Economic and cultural history of Assam: A glimpse

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Economic activities drive the social, political, and cultural history of mankind. Materialistic necessity is directly related to the economy. Now that Assam is a landlocked place, people are deprived of coastal trading or sea route assimilation with alien people or customs. But during the reign of the Varman dynasty until the fall of Palas (up to the 12th century), the Kamrupa empire was extended to near the Bay of Bengal. So, the people of Assam were then beneficiaries of marine resources. The mediaeval economic renaissance of Assam was centred around some of the most common commodities.

Salt: In mediaeval Assam, the most essential and fancy commodity of the privileged sections was salt. It was a technical process to extract it from the ground. The product was also politically and strategically important. Salt production was directly related to contemporary politics of localities having salt well. The area was scattered across former Kachari Kingdom comprising the modern Dima Hasao district and the greater Twensang area of Nagaland.

Mysterious Chemkhar is one of the oldest virgin villages in Assam, situated 30 kilometres east of Maibong. People in this village are unwilling to mingle with others; therefore, this is a kind of virgin village. Most of the Maximum Ponds were found in Chemkhar village. The strategic position of Chemkhar is like that of Indian Kashmir, being located on the peak of a hill. The Kachari king deputed brave Chemcha warriors to protect against possible Naga aggression. Moreover, for salt ponds, Chemkhar was the highest revenue-earning place in the Kachari Kingdom.

After the fall of Maibong to the Ahom in the first decade of the 18th century, the place did not remain a safe haven for the Kacharis, and they moved to the present-day Cachar (Silchar) of the Barak Valley in 1750. Eventually, Chemcha of Chemkhar remained a disconnected island and contributed to forming a separate community, even cutting ties with their main tribe, Dimasa. They had to fight many fierce battles with the Angami Nagas with their multi-layered barrier, which made them a secluded ethnic group. Interestingly, there was a strict law of the tribe: nobody could intermarry or leave the village. So, outsiders became very curious about this village and began to call it a village of mystery.

Later, many foreign merchants in the eighteenth century joined the salt trade. Prominent amongst them are Jean Baptise Chevalier from France and Danielle Rous from Germany. Meanwhile, some elite Assamese brokers were engaged for the collection and provided logistics support for the salt trading.

BRASS-METAL: Besides being a prominent indigenous industry in Assam for economic self-dependence, the use of brass metal is part of the socio-religious culture of Assamese. The alloy is prepared by fusing copper and zinc at seventy and thirty percent, respectively. It is properly not known the exact origin of brass metal. Its transitional and developmental period in Assam is from the use of clay to metal. Brass metal was also used in the pre-Ahom period to make bells and other religious utensils in temples. During the neo-Vaishnavite revolution, various musical instruments like cymbals, bells, etc. were made from bass metal.

Brass metal items became a kind of royal insignia whenever (BHOGJARA, MAIHANG, BATA) were made from it. (All are different kinds of containers or bowls made for Ahom royals.) Brass metal plates were available during the Varman dynasty in the 3rd and 4th centuries, too. But various shapes similar to those of Southeast Asia flourished during the Ahom rule. Under the influence of Southeast Asian countries, popular utensils were manufactured with a stand at the bottom. Even GACHA and CHAKI, small lamps and chandeliers of the Ahom era, were made with stands and kept before the altar, or sanctum sanctorum.

Generally, household utensils, even for common people, were mainly various bowls made of brass metal, notwithstanding the availability of cheap steel, ceramic, and silver materials. For many, the beauty of Assam lies in the Assamese metallurgy.

Brass metal utensils used in formal social occasions show much gravity. It is a lower Assam-based industry of Sarthebari, which is adorable by the entire Assam. Moreover, one professional class was born to manufacture brass metal materials, namely, KAHAR. Offering food in brass metal utensils is one kind of Assamese ethnic aristocracy across religions until today.

APPAREL OF ASSAM: A human’s dress or clothing is one of the most vital socio-cultural materials, with utmost economic importance as far as trading and manufacturing are concerned.

With the passage of time, the sericulture industry grew in Assam without a precise date of origin. The first reference to Assam silk was found in Valmiki’s Ramayana. There was a description of a traveller in the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana passing through Kosha-Karanam-bhumi (the country of cocoon rearers) in the east. Later in Kautilya’s Arthashastra, a politico-economic book of the 3rd century BC described ornate silk attire of Assam produced mainly from Suvarnakudyaka (modern undivided Kamrupa). Silkworms feed on leaves. According to Kalika Purana, way back in the tenth century, colourful silk clothes (Muga in Assamese) were used to worship and cover Deities. Dikkarvasini pitha, or Tamreshwari temple Deity of Sadiya under the Chutiya Kingdom, was worshipped and covered with Assamese silk (Muga).

ORIGIN OF SILK: As the majority of Assamese people are of Tibeto-Burman origin, the craft of weaving or knowledge of sericulture came with them from China around 3000 BC. Therefore, the Famous Silk Road, which started in China via Myanmar and connected India through Assam, still exists. Sects of the Bodo-Kachari tribe: Bodo, Dimasa, Rava, Sonowal, Garo, Koch, and Chutiya have introduced the farming of silk of different colours and varieties in Assam. The Northeast corner of Assam was the gateway to silk trade or production and thereafter entered the rest of India. Mongolian people originally called silk sirkek. Indian women’s popular attire, the saree, is said to have degenerated the word siree.

