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Ita Fort

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ita Fort
Southern gate, Ita Fort
Map
Interactive map of Ita Fort
27°05′31″N 93°37′55″E / 27.092°N 93.632°E / 27.092; 93.632
TypeFort
LocationItanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Part ofArunachal Pradesh
History
Built14th–15th century
Built byChutia kingdom
Site notes
MaterialBricks, Granite and Mud mortar
ConditionRuins
ManagementGovernment of Arunachal Pradesh

Ita Fort in Itanagar town is an important historical site in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The name literally means "Fort of Bricks" (brick being called "Ita" in the Assamese language). It also lends its name to the city Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh. The Ita Fort, dated to the 14th-15th century, is generally believed to have been built by the Chutia kings, who ruled the region during that period.[1] The fort can be tentatively associated with the line of hill forts attributed to the Chutia king Gauri Narayan. According to the Chutia chronicles, Gauri Narayan, after consolidating his kingdom, “built a line of forts along the foot of the hills”, along with large tanks and temples.[2]

The total brickwork is of 16,200 cubic metre lengths. Archaeological finds from the site are on displayed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum, Itanagar.[3]

History

[edit]

The bricks used in the fort hint at its construction in the 14th-15th centuries. The fort can be tentatively associated with the line of hill forts attributed to the Chutia king Gauri Narayan. According to the Chutia chronicles, Gauri Narayan, after consolidating his kingdom, “built a line of forts along the foot of the hills”, along with large tanks and temples.[4] The ruins of a hill fort on the banks of the Buroi river bear the same builder's marks as the ones found in the ruins of the Tamreswari Temple near Sadiya, which indicates that the Chutia fortifications were spread till Biswanath.[5] The location of Ita Fort, well to the east of Buroi, shows that this was also one of such hill forts of the Chutia kingdom.[6] The plains to the south and southeast of Ita Fort, in the Subansiri–Brahmaputra valley,[7] including the historical Habung region,[8] formed part of the Chutia dominion in the 14th-15th century, as evident from the land grants of Chutia kings in the region.[9]

Archival photo of the southern gate of Itafort before repairs

Affinities with other Chutia Kingdom sites

[edit]

Although no inscription at Ita Fort has yet been discovered naming its builders, the fort has often been associated with the Chutia-period architectural tradition of the Assam–Arunachal foothills. The monument is generally dated to the 14th–15th centuries CE, a period corresponding with the later phase of the Chutia kingdom, and is widely believed to have been constructed by the Chutia kings who ruled the region during this time.[10]

The eastern gate of Itafort showing the stone masonry base with bricks on top, similar to the walls of Tamreswari temple and Rukmininagar of Sadiya[AI upscaled image]

Architecturally, Ita Fort shows several features comparable to medieval sites traditionally associated with the Chutia kingdom. The fort is built with a stone masonry base and brick superstructure,[11] a construction technique also observed in the enclosure walls of the Tamreswari Temple complex, Rukmininagar, and a brick tank found within a large medieval fortification in the Sadiya region.[12] Similar to the sites of Sadiya region,[13] the brick ramparts of Ita fort were also laid with mud mortar, without any lime mortar or similar binding material with iron clamps and nails in certain places.[14] The use of brickwork on such a scale also links Ita Fort with the wider Chutia-period architectural complex. This emphasis on brick construction is comparable to the fortified and religious sites of the Sadiya region, where brick walls, gateways, plinths, tanks and structural remains form a prominent part of the archaeological record.[15] The gateway plan of Ita Fort[16] also appears comparable to Bhismaknagar, Rukmininagar[17] and Chapakhowa Rajgarh,[18] as all these sites seem to use projecting and returning brick wall-segments to create a staggered or offset entrance passage rather than a simple straight opening through the rampart.

This diagrams show the offset(bent) gateway fortifications of some Medieval forts.

Additional parallels are found in sculptural motifs. A stone door-jamb fragment from Ita Fort depicts a lion and an elephant, while Chutia bricks discovered at Rukmininagar bear paired lion and elephant motifs. Lion imagery seen on a base relief closely matches that found in Chutia-period remains at Bhismaknagar, Tamreswari Temple and Rukmininagar, suggesting a shared symbolic and artistic vocabulary across these sites.

