Koch Kingdom Koch dynasty
Kingdom
← 1515–1947 →
Flag of Cooch Behar
Historical map of Cooch Behar
Capital	Chikana Kamatapur
Language(s)	Bengali Assamese
Religion	Hinduism
Government	Monarchy
Maharaja	Viswa Singha
	Nara Narayan
	Jagaddipendra Narayan
Historical era	Medieval India
- Established	1515
- Disestablished	1947

Origin of the Koch dynasty, based on the Darrang Raja Vamsavali.^[1]

Cooch Behar Palace.

The Koch dynasty of Assam and Bengal, named after the Koch tribe,^[2] emerged as the dominant ruling house in the Kamata kingdom in 1515 after the fall of the Khen dynasty in 1498. The first of the Koch kings, Viswa Singha and then his sons, Nara Narayan as the subsequent king and Chilarai as the general, soon occupied the western portion of the erstwhile Kamarupa Kingdom as well as some regions of south Assam. The dynasty forked for the first time into two major branches that controlled Koch Bihar and Koch Hajo. Koch Bihar became a vassal of the Mughals, whereas Koch Hajo came under Ahom control and was subsequently absorbed. Koch Bihar became a princely state during British rule and was absorbed after Indian independence. A third branch of this dynasty at Khaspur disappeared into the Kachari kingdom.

History[link]

Historical background[link]

After the fall of the Pala dynasty of Kamarupa, the Kamarupa fractured into differing domains. In the extreme east the Sutiya kingdom emerged on the north bank of Brahmaputra river. The Ahom kingdom emerged in the south bank and to their west was the Kachari kingdom. Further west was the region of the Baro-Bhuyan landlords and still further west was the Kamata kingdom. The last of the Kamata kings before the Koches emerged was Nilambar, who was defeated and whose kingdom was occupied by Alauddin Husain Shah of Gaur in 1498. After the conquest, he left his son Daniyal to rule over and expand the conquered region. He soon came into conflict with the Baro-Bhuyans led by one Harup Narayan of the Brahmaputa valley, and was defeated, captured and executed.^[3]

It was at this historical moment that Bisu, son of a Mech chieftain with a Koch mother emerged as one who could unify different tribal groups and engage the Bara Bhuyans and defeat them to become the sole authority in the erstwhile Kamata region. On coming into power, he assumed the name Viswa Singha.

Beginning of the Koch dynasty[link]

The first ruler of the Koch dynasty was Vishwa Singha, who established himself in 1515 as the ruler of the Kamata kingdom. According to J N Sarkar, Viswa Singha belonged to one of the dominant Koch tribes,^[4] which were a collection of Mongoloid tribes,^[5][6] loosely allied to the Meches, Garos, Tharus and also Dravidians. When Bisu, as Viswa Singha was then known, acquired power, the Brahmins found him out and conferred on him the status of the Kshatriya varna; and the subsequent interaction with Brahmans lead to the Hinduization of his tribesmen.^[7] The earliest known ancestor of Viswa Singha was his father Haria Mandal,^[8] from the Chiknabari village in Goalpara district, the head of the twelve most powerful Mech families. He was married to Jira and Hira, daughters of a Koch chief named Hajo, after whom Koch Hajo was named. Viswa Singha was the son of Haria Mandal and Hira.^[9]

Viswa Singha sought the alliance of tribal chiefs^[10] against the more powerful Baro-Bhuyans and began his campaign around 1509.^[11] Successively, he defeated the Bhuyans of Ouguri, Jhargaon, Karnapur, Phulaguri, Bijni and Pandunath (Pandu, in Guwahati). He was particularly stretched by the Bhuyan of Kanrnapur, and could defeat him only by a stratagem during Bihu. After subjugating the petty rulers, he announced himself the king of Kamata bounded on the east by Barnadi river and on the west by the Karatoya river^[10] in the year 1515.^[12] He moved his capital from Chikana to Kamatapur (also called Kantapur) which is just a few miles southeast of the present-day Cooch Behar town.^[13]

Viswa Singha's two sons, Naranarayan and Shukladhwaj (Chilarai), the king and the commander-in-chief of the army respectively, took the kingdom to its zenith. Nara Narayan made Raghudev, the son of Chilarai, the governor of Koch Hajo, the eastern portion of the country. After the death of Nara Narayan, Raghudev declared independence. The division of the Kamata kingdom into Koch Bihar and Koch Hajo was permanent.

Nara Narayan was impressed by the bhakti saint Srimanta Sankardeva who became a member of his court in the last three years of his life and who established a sattra in the kingdom.

Early history of Cooch Behar[link]

The princely state known as Cooch Behar during the British rule was part of the Kamarupa Kingdom from the 4th to 12th century, ruled by the Varman, Mlechchha and Pala dynasties. From the 12th century, the area became a part of Kamata kingdom, first ruled by the Khen dynasty from their capital at Kamatapur. The most important Khen rulers were Niladhaj (1440-1460), Chakradhaj (1460-1480) and Nilambar (1480-1498) The Khens were an indigenous tribe and they ruled till about 1498 CE when they fell into the trick of Alauddin Hussain Shah, the independent Pathan Sultan of Gour and lost their empire. The new invaders came into conflict with the local Bhuyan chieftains and the Ahom king Suhungmung, and lost control of the region.

