Pre-Ahom Roots and the Medieval State in Assam: A Reply

Guha, Amalendu

doi:10.2307/3517005

Cited by 3 publications

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“…They had therefore some building blocks even there to pick up and start with. Later, as they expanded south-ward and westward, they became increasingly exposed to this heritage 12 .…”

Section: The Ahom Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Political fragmentation might have had in a way, started earlier. But, it was only in the 13th century when the breakdown of the central state was complete (Guha, 1984). Further, in his Enquiry into the State Formation Process in Medieval Assam Guha tries to explain the emergence of property relations within a tribe and that of a state organization per se and also attempts to identify stages in the relevant political development and examine specifically how the Tai-Ahoms -a segment of the Afao-Shan sub-tribe of the Tais of South-East Asia-organized themselves politically in the course of their settling down in Upper Assam after 1228 AD.…”

Section: The Ahom Statementioning

confidence: 99%

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From State to Stateless and Then Coming Back to State Again: The Curious Case of Koch Bihar/Cooch Behar/Kamatapur

Ray¹

2022

SCDI

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The fundamental concern in attempting to understand the state in India or the Indian state can be said to revolve around a shift, a transfer or shifting of the state from the Mughals to the Britishers. Various attempts have been made to understand or examine this shift from Mughal sovereignty and governance to that of British forms. By means of this examination, in fact, attempts have been made to understand fundamentally the very idea of ‘state’ in an Indian or more so in an Asian context. This paper will focus upon the shifting of the state in the Bengal borderland or frontiers and its implications on smaller, native (princely) and peripheral states. In other words, beginning with the bigger, major, fundamental concerns of state in India, I will in this paper eventually delve into the concerns of smaller, minor states, standing in the periphery of Indian territory and in the frontiers of Asian nation-states. In the context of African Tribal societies, Aidon Southal invented a new form of state called the ‘segmentary state’. Burton Stein, while working on the pre-colonial state including the Mughal state, elaborates the concept of ‘segmentary state’ by means of the case examples of the Southern states of Chola and Vijayanagara. Taking the clue from Southal, Stein asserts that the Chola and Vijayanagara regime or these states were not states in terms of real power but, it didn’t stop them from being a state nonetheless- although only nominally. In other words, the concept of ‘segmentary state’ focuses upon states within a state. It aims to understand the nature of state from the perspective of the periphery. The analysis and approach to understand the state from the perspective of the periphery differs fundamentally from the analysis or approach which seeks to understand the state from above or from the mainland. In this paper, I will elaborate this, first by an exploration of the state of Bengal, then, moving towards the periphery through an exploration of the Ahom state and finally, I will solely focus on the case of the Koch Bihar/Cooch Behar/Kamatapur state, which this study considers as a peculiar case from the periphery of the periphery.

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“…They had therefore some building blocks even there to pick up and start with. Later, as they expanded south-ward and westward, they became increasingly exposed to this heritage 12 .…”

Section: The Ahom Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Ahom Statementioning

confidence: 99%

From State to Stateless and Then Coming Back to State Again: The Curious Case of Koch Bihar/Cooch Behar/Kamatapur

Ray¹

2022

SCDI

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“…Origin and evolution of the indigenous landraces have been shaped by an interplay between genetic and socio-cultural history, and is often difficult to trace due to lack of sufficient information. Here, certain anecdotes on Joha and Chakhao are available from the ancient texts describing past agriculture, such as, the Sukhapa and Ahom dynasties (1228 A.D.) (Guha, 1967(Guha, , 1984Bhuyan, 1974) had introduced late maturing but high yielding sali rice varieties (Guha, 1982;Hamilton and Bhuyan, 1987). Joha is also classified traditionally under sali rice category (Das et al, 2010).…”

Section: Evolutionary and Cultural Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Population genetics analyses of North-East Indian indigenous rice landraces revealed divergent history and alternate origin of aroma in aus group

Chakraborty

Ray²

2019

Plant Genet. Resour.

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The rice-based agriculture of the Indian subcontinent has been interwoven in the rich socio-cultural fabric of the country. Of which, bio-culturally diverse North-Eastern states nurture thousands of landraces with poorly tapped agronomic traits. In the present study, 27 standard microsatellite data from 171 rice landraces from six states were analysed to understand their genetic diversity and population structure. Further, combining with a global dataset, we determined subpopulation identity using both model-based and multivariate analyses to uncover their history. We found moderate to high genetic diversity and high differentiation [standardized G”ST = 0.57]. The AMOVA partitioned overall variance into within population (75%) and among population (25%). The landraces from six states remained at various degrees of differentiation (pairwise FST = 0.09–0.41). We have detected a preponderance of aus-type in a majority of aromatic landraces. Rests were japonica and admixed with a little representation of indica. The presence of aromatic aus probably implied assimilation into local culture from the primary aus growing region of Bangladesh and India. Likewise, the arrival of japonica may stem from the exchange of goods among neighbouring dynasties via Southern and Southwestern Silk routes. The shared ancestry may reflect a merger of two ancient cultures. Our analyses also uncovered the existence of aus-type short and medium grain aromatic rice predicting an origin of aroma in aus subpopulation. Collectively, it demonstrated the diversity and divergent history of the rice landraces have been shaped by various socio-cultural interactions operative over time and space.

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Historical Myths or Mythological History: A Fresh Approach to Understand the History of Assam

Sarma¹

2014

SACI

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This paper carries out a critical review of the trends of historical writings in Assam. The historiographical study reveals that the beginning of the historical phase was, in fact, late in the North East region. Moreover, in many of these historical writings, the importance of the local histories of the communities of the region was ignored. The author highlights the fact that a panIndian history for the region may not be authentic enough to understand the cultural dynamics of the complex society of the Northeast. The author also focuses on corroborating 'proper' historical source material for reconstructing the history of the region rather than deriving inferences from mythology and legends. However, the importance of recent trends in historiography such as selective utilisation of oral traditions, folklores and memory studies has been emphasised. An alternative and more precise periodisation of the historical phase has been provided which does not, however, project any clear marker between periods and eras but emphasises on slow and steady transformations. Importance of archaeological sources and material evidence has been kept in mind while deriving periodical divisions. Relooking at the history of the Koches, Kacharis has been emphasised.

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Pre-Ahom Roots and the Medieval State in Assam: A Reply

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

From State to Stateless and Then Coming Back to State Again: The Curious Case of Koch Bihar/Cooch Behar/Kamatapur

From State to Stateless and Then Coming Back to State Again: The Curious Case of Koch Bihar/Cooch Behar/Kamatapur

Population genetics analyses of North-East Indian indigenous rice landraces revealed divergent history and alternate origin of aroma in aus group

Historical Myths or Mythological History: A Fresh Approach to Understand the History of Assam

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