A section of a stone door jam found in Ita fort depicting a lion and an elephant. The Chutia bricks found in Rukmininagar(Roing) show two lions on one side and two elephants on the other.

The location of Ita Fort is also significant. Earlier scholars noted that the ruins of a hill fort on the Buroi river (Buroi fortifications) contained masons' marks similar to those found in the ruins near Sadiya, which were associated with Bhismak and the Chutia rulers.[19] Later historians have argued that if architectural continuity is admitted between the fortifications of the Sadiya region and sites further west such as the Buroi ruins, it may indicate a broader Chutia cultural or political sphere extending across the northern bank of the Brahmaputra.[20] Since Ita Fort lies to the east of the Buroi site and within the same foothill zone, it has been interpreted as part of this broader chain of Chutia-associated hill forts.

Lion base relief from Ita fort. The lion was the emblem of the Chutia kingdom as found in the remains of Rukmininagar,Tamreswari Temple and Bhismaknagar.

Taken together, the fort's chronology, brick-and-stone construction, sculptural motifs and geographical position in the Assam–Arunachal foothill zone suggest that Ita Fort belonged to the same architectural tradition as the Chutia-period monuments of Sadiya, Rukmininagar, Bhismaknagar, Tamreswari and related sites.

Historical Claims and Interpretations

[edit]

In 1941, D. N. Das, Political Officer of the former Balipara Frontier Tract, claimed in an article published in the Journal of the Assam Research Society that Ita Fort may have been the capital of a legendary ruler identified as Ramachandra or Mayamatta, referred to as Mayapur.[21]

However, this claim is questionable. The Assamese chronicle Adi Charita, dated to 1586 Saka (1664 CE), which is the source of the Ramachandra-Arimatta legend[22]—though itself considered dubious[23][24][25]—states that Ramachandra's capital was located at Pratappura, from which he derived the epithet Pratappuriya. Some scholars have identified this Pratappura with a site near Biswanath,[26] and the Uma-tumani rock inscription near Biswanath, which refers to a ruler as Pratapapuradhikari, has been cited in support of this identification.[27] However, another source identifies the Pratappura of the legend with a king of Ratnapura in Ratnapitha.[28] Since Ratnapitha is generally understood as the tract between the Karatoya and Sankosh rivers, corresponding broadly to the historical Kamatapur region, this identification would place the tradition much farther west than Biswanath. Legendary accounts preserved in the Kamrupar Buranji likewise place the Ramachandra–Arimatta cycle in a wider Kamarupa setting. It describes Ramachandra as a king of Kamrupa, Phengua as the king of Kamatapura and associates places including Nilachal, Vaidyagarh and Pratappura with the tradition.[29] Other traditions associated with Ramachandra's son, Arimatta (also identified as Sasanka), place his domain in present-day Kamrup, Darrang and Sonitpur districts with capital at Baidargarh (Betna) and attribute to him the conquest of the Kamata Kingdom.[30] Scholars like Dimbeswar Neog and Edward Gait have considered the historicity of the Adi Charita doubtful, stating that its accounts appeared to be based mainly on legends and popular traditions, and described Arimatta as “at best, a legendary figure.”[31][32] Neog further noted that “the Arimatta legends are so hopelessly divergent” that attempts to reconcile them would be futile, pointing to contradictory traditions concerning Arimatta's descendants and family.[33]

In light of these accounts, scholars argue that the location of Ita Fort, far away from Biswanath, Pratappura, Kamrup or Kamata, makes its association with the so-called Arimatta line unlikely. Moreover, the historicity of Ramachandra and Arimatta remains uncertain, as their existence and chronology are not supported by contemporary evidence, and the surviving traditions concerning them are late, divergent and heavily legendary.

Architecture

[edit]

Ita Fort represents a defensive complex adapted to the hilly terrain of present-day Itanagar. Its architecture combines artificial brick ramparts with natural ridges, cliffs and slopes, creating a fortified enclosure that used both built and natural defences. The surviving remains include ramparts, three gateways, brick and stone masonry, scattered structural debris and pottery fragments, indicating a fortified settlement rather than an isolated military outpost.

