ahom families have been made of wood and bamboo, and two roofs are typically thatched.[66] Families' orchards and ploughed fields are situated near their house. Houses are built in a scattered fashion within bamboo groves.[66] At one time, the Ahom built their house on stilts called Rwan Huan[66] about two meters above ground level.

Culinary traditions

Food is one of the important variables of the culture of Tai Ahom. Most Ahoms, particularly in rural areas, are non-vegetarian,[67] still maintaining a traditional cuisine similar to other Tai people. Rice is a staple food. Typical dishes are pork, chicken, duck, slices of beef, frogs, many kinds of fishes, hukoti maas (dry preserved fish mixture), muga lota (cocoon seeds of endi and muga worms), and eggs of red ants.[67] Certain insects are also popular foods for the Ahoms. Luk-Lao or Nam-Lao (rice beer, undiluted or diluted) are traditional drinks.[66] They consume "Khar" (a form of alkaline liquid extracted from the ashes of burned banana peels/bark), "Betgaaj" (tender cane shoots), and many other naturally grown herbs with medicinal properties. However beef for the general hindus and, pork for the Vaisnavites are avoided [68] During Siva Singha's reign, the people abandoned the free usage of meat and drinks.[69]

Ahom food specialties resemble Thai cuisine. Like the Thais, the Ahoms prefer boiled food that have little spices and directly burnt fish, meat and vegetables like brinjal, tomato, etc.[66] Some of them are Thu–dam (black lentil), Khao–Moon (Rice Frumenty), Xandohguri (a powder made from dry roasted rice), ChewaKhao (steamed rice), Chunga Chaul (sticky rice cooked in tender bamboo tubes), Til pitha (sesame rice rolls prepared from sticky rice powder), and Khao-tyek (rice flakes).[66] The process of preparation of this item was quite unknown to population other than the Ahoms and the Thais. Khao (unboiled soft rice prepared from a special variety of sticky rice with a unique technique), Tupula Khao (a kind of rice cooked and packed with a particular kind of plant leaf with good smell called 'tora pat' and preserved bamboo sauce are some of the favourite food[66] items of the Ahoms, which are similar to their traditional diet.

Wedding

Cho-klong

Chaklong[70] is the main marriage ritual among the twenty marriage rituals of Tai Ahom people.[71] The name Cho Klong is derived from the Ahom Ahom word chak (related to Sanskrit chakra, meaning "wheel") combined with long ("great" or "large").[72]. The ritual is described in an ancient Tai Ahom script Lai Lit nang Hoon Pha.[73] 101 ban-phai-s (earthen lamps) or lights are lit. The bride offers the groom a heng-dan (sword)[74] to protect her, their children, family, race and country. Sum of twenty rituals are performed in ahom wedding along with cho klong, including:

  • Ju-ron
  • Rik-Khwan
  • Aap-Tang [Aap=Bath, Tang=devine][75]
  • Chow Ban [worshipping sun]
  • Jon-ming [Blessing given by Moloung priests][75]

Religion

Most Ahoms are Hindus, although revival organisations have sought to restore its rituals and practices.[76][77][78] Hinduisation accelerated during the reign of Jayadhwaj Singha, who in 1654 became the first Ahom king to receive formal Vaishnava initiation, from Niranjan Bapu, the first satradhikar of the Auniati Satra.[79] Thereafter, Vaishnavism expanded rapidly among the Ahoms through the satras, bringing significant changes in their religious life.[80] Royal adherence was nevertheless not uniform: Chakradhwaj Singha revived traditional Ahom worship, while Gadadhar Singha followed the ancestral religion despite being favourably disposed towards Tantric Hinduism.[81]

Brahmanical influence increased further in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to Gogoi, the later Ahom kings after Rudra Singha and the chief nobles adhered to the Sakta cult and performed state ceremonies of Sakti worship, while continuing the traditional worship of Ahom deities at Charaideo.[82] Siva Singha became a prominent Sakta ruler and patronised temples dedicated to Siva and Sakti;[83] Saikia describes his reign as one in which Brahmanism was promoted as a state religion and older Tai-Ahom practices that conflicted with it were increasingly suppressed.[84]