After the Muslims left the area there was confusion and commotion in the country. During this time independent Bhuiyans started ruling over small areas. Among these a Koch Bhuiyan named Hajo had two daughters named Jira and Hira. On the other side there was a small territory at Chikna Mountains situated between the Sankosh River and the Champabati River, about 80 kilometers north of Dhubri in the present-day Goalpara District of Assam. This territory was ruled by Haridas Mondal, a Mech chieftain. To establish unity with Chikna, Hajo wedded off his daughters to Chief Haridas Mandal. In due time Jira gave birth to Madan and Chandan while Hira gave birth to Sishu (Sisya Singha) and Bishu (Biswa Singha). Among the four brothers Bishu was the cleverest and strongest.

One day the four brothers were praying to Goddess Bhagwati in a playful mood and they offered one of their friends for sacrifice; it is believed that mysteriously the head of the friend was cut off his body. Turka Kotwal ordered their arrest. Fearing capture they took shelter in the forest.

Later they collected soldiers, elephants and horses and attacked the Turka Kotwal. Madan was killed in the battle; to take revenge Biswa Singha killed Turka Kotwal. To please stepmother Jira, whose son Madan was killed instead of becoming himself the king, Biswa Singha enthroned Chandan as the King. In this way in 1510 the Koch kingdom was started.

Kings[link]

Rulers of undivided Koch kingdom[link]

• Biswa Singha (1515-1540)
• Nara Narayan (1540-1586)

Rulers of Koch Bihar[link]

• Lakshmi Narayan
• Bir Narayan
• Pran Narayan
• Basudev Narayan
• Mahindra Narayan
• Roop Narayan
• Upendra Narayan
• Devendra Narayan
• Dhairjendra Narayan
• Rajendra Narayan
• Dharendra Narayan
• Harendra Narayan
• Shivendra Narayan
• Narendra Narayan
• Nripendra Narayan^[14]
• Rajrajendra Narayan
• Jitendra Narayan (father of Gayatri Devi)
• Jagaddipendra Narayan
• Virajdendra Narayan

Rulers of Koch Hajo[link]

• Raghudev (son of Chilarai, nephew of Nara Narayan)
• Parikshit Narayan

Rulers of Darrang[link]

Parikshit Narayana was attacked by the Mughals stationed at Dhaka in alliance with Lakshmi Narayan of Koch Bihar in 1612. His kingdom Koch Hajo, bounded by Sankosh river in the west and Barnadi river in the east, was occupied by the end of that year. Parikshit Narayan was sent to Delhi for an audience with the Mughal Emperor, but his brother Balinarayan escaped and took refuge in the Ahom kingdom. The region to the east of Barnadi and up to the Bharali river was under the control of some Baro-Bhuyan chieftains, but they were soon removed by the Mughals. In 1615 the Mughals, under Syed Hakim and Syed Aba Bakr, attacked the Ahoms but were repelled back to the Barnadi river. The Ahom king, Prataap Singha, then established Balinarayan as a vassal in the newly acquired region between Barnadi and Bharali rivers, and called it Darrang. Balinarayan's descendants continued to rule the region till it was annexed by the British in 1826.^[15]

• Balinarayan (brother of Parikshit Narayan)
• Mahendra Narayan
• Chandra Narayan
• Surya Narayan
• ...

Rulers of Beltala[link]

• Gaj Narayan (brother of Bali Narayan)
• ...

Rulers of Bijni[link]

The Bijni rulers reigned between the Sankosh and the Manas rivers, the region immediately to the east of Koch Bihar.

• Chandra Narayan (son of Parikshit Narayan)
• Joy narayan
• Shiv Narayan
• Bijoy Narayan
• Mukunda Narayan
• Haridev Narayan
• Indra Narayan
• Amrit Narayan
• Kumud Narayan
• Bhairabendra Narayan

Rulers of Khaspur[link]

• Kamal Narayan (Gohain Kamal, son of Viswa Singha, governor of Khaspur)
• Udita Narayan (declared independence of Khaspur)
• Vijay Singha
• Dhir Singha
• Mahendra Singha
• Ranjit Singha
• Nara Singha
• Bhim Simha (his only issue, daughter Kanchani, married prince Lakshmichandra of Kachari kingdom, and Khaspur merged into the Kachari kingdom.)

Gallery[link]

• 

  Shri Sir Nripendra Narayan, Maharaja of Cooch Behar.

• 

  H.H. Maharaja Shri Sir Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, Maharaja of Cooch-Behar, KCSI, 1913.

• 

  Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan.

Notes[link]

References[link]

Li Qiu (黎球) (d. 911/912^[1][2]) was an army officer who ruled Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi) briefly after assassinating the previously ruler Lu Yanchang in 911, early in the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. He died shortly after taking over Lu's position.