Fortifications

[edit]

Ita Fort is a large brick-built fortified complex of irregular plan, partly formed by artificial ramparts and partly by the natural topography of the hill. The ramparts were constructed using brick and mud mortar. The builders erected parallel brick walls on both sides of the rampart and filled the intervening space with mud and brick fragments. In some surviving portions, the original foundation layers remain intact, measuring about 2.06–2.08 m wide and about 1.40 m high. The fortification encloses an area of more than 1 km2 and slopes from south to north. The western and eastern flanks are closed by brick ramparts, while steep natural ridges and cliffs on the northern and southern sides provide natural defence. The western rampart extends for nearly 1.5 km and contains two gates, while the eastern rampart has one gate. The northern and southern sides are protected by irregular steep ridges, each extending for more than a kilometre. The average width of the rampart is about 11.5 m, and its original height has been estimated at 5 m.[34] The fort has therefore been described as a forest or hill fort, with an elongated semi-circular plan.[35]

Brick Rampart of Ita Fort with buttress for support

The three gates of the Fort

[edit]

The fort has three principal gateways, situated on the eastern, southern and western sides. The eastern gate, located at the highest point of the fort, is heavily damaged and was built on stone masonry overlooking Doimukh in the Dikrong valley. The southern gate, facing the Gohpur and Ramghat area, was built largely of brick with limited use of stone and stone slabs. It appears to have served as the main entrance to the fort and was more heavily defended than the other gates. Two cells on either side of the inner face of the southern gate may have been used for sentries, and the passage contained a corridor running parallel to the wall of the gate. High wooden doors were probably fitted to the gateways, though these have not survived.[36]

Western Gateway of Itafort showing the brick gateway with stone blocks and slabs

The eastern gate may have remained closed except when required, since it lacks the sentry arrangements noticed near the southern gate. The western gate faces the Senkhi river and appears to have had comparatively fewer defensive arrangements. The eastern and western gates were strategically placed to command views of the Assam plains below, while the southern gate commanded a view towards Gohpur, Ramghat and Pisoka, helping to detect possible attacks from those directions.[37] The southern gate is situated at an elevation of about 480 m above mean sea level. It is associated with an adjoining rampart measuring about 340 m and covers an area of about 15,105 sq m, or approximately 3.7 acres. The western gate is located in the central part of the present Itanagar Capital Complex and stands at an altitude of about 379.17 m above mean sea level. The protected area around the western gate measures about 2,643 sq m. The eastern gate is located near the Raj Bhavan, Itanagar, and its protected area measures about 2,283 sq m, or approximately 0.564 acre.

Eastern Gateway of Itafort consisting of a stone and brick gate

Building material

[edit]

The fort was constructed mainly of bricks and stones. The stones used were chiefly sandstone, while the bricks occur in a variety of sizes, including ornamental bricks. The eastern gate, which stands at the highest point of the fort, was built on a stone masonry base and overlooked the Doimukh area in the Dikrong valley. This combination of stone masonry below and brickwork above has been compared with the construction style of other medieval fortified sites of the Assam–Arunachal foothill zone. Stones are also observed in the western and eastern gates. Animated and floral designs were used on the doorways. The brick ramparts were laid with mud mortar, and no lime mortar or similar binding material has been reported. Iron clamps and nails were also used in the construction of the fort.[38]

Archival photo of the western gate of Itafort before repairs

Archaeological remains

[edit]