Hindu influence also transformed Ahom mortuary customs, with cremation increasingly replacing the traditional practice of burial.[85][86][g] Nevertheless, Me-Dam-Me-Phi, the communal ancestor-worship festival, continues to be widely celebrated and is now observed annually on 31 January.[89]

Language

The Ahoms today use the Assamese language after the traditional language, the Ahom language, fell into complete disuse. The Ahom language, a member of the Tai branch of the Kra–Dai languages is now dead, with its tone system completely lost. Nevertheless, it is being revived by some Tai Ahom organisations.[90]

From the latter part of the 20th century through the early 21st century, there has been a resurgence of interest among the Ahoms in their culture and language, resulting in heightened scholarly focus and efforts towards revival.[91] The 1901 census of India enumerated approximately 179,000 people identifying as Ahom. The latest available census records slightly over 2 million Ahom individuals, however, estimates of the total number of people descended from the original Tai Ahom settlers are as high as eight million.[92] The Ahom script also finds a place in the Unicode Consortium and the script declared the topmost in the South-East Asia category.[93]

Literature

The Ahoms were literate with a writing system based on the Ahom script,[94] which fell into disuse along with the language. The Ahom script evolved from an earlier script of the Tai Nuea language[95] which developed further under the present Chinese Government.[96] There exists today a large corpus of manuscripts in this script on history, society, astrology, rituals, etc. Ahom people used to write their chronicles known as Buranji.[97] The priestly classes (Mo'sam, Mo'hung, Mo'Plong) are the custodians of these manuscripts.

Calendar

The Ahom people used to use a sexagenary cycle known as Lak-Ni Tao-Si-Nga[98] with its origins in the middle kingdoms (Chung-Kuo). It has 12 months and an additional leap month with a ten days weekly cycle.[99][100] The first month is called Duin-Shing which gregorian equivalent is November–December and the new year festival is known as Pi-Mau Tai.[99] It is still in vogue in Chinese and Tai people.[101] The events in Buranji was counted with Lak-ni.

Ahom people today

Ahom people today are categorised in the other backward classes (OBC) caste category; there is longstanding discussion and demand for Scheduled Tribe status.[102] The demand for Scheduled Tribe recognition has also been an important component of modern Tai-Ahom identity politics. Saikia (2004) identifies Scheduled Tribe status, access to associated economic and political benefits, reserved electoral representation, and claims over land and resources in Upper Assam among the objectives articulated by participants in the movement.[103]