SILK UNDER PALA, CHUTIYA AND AHOM: Three prominent monarchies, namely Pala in the West and Chutiya and Ahom in the East, cultivated silkworms for cloth production. As per historical records, Chutiya King in 1524 AD gifted MUGA (Golden coloured clothes) to Ahom monarch as a peace pact. That was probably the first official introduction of Muga clothes to Ahom monarchs and royals. The Ahom king and ministers were impressed; therefore, they hired many Chutiya weavers to weave dresses for royal households. Until the sixteenth century, Ahom used to wear the traditional black clothes of Yunnan province and China. Like Assamese traditional culture, BIHU, Assamese MUGA, and PAAT clothes got royal recognition and patronage to become popular quickly.

Gradually, silk gained popularity in various kingdoms. But earlier, even before Chutiyas, Dharma Pala (1035–1060), the king of the Pala dynasty of Pragajyotishpur, invited many weaver families from the famous Tantikuchi of Barpeta to settle in Sualkuchi. Very quickly, Sualkuchi grew into the Manchester of the East.

NATH JOGI AND THE SILK INDUSTRY: One very confusing idea or law prevalent in the Ahom era was that anybody without government or social restriction could raise Muga larvae (Antheraea assama) to feed on Machilus bombycina. But raising the larvae of PAT clothes feeding on white mulberry plant or nuni leaves was strictly prohibited.

Only the kings and royals had the right to wear pat clothes during the Ahom reign. Violators were awarded capital punishment. The Ahom monarchs applied a skillful strategy not to allow the common people to rear Pat. Rearing and cutting pat larvae or yarn was exclusively entrusted to Nath communities (Yugi Katonis). The status of the said community was socially lowered, so nobody followed suit. The Nath Yugis were followers and disciples of the preacher Saint Gorakshnath.

Anyway, since the discovery, silk has been a very important material in Assam, radically changing the economy of the agrarian society.

ELEPHANT: The elephant is a symbol of power and prosperity for the Assamese people, with much economic importance. The elephant itself, its ivory, and its bones were treated as precious materials for trading and commerce. A large number of elephants were exported, and some with good qualities were also imported from Sri Lanka and China. The use of elephants for communication, carrying heavy tanks or machine guns in battle, and amusement made them the most valuable asset for trade, on par with other non-living resources.

KALITA, BHUYAN AND KAYASTHA: Kayasthas are mainly accountants in North India. This isn’t a community, actually. Most Kalitas did accountancy in Assam; therefore, they were known as Kayastha. Both words are synonymous. These brilliant Arayan people were originally mercenaries or warlords as well. Therefore, some Bhuyans write Rai Bhuyan.

The Bhuyans became politically powerful during the power vacuum in the thirteenth century in central Assam when Sandhya, the Pala king, moved his capital from Guwahati to western Kamatapur, or North Bengal. They have maintained an agrarian, feudalistic economy in their autonomous region.

CURRENCY IN ASSAM: Koch King Naranarayan first launched the Narayani mudra (Narayani coin) in the sixteenth century, almost one century before the Ahom coin launched by Jayadhvaj Singha in the seventeenth century. Therefore, merchant Bhuyans prefer to stay in Koch territory to continue their trade instead of bartering.

SATRA (Monastery) ECONOMY: The Koch Kingdom didn’t have overt ethnic racism like Ahom’s. Many Bhuyans got high positions in the king’s military department, and some achieved positions as regional rulers as well. Saints Sankerdev and Madhavdev (both are Bhuyans), who pioneered the neo-vaishnavite religion, established many zatras (monasteries) for the stay of disciples, devotees, conferences, etc. To meet the expenses of devotees, besides royal patronage, they got help in kind from different quarters. After Sankerdev, xatras emerged as strong parallel institutions and economies.

EXPORT-IMPORT TRADING: After the accession of Gadadhar Singh to the throne in 1681, Ahom conquered the undivided Kamrupa from the Mughals. Being under Koch and Mughal rule, the area never came under the village organisation polity of Ahom’s Momai Tamuly. This led to the development of a merchant class in that region. On the border of the Ahom Kingdom at Hadira Chowki (near the border of Bongaigaon and Borpeta), an Ahom-controlled trading office was established. That monitored the business, both in kind and in currency.

Interestingly, no foreign merchants were allowed to enter the Ahom Kingdom. Corrupt Ahom officer Duwariya Baruah was the de facto head of the business. He supervised the exchange of goods and payments on both sides, swelling his pocket with black money.

Major IMPORTED ITEMS: Salt, rice, ghee, sugar, gems and jewellery, glassware, spice, jute or muslin clothes, etc.

Major EXPORTED ITEMS: Brass metal utensils, Pat/Muga clothes and yarn, ivory, la, cotton, garlic, etc.

The liberal economic policies of the Mughals and Kochs in Ahom’s newly acquired Kamrupa already gave birth to a strong Kamrupian merchant class, which virtually controlled the business of Ahom Kingdom. Besides restrictions, after 1751, many Indian and foreign businesspersons, including Jean Baptiste Chevalier, visited the Ahom court.

Although business was in full swing, very weak tax collection measures with dishonest Ahom officials and Assamese traders contributed very little to the king’s treasury. Thus, the Ahom Kingdom gradually became weak from all sides, and through the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826, the modern age was started by the British occupation.