No standing structure has been identified inside the fort area. However, scattered brickbats found in different parts of the Ita Fort area suggest the remains of a medieval settlement within the fortified enclosure. Pottery recovered from the site includes coarse and heavily damaged fragments identifiable as bowls, pots and spouted vessels. One spouted pottery fragment contained a large amount of kaolin, which has been described as a characteristic feature of medieval pottery in the Brahmaputra valley. The site was reportedly covered with jungle in the early twentieth century, as noted in the Darrang District Gazetteer of 1905, and was also described as forested during later archaeological observations in the 1970s.[39]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Itanagar Capital Complex". Arunachalpradesh.nic.in.
  2. ↑ Brown, W.B. (1895). An Outline Grammar Of The Deori Chutiya Language. Shillong: Assam Secretariat Printing Office. pp. 75, 84. Returning with his bride to his chosen seat of government, he (Gaurinarayan) sought no further extension of his dominions, bur directed his whole attention to the improvement of what he had acquired and to the consolidation of his power. He built a line of forts along the foot of the hills, probably to restrain the hungry barbarians, his former countrymen; made large tanks and founded temples.
  3. ↑ "Jawahar Lal Nehru Museum". Incredible India. Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Retrieved 3 June 2026. A floor filled with archaeological finds also takes your breath away with age-old pottery shards and stone tools that show the reform of tools and pottery over time. There are findings from Ita Fort as well, and from Noksparbat and Malinithan in the West Siang district, which include tools, pots, religious objects, clothes and much more. Thereby making it one of the best and the oldest museums in the north-east.
  4. ↑ Brown, W.B. (1895). An Outline Grammar Of The Deori Chutiya Language. Shillong: Assam Secretariat Printing Office. pp. 75, 84. Returning with his bride to his chosen seat of government, he (Gaurinarayan) sought no further extension of his dominions, bur directed his whole attention to the improvement of what he had acquired and to the consolidation of his power. He built a line of forts along the foot of the hills, probably to restrain the hungry barbarians, his former countrymen; made large tanks and founded temples.
  5. ↑ Barua, K.L An Early History of Kamrupa 1933, p. 271.
  6. ↑ "Though the geographical extent of these rulers' power is not yet known in detail, according to Neog, the present day North Lakhimpur district of Assam, which covers the find sites of most inscriptions, perhaps formed a part of their political dominion. If architectural continuity is admitted between the fortifications in the Sadiya region and the Burai river ruin site, it would be possible to believe that the kingdom of these rulers extended as far as the outer limit of Darrang district, in the westernmost extent of which Ahom conquerors settled the vanquished Chutiyas in the early part of the sixteenth century." (Shin 2020:52–53)
  7. ↑ Nath, D. (2013). "State Formation in the Peripheral Areas: A Study of the Chutiya Kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley". In Bhattacharjee, J. B.; Syiemlieh, David R. (eds.). Early States in North East India. Delhi: Regency Publications. pp. 24–49. ISBN 978-81-89233-86-0. In the main, however, their territory was confined to the river valleys of the Suvansiri, Brahmaputra, Lohit, and the Dihing and hardly extended to the hills at its zenith.
  8. ↑ Guha, Amalendu (1983). "The Ahom Political System: An Enquiry into the State Formation Process in Medieval Assam (1228–1714)". Social Scientist. 11 (12): 3–34. doi:10.2307/3516963. JSTOR 3516963. Suhungmung followed an expansionist policy and annexed Panbari of Habung in 1512, which was until then a Chutiya dependency.
  9. ↑ Neog, Maheswar (1977). "Light on a Ruling Dynasty of Arunachal Pradesh in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 58/59: 813–820. JSTOR 41691751. The Chutiya kings known from these copper-plate grants include Satyanarayana, Dharmanarayana, Lakshminarayana and Durlabhnarayana, whose inscriptions belong to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
  10. ↑ "Itanagar Capital Complex". Arunachalpradesh.nic.in. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  11. ↑ Eastern gate, the highest point of the fort, is heavily damaged one. Built on stone masonry, this gate overlooks Doimukh in the Dikrong valley."(Tada 2011:119)
  12. ↑ (Hannay 1848:461–470)
  13. ↑ (Hannay 1848:461–471)
  14. ↑ (Tada 2011:119)
  15. ↑ (Tada 2011:163–170)
  16. ↑ (Tada 2011:xii)
  17. ↑ (Hannay 1848:460–461)
  18. ↑ (Baruah 2007:437)