The term "ethnic Assamese" is now associated by the Indian government with the various indigenous Assamese people.[104][105][106] Historian Yasmin Saikia distinguishes the modern ethnic conception of the Ahoms from the use of the category in pre-colonial Assam. She contends that during pre-colonial eras, the Ahoms didn't constitute an ethnic community; instead, they formed a relatively inclusive social group. Any group entering the socio-economic framework of the Ahom state could acquire Ahom status, subject to the explicit approval of the king.[104][h] She further contrasts this fluid pre-colonial category with the colonial period, when "Ahom" was transformed from what she calls a "fluid, official position" into a hereditary group identity and ethnicity.[112]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ Diller, A. (1993). Tai Languages. In International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (Vol. 4, pp. 128–131). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  2. ↑ (Marwah 2020:76)
  3. ↑ (Daniels 2023:30–47)
  4. 1 2 "Conclusions" (PDF). Shodganga.
  5. ↑ Kumar, Sachin; Singh, Prajjval Pratap; Pasupuleti, Nagarjuna; Tripathy, Veena Mushrif; Chauley, Milan Kumar; Chaubey, Gyaneshwer; Rai, Niraj (2024). "The genetic admixture and assimilation of Ahom: a historic migrant from Thailand to India". Human Molecular Genetics. 33 (11): 1015–1019. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddae054. PMID 38538568.
  6. ↑ "The process of assimilation of some of the tribes in the caste hierarchy is probably reflected in the broad constellation of populations in the multidimensional plot (Fig. 3); on the one end it is the constellation of populations subscribing to the caste system, while the other end of the plot is the constellation of tribal groups. In between lie groups like the Rajbanshi, Chutiya, and Ahom, which were supposed to have undergone the process discussed above." (Kumar, Basu & Reddy 2004:339)
  7. ↑ "The Chutia, Ahom, and Rajbanshis constitute a separate and compact cluster positioned in the center of MDS plot."(Kumar, Basu & Reddy 2004:341)
  8. 1 2 "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 2014:51–52)
  9. ↑ Kakati 1962, pp. 1–4.
  10. ↑ Ferlus, Michel (2006). "Sur l'origine de la dénomination « Siam »". Aséanie. 18: 107–117. doi:10.3406/asean.2006.2006.
  11. 1 2 (Terwiel 1996:275)
  12. ↑ (Gogoi 2011:V)
  13. ↑ "At present [Mong Mao] is known as Ruili in Chinese maps... The Mong Mao area is still predominantly Tai, who are called Dai (in Pin Yin), and they, together with the Singhpho, or Jingpho, form a dominant group, hence the whole zone is named as Dehong Dai-Jingpho Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan." (Phukan 1991:889)
  14. ↑ “Sukapha and his band of Ahom migrants entered Upper Assam in 1228 with a view to permanently settling there.” (Guha 1983:12)
  15. ↑ (Daniels 2023:30–47)
  16. ↑ "Although tradition suggests that the Ahom brought their script with them when they crossed the Patkai Mountains into Assam in the 13th century from Mong Mao, located on the frontier of what is now Myanmar and China (Phukan 2006); it is unknown how old the script actually is. The oldest surviving Ahom text, the Snake Pillar inscription, only dates back to the time of King Siuw Hum Miung who reigned during 1497-1539 (Hosken and Morey 2012). However, the resemblance between the Ahom script and one of the extant Shan scripts known as lik hto ngouk, or “bean-sprout letters”, points to a common origin (Cushing 1888; Ferlus 1988; Diller 1992; Wichasin 1986). A recent paper by Daniels (2012) refers to a manuscript published in Yang, Bartholemew and Wang (2000). This has been identified as a Chinese manuscript dated 1407 that includes Tai language very similar in form and structure to the Tai Ahom script, suggesting that a script like Tai Ahom was in use in the Mong Mao kingdom by the end of the 14th century at the latest."(Gogoi, Morey & Pittayaporn 2020:17–18)
  17. ↑ "There is a general consensus that the proto-Shan script that developed into the modern Shan and Ahom scripts was adapted from the Burmese script sometime between the late 14th and the 16th century. Ferlus (1988) and Diller (1992) also argue that lack of orthographic contrasts between original voiced and voiceless consonants suggests that the adaptation took place later than the first half of the 13th century. In addition, Pain (2017) adds the use of digraph ui, to represent /ɯ/ in Shan and Ahom as further evidence for the Old Burmese origin. Furthermore, Daniel’s (2012) analysis of the 1407 manuscript discussed above postulates that the adaptation occurred in the 14th century. The shapes of 14 letters attested in the text as well as the use of diacritical -y-, -r-, and -w- points to an Old Burmese origin."(Gogoi, Morey & Pittayaporn 2020:17–18)
  18. ↑ "Incidentally, in pre-Ahom Assam the whole economic set-up was contingent on wet-rice cultivation...So, wet-rice cultivation with an irrigation technology dependent on the construction of alis was a common feature of the pre-Ahom rural landscape."(Lahiri 1984:64–65)
  19. ↑ "That agriculture was the mainstay of the society can be inferred from epigraphic evidence. Dhanya (rice or paddy) was the staple crop. Cultivation of rice was mostly done following the wet rice cultivation technique. Inscriptions record the existence of surplus agricultural production, one of the essential pre-requisite for an urban economy. Inscriptions throw light on the productive capacity of the granted lands, as well as the names of various categories of land."(Saikia 2021:41)
  20. ↑ (Boruah 2013:5–12)
  21. ↑ "Maringkhowa Bahbariya Barchetia Gohain was asked to confiscate the rice fields of the Kacharis. From this and other evidence, it is clear that rice cultivation was practised in the Lauhitya valley much before the Tai-Ahoms settled there. This was reported to the Tai-Ahoms by the Barahi chief. The Kacharis had devised a way to build embankments to divert water into channals, thereby creating areas where paddy cultivation was possible. Such a system allowed for more than subsistence-level agriculture. The production of rice-beer was an established Kachari tradition when the Tai-Ahoms occupied their riverine fields. In contrast to the Kacharis, the Morans and the Barahis were mostly gatherers and petty traders."(Saikia 1997:100)
  22. ↑ "From the beginning, the Tai-Ahom and Kachari relationship was determined by the struggle for control of the fertile riverine Dikhoumukh. The Kachari culture was a rice culture. Through their knowledge and practice of wet-rice cultivation, the Kacharis distinguished themselves from the 'wild' hunter-gatherers and nonrice cultivators."(Saikia 1997:185)
  23. ↑ (Terwiel 1996:276)
  24. ↑ (Guha 1983:11–12)
  25. ↑ (Baruah 1977:251)
  26. 1 2 (Guha 1983:12)
  27. ↑ "Thus the illustrious Ahom family of Miri Sandikai was founded by one Miri (Mising), the adopted son of a Burhagohain. (Purani Asam Buranji) King Gadadhar Sinha (1681–1696) accepted two Naga princesses as his consorts. (Tungkhungiya Buranji) The new converts, if possessed of efficiency, were even recruited to important administrative posts. Thus the second Barphukan, the governor of Lower Assam, was the son of a Naga of Banferra clan. (Purani Asam Buranji) Queen Phuleswari, who took the regalia into her hands during the reign of King Siva Singha (1714–1744), appointed a Bhutanese youth as her page. Kancheng, the first Barpatra Gohain, was born and brought up in a Naga family. (Purani Asam Buranji)" (Baruah 1977:251)
  28. ↑ (Baruah 1977:251–252)
  29. 1 2 3 4 Kumar, Sachin; Singh, Prajjval Pratap; Pasupuleti, Nagarjuna; Tripathy, Veena Mushrif; Chauley, Milan Kumar; Chaubey, Gyaneshwer; Rai, Niraj (2024). "The genetic admixture and assimilation of Ahom: a historic migrant from Thailand to India". Human Molecular Genetics. 33 (11): 1015–1019. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddae054.
  30. 1 2 Cordaux, Richard; Weiss, Gunter; Saha, Nilmani; Stoneking, Mark (2004). "The Northeast Indian Passageway: A Barrier or Corridor for Human Migrations?". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 21 (8): 1525–1533. doi:10.1093/molbev/msh151.