  19. ↑ "A large number of these stones were found to contain marks, cut deeply into the sandstone... identical marks were found also in the marked stones found by Hannay in the fort near Sadiya assigned to Bhismak. It is therefore evident that the ruins near Sadiya and those on the banks of the Burai river can be assigned to the same period...The dynasty is evidently the line of Chutia kings who assumed the surname Pala." (Barua 1933:271)
  20. ↑ "Though the geographical extent of these rulers' power is not yet known in detail, according to Neog, the present-day North Lakhimpur district of Assam, which covers the find sites of most inscriptions, perhaps formed a part of their political dominion. If architectural continuity is admitted between the fortifications in the Sadiya region and the Burai river ruin site, it would be possible to believe that the kingdom of these rulers extended as far as the outer limit of Darrang district, to the westernmost extent of which Ahom conquerors settled the vanquished Chutiyas in the early part of the sixteenth century." (Shin 2020:52–53)
  21. ↑ (Neog 2008:57)
  22. ↑ "It is supposed to have been written in 1586 saka (1664 AD)"(Neog 1980:29)
  23. ↑ Maheswar Neog states that the Adi-charita, ascribed to Madhavadeva, has created much ill feeling among the Vaisnavas of Assam, and has been denounced by the more considerate section of sattra pontiffs and literary men alike.
  24. ↑ Sarma, Satyendranath (1985). Madhavadeva (PDF). Makers of Indian Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 25. Besides the above genuine works, a few more apocryphal works by later writers, viz., Adi-carita, Amulyaratna, Guptamani, and Guptastir are ascribed to Madhavadeva. The language, style and contents of these works clearly expose the spuriousness of these works.
  25. ↑ Saikia, Baburam (2021). "Marginalisation, Revolt and Adaptation: On Changing the Mayamara Tradition". Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics. 15 (1): 85–102. doi:10.2478/jef-2021-0006. the present Mayamoria gosain ... disowns the Adi Carit-Puthi as a forged document written by a third-rate poet and not by Madhavadeva"; "Neog ... puts this manuscript in the category of spurious account in his analysis.
  26. ↑ Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, p.190-191, Pratappura, capital city of Ramachandra was located near Biswanath, in the vicinity of Agnigarh.
  27. ↑ The Uma-tumani Rock inscription has the word Pratapapuradhikari indicating Pratappura to be located nearby.
  28. ↑ Neog, Maheswar, "Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Faith and Movement in Assam: Śaṅkaradeva and His Times, pp.51-52
  29. ↑ Bhuyan, Suryya Kumar, ed. (1930). Kamrupar Buranji: Or an Account of Ancient Kamarupa and a History of the Mogul Conflicts with Assam and Cooch Behar, up to A.D. 1682. Gauhati: Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Assam. pp. 2–4. Retrieved 22 June 2026.
  30. ↑ Gait, Edward A. (1926). A History of Assam. Calcutta and Simla: Thacker, Spink & Co. p. 18. It is not certain where Arimatta ruled but most accounts place his kingdom in Lower Assam. His capital is said to have been at the Baidargarh, near Betna in Kamrup, where a high embankment forming a square, each side of which is about four miles long, is still in existence. He was attacked by a king named Phengua, of the house of Kamatapur, who advanced with an army of Meches and Koches, armed with bows and arrows, and threw up an embankment ten miles west of the Baidargarh; this embankment is in the Dhumdhuma Mauza and is still known as Phenguagarh.
  31. ↑ Neog, Dimbeswar (1947). Introduction to Assam. pp. 72, 74. Like the authorship, the historicity of Adi charita is doubtful. As the composition seems to lack the serenity and classicism of Madhawadew, the accounts also appear to be mainly based on legends and popular traditions, and as such are less than authentic. Arimatta himself is at best a legendary figure.
  32. ↑ Gait, Edward A. (1926). A History of Assam. Calcutta and Simla: Thacker, Spink & Co. p. 19. Many legends cluster round Arimatta, but it would serve no useful purpose to discuss them further, as it is quite impossible to unravel the truth from the various conflicting stories that are current amongst the people.
  33. ↑ Neog, Dimbeswar (1947). Introduction to Assam. p. 72. The Arimatta legends are so hopelessly divergent that it will simply be a wild goose chase here to make an attempt to reconcile them.
  34. ↑ (Tada 2011:118)
  35. ↑ (Tada 2011:118–120)
  36. ↑ (Tada 2011:119)
  37. ↑ (Tada 2011:119)
  38. ↑ (Tada 2011:119)
  39. ↑ (Tada 2011:119–120)

References

[edit]
  • Barua, Kanak Lal (1933). Early History of Kamarupa. Gauhati: The Author.
  • Hannay, S. F. (1848). "Notes on Ancient Temples and other remains in the vicinity of Sudiya, Upper Assam". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 17 (198). Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal.
  • Baruah, Swarnalata (2007). Chutia Jatir Buranji.
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