  31. ↑ Debnath, Monojit; Palanichamy, Malliya G.; Mitra, Bikash; Jin, Jie-Qiong; Chaudhuri, Tapas K.; Zhang, Ya-Ping (2011). "Y-chromosome haplogroup diversity in the sub-Himalayan Terai and Duars populations of East India". Journal of Human Genetics. 56: 765–771. doi:10.1038/jhg.2011.98.
  32. ↑ Sengupta, Sanghamitra; Zhivotovsky, Lev A.; King, Roy; Mehdi, S. Q.; Edmonds, Christopher A.; Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane T.; Lin, Alice A.; Mitra, Mitashree; Sil, Samir K.; Ramesh, A.; Usha Rani, M. V.; Thakur, Chitra M.; Cavalli-Sforza, L. Luca; Majumder, Partha P.; Underhill, Peter A. (2006). "Polarity and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central Asian Pastoralists". American Journal of Human Genetics. 78 (2): 202–221. doi:10.1086/499411.
  33. ↑ Reddy, B. Mohan; Langstieh, B. T.; Kumar, Vikrant; Nagaraja, T.; Reddy, A. N. S. (2007). "Austro-Asiatic Tribes of Northeast India Provide Hitherto Missing Genetic Link between South and Southeast Asia". PLOS ONE. 2 (11): e1141. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001141.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  34. ↑ "During the sixteenth, and more so during the seventeenth century, the Ahom people, in a series of spectacular expansionist moves, gained dominance over virtually the entire Brahmaputra Valley. The story of how Ahom-led armies fought against Muslim invaders has gained them a place in international history." (Terwiel 1996:276)
  35. ↑ "Not only at the Ahom court, but also among Ahom farmers, the Indian religion gained adherents: Saivism, Saktism, and Vaisnavism spread and largely replaced the old Tai Ahom religion." (Terwiel 1996:276)
  36. ↑ "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 secular life." (Terwiel 1996:276)
  37. ↑ "It seems that by early in the 19th century, everyday usage of Ahom language had ceased and that Ahom people all spoke Assamese as their mother tongue." (Morey 2014:50)
  38. ↑ "Only in a few priestly families was the original Ahom religion not wholly forgotten." (Terwiel 1996:280)
  39. ↑ "Tai Ahom is therefore usually regarded as a dead language, but it survives in three ways: (1) in vast collections of manuscripts, (2) as a ritual language in Ahom religious ceremonies, and (3) as a language undergoing revival." (Morey 2014:50)
  40. ↑ "While the Ahom script marks all consonants, because it does not mark tones and under specifies vowel contrasts, the same written word can have a large number of meanings." (Morey 2014:55)
  41. ↑ (Terwiel 1996:278)
  42. ↑ (Saikia 1997:208)
  43. ↑ (Saikia 2004:76)
  44. ↑ (Saikia 2004:74–75)
  45. ↑ (Saikia 2004:75)
  46. ↑ (Terwiel 1996:278)
  47. ↑ (Saikia 2004:75)
  48. ↑ (Saikia 2004:169)
  49. ↑ (Saikia 2004:183)
  50. ↑ (Saikia 2004:184–185)
  51. ↑ (Saikia 2004:184)
  52. 1 2 (Gogoi 1995:30)
  53. 1 2 (Gogoi 2006:9)
  54. 1 2 (Guha 1983:13)
  55. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:15)
  56. ↑ "For instance the Miri-Sandikoi and Moran Patar were the offices drawn from the Miris and the Morans"(Gogoi 2006:9)
  57. ↑ "The founders of noted Ahom families, like those of Chetia and Lahon were Chutiyas." (Dutta 1985:30)
  58. ↑ Gogoi, Lila (1982), Asamar Sanskriti (in Assamese), Jorhat: Bharati Prakashan, p. 64, আহোম সকলে পূৰ্বতে কʼলা কাপোৰ পিন্ধিছিল। বুৰঞ্জীত আহোম মানুহৰ বৰ্ণনা দিওঁতে কৈছে, "মানুহবোৰ লণ্ডা-মুণ্ডা গাতো কলীয়া কাপোৰ।" শকত-আৱত মানুহবোৰ, পিন্ধনত ক'লা কাপোৰ। পিছলৈ আহোম মানুহে ক'লা কাপোৰ এৰি বগা কাপোৰ পিন্ধিবলৈ ধৰে। তেওঁবিলাকৰ তেজ-মঙহৰ সম্বন্ধ থকা খামতি-ফাকিয়াল আৰু শ্যানসকলে এতিয়াও ক'লা কাপোৰ পিন্ধে। আহোমসকলে নিজৰ জাতীয় ৰীতি এৰি পেলোৱা বাবে এতিয়াও "টাই-ম্যুং-নুন্" অৰ্থাৎ বগা কাপোৰ পিন্ধা টাই বুলি ভিতৰুৱাকৈ ইতিকিং কৰে।
  59. ↑ Bhuyan, Suryya Kumar, ed. (1945). Assam Buranji. Shillong: Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies. pp. 10, 23.
  60. 1 2 Phukan, Mouchumi (2018). "A Study On The Dress – Culture Of The Tai-Ahoms Of Assam". Elementary Education Online. 17 (4): 2288–2291. doi:10.17051/ilkonline.2018.507012.
  61. ↑ Phukan, Padmeswar Naoboicha. Assam Buranji (in Assamese). p. 30.
  62. ↑ Nath, Mitali (2021). "The Dresses and Ornaments of the Ahom Dynasty in the Medieval Assam: A Review". International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts. 9 (12): d834–d841.
  63. ↑ Nath, Mitali (2021). "The Dresses and Ornaments of the Ahom Dynasty in the Medieval Assam: A Review". International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts. 9 (12): d834–d841.
  64. ↑ (Gogoi 2011:69)
  65. 1 2 3 (Gogoi 2011:153–154)
  66. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (Phukan 2017:II)
  67. 1 2 "Inspite of becoming Hindu, the Tai Ahoms have not given up their food habits, i.e., taking pork, beef, chicken, and rice beer. Hence we find that even in the religious ceremonies pork and chicken are taken." (Gogoi 2011:227)
  68. ↑ "The proselytizing function of the Vaisnavite monasteries helped the ongoing process of sanskritization of the Ahom and the tribal folk in the Brahmaputra valley. The Ahom were accepted as a low-ranking new Hindu peasant caste. The tribal neophytes, admitted first to the lowest rung of the caste ladder, had opportunities of upward social mobility through emulation of the higher castes. Individuals and groups did not only move from animism to vaisnavism, but also from tribes to peasant castes, from pile houses to mid-point house, from burial practice to cremation of the dead, from liberal food habits to abstinence from liquor, beef and pork, from a shifting to permanent cultivation, and so on." (Guha 1984:5)
  69. ↑ E.A. Gait (1906). A history of Assam. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Company. p. 184.
  70. ↑ Diller, Anthony; Edmondson, Jerry; Luo, Yongxian (30 November 2004). The Tai-Kadai Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-79116-2 – via Google Books.
  71. ↑ "AHOMS and CHAK-LONG THE UNIQUE TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE SYSTEM". www.esamskriti.com.
  72. ↑ (Terwiel 1996:281)
  73. ↑ Lailit nang hoon Pha, ancient Tai Ahom script
  74. ↑ "Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society". The Society. 28 March 1981 – via Google Books.
  75. 1 2 Gogoi, Pushpa (28 March 1996). "Tai of North East India". Chumphra Printers and Publishers – via Google Books.
  76. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:63)
  77. ↑ (Terwiel 1996:280)
  78. ↑ (Saikia 2004:184–185)
  79. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:17)
  80. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:21)
  81. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:38, 51–52)
  82. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:21–22)
  83. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:19–20)
  84. ↑ (Saikia 1997:224–225)
  85. ↑ (Guha 1984:5)
  86. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:88)
  87. ↑ (Gogoi 1976:88)
  88. ↑ (Saikia 1997:225–226)
  89. ↑ "Bihu Festival and Beyond: Me-Dam-Me-Phi". Assam Tourism. Department of Tourism, Government of Assam. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
  90. ↑ Dipima Buragohain. Issues of Language Contact and Shift in Tai Ahom
  91. ↑ Sikhamoni Gohain Boruah & Ranjit Konwar, The Tai Ahom of India and a Study of Their Present Status Hiteswar Saikia College and Sri Ranjit Konwar, Assam Forest Department
  92. ↑ "Ahom". Ethnologue.
  93. ↑ "Ahom script finds place in Unicode Consortium". The Sentinel. 29 June 2018.
  94. ↑ (Gogoi 2011:1.00)
  95. ↑ (Gogoi 2011:V)
  96. ↑ (Gogoi 2011:10)
  97. ↑ (Gogoi 2011)
  98. ↑ pp.271–278 in ABOURANJIK
  99. 1 2 Phukan Baruah (1964), p. 193.
  100. ↑ Kapoor (2021), p. 668.
  101. ↑ Phukan, J.N.2006 pp.1
  102. ↑ "AATASU reiterates demand for ST status to six communities". The Sentinel. 28 October 2017.
  103. ↑ (Saikia 2004:149)
  104. 1 2 Saikia, Yasmin (2004). Fragmented Memories. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3373-9.
  105. ↑ "ST status to Assam groups only from a national perspective". Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
  106. ↑ "Separatist strains". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
  107. ↑ (Saikia 2004:137)
  108. ↑ (Saikia 2004:136–140)
  109. ↑ (Saikia 2004:139)
  110. ↑ (Saikia 2004:140)
  111. ↑ (Saikia 2004:138, 141)
  112. ↑ (Saikia 2004:142)

Notes

  1. ↑ The designation long predates the arrival of Sukaphaa's followers in the Brahmaputra valley. Michel Ferlus traces secure epigraphic occurrences of syam referring to Tai populations to the eleventh century and notes numerous Pagan-period occurrences from 1120 onward, where the term generally designated the Tai peoples of northeastern Burma, later known collectively as Shan. Ferlus considers Siam, Shan and Ahom to be forms sharing the same historical origin.[10] Thus the use of a form related to Syam/Sham for the Tai newcomers in the Brahmaputra valley belonged to a much older regional practice of neighbouring peoples designating Tai populations by this ethnonym rather than representing a name coined by the Ahoms themselves.
  2. ↑ Earlier studies reported O-M134 in 85% of sampled males identified as Kachari and 76% of Rabha males.[30] Higher-resolution Y-chromosome analysis subsequently found the downstream O-M117 lineage, a subgroup of O-M134, in 57.7% of sampled Rabha males and 47.4% of sampled Mech males.[31] High frequencies of O-M134 were also reported among the Boro–Garo-speaking Tripuri (17 of 21 males; 81.0%) and Jamatia (22 of 30; 73.3%) samples from Tripura.[32] Among the Garo, O-M134 was reported in 23% of sampled males, together with the related downstream O-M133 lineage.[33] The lineage is likewise frequent among other Tibeto-Burman populations of Northeast India: Cordaux et al. (2004) found O-M134 in 85.5% of a combined sample of Adi, Apatani, Nishi and Naga males, with frequencies ranging from 76% to 94% among the individual populations.[30]
  3. ↑ The Buranjis preserve similar descriptions. The Assam Buranji describes the Ahoms in accounts concerning the sixteenth century as “Lunda-Munda Kula Kapur pindha luk” ("black-clothed bald men") and “Kolia bastra paridhan kora” ("dressed in black clothing").[59] A study of Tai-Ahom dress similarly describes the earlier costume as including black pot-lung (trousers), pha-sin (a lower wrap), kun-bin and kun-kha, with a cloth called pha-siu used as head-covering.[60]
  4. ↑ The account is significant as a Buranji tradition concerning a transition in court dress; it presents muga and paat garments as a later introduction into the Ahom royal establishment rather than part of the original dress of the Tai migrants.
  5. ↑ Phukan lists the earlier or traditional male garments as pot-lung, kun-bin, kun-kha, pha-tu-wai, tangali and pha-siu. Later male dress included numerous varieties of churia, cheleng, shirts and turbans. Aristocratic women's dress consisted principally of a mekhela, riha and chadar, produced in cotton or different varieties of silk according to status. Nath similarly notes that the clothing of royalty, nobles and commoners was differentiated, with fine gomseng and mejankari particularly associated with the royal and aristocratic classes.
  6. ↑ Mitali Nath notes, drawing on the Buranjis and H. K. Barpujari, that later royal and aristocratic clothing included such garments as chapkon, jama, ijar, cheleng, churia and silk turbans, and that Mughal-style garments became increasingly prominent under later rulers.[63]
  7. ↑ The sources differ on the precise stage at which this transition was imposed. Gogoi attributes the enforcement of cremation among the Ahoms to Bar-Raja Phuleswari, the wife of Siva Singha.[87] Saikia, however, states that Rudra Singha had earlier ordered Ahom kings to be cremated according to Hindu custom while permitting a simulated burial of royal articles at Charaideo; she also notes that burial was not completely abandoned.[88]
  8. ↑ Saikia argues that in pre-colonial Assam, being Ahom was an acquired status rather than a condition fixed by birth.[107] She notes that individuals of non-Ahom backgrounds could enter the Ahom administrative elite through service, appointment and royal favour.[108] In her reading, ethnicity was not the determining factor in becoming Ahom; rather, the favour of the swargadeo was decisive, and the composition of the Ahom nobility consequently varied under different rulers.[109] She describes the Ahom officials as a heterogeneous body selected and brought together by royal mandate to assist in governing the kingdom.[110] Ahom status was also not necessarily permanent, since the swargadeo could elevate or demote individuals and thereby alter their social identity.[111]

Bibliography

Further reading

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