Brief rule of Qian Prefecture[link]

Little is known about Li Qiu's background. What is known is that, as of 911, he carried the title of the commander of the Baisheng Army (百勝軍) under Lu Yanchang the prefect of Qian Prefecture.^[1] (Lu's father Lu Guangchou had carried the title of defender of Baisheng Circuit, so presumably this was a title that Li had carried over from serving under Lu Guangchou.)^[3] That year, with Lu Yanchang's having alienated his army by spending his time on games and hunts, Li assassinated him and took over Qian Prefecture. He also considered killing Lu Guangchou's chief strategist Tan Quanbo, but Tan escaped by claiming that he was retiring due to old age. Emperor Taizu of Later Liang thereafter made Li the defender of Qian Prefecture. Li died soon thereafter and was succeeded by his officer Li Yantu.^[1]

Notes and references[link]

Gregory Allyn Palast
Born	(1952-06-26) June 26, 1952 (age 60) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Author, journalist
Website
GregPalast.com

Gregory Allyn Palast (born June 26, 1952)^[1] is a New York Times-bestselling author^[2] and a freelance journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation^[3] as well as the British newspaper The Observer.^[4] His work frequently focuses on corporate malfeasance but has also been known to work with labor unions and consumer advocacy groups. Notably, he has claimed to have uncovered evidence that Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, along with the ChoicePoint corporation, rigged the ballots during the US Presidential Election of 2000 and again in 2004 when, he argued, the problems and machinations from 2000 continued, and that challenger John Kerry actually would have won if not for disproportional "spoilage" of Democratic votes.^[5]

Palast spoke at a Think Twice conference held at Cambridge University^[6] and lectured at the University of São Paulo.^[7] He lives in New York City. Palast is originally from Los Angeles, and was educated at the University of Chicago,^[8] and eventually earned an MBA.

Selected stories[link]

Presidential elections[link]

Palast's investigation into the Bush family fortunes for his column in The Observer led him to uncover a connection to a company called ChoicePoint. In an October 2008 interview Palast said that before the 2000 Election ChoicePoint "was purging the voter rolls of Florida under a contract with a lady named Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State. They won a contract, a bid contract with the state, with the highest bid."^[9]

After subsequently noticing a large proportion of African-American voters were claiming their names had disappeared from voter rolls in Florida in the 2000 election, Palast launched a full-scale investigation into voter fraud, the results of which were broadcast in the UK by the BBC on their Newsnight^[10] show prior to the 2004 Election. Palast claimed to have obtained computer discs from Katherine Harris' office, which contained caging lists of "voters matched by race and tagged as felons.^[9] "

Palast appeared in the 2003 documentary film, Florida Fights Back! Resisting the Stolen Election, along with Vincent Bugliosi, Former L.A. Deputy D.A. & Author of " The Betrayal of America", and including footage from the 2001 Washington D.C. Voter Rights March^[11] with founder Lou Posner. Palast also appeared in the 2004 documentary Orwell Rolls in His Grave, which focuses on the hidden mechanics of the media.

Palast alleges that Andrés Manuel López Obrador — and not Felipe Calderón — won Mexico's last presidential election.^[12]

In May 2007, Palast said he'd received 500 emails that former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove exchanged through an account supplied by the Republican National Committee. Palast says the emails show a plan to target likely Democratic voters with extra scrutiny over their home addresses, and he also believes Rove's plan was a factor in the firing of U.S. Attorneys.^[13]

After Palast was invited by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to appear on his Air America talk show to discuss, among other things, election fraud, the pair teamed up to find out if democracy was in a better state in 2008. In their report, which was published in October 2008 in Rolling Stone, they concluded that the 2008 Election had already been stolen. "If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls -- they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering", Palast and Kennedy summarized.^[14]

To combat the extensive acts of voter suppression that Palast and Kennedy uncovered, the duo launched a campaign called Steal Back Your Vote,^[15] which features a website and free downloadable voter guide / adult comic book.

Long Island Lighting Company[link]

In 1988, Palast directed a U.S. civil racketeering investigation into the nuclear power plant builder Long Island Lighting Company. A jury awarded the plaintiffs US$4.8 billion; however, New York's chief federal judge reversed the verdict. The racketeering charges stemmed from an accusation that LILCO filed false documents in order to secure rate increases. LILCO sought a dismissal of these charges on the grounds that Suffolk County lacked authority under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and that the allegations of a history of racketeering did not qualify as a continuing criminal enterprise.^[16]

[edit] Exxon Valdez

Palast has also taken issue with the official story behind the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, claiming the sobriety of the Valdez's captain was not an issue in the accident. According to Palast the main cause of the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 was not human error, but an Exxon decision not to fix the ship's radar in order to save money. The Raytheon Raycas radar system would not have detected Bligh Reef itself - as radar, unlike sonar, is incapable of detecting objects under the waterline of a ship. However the radar system would have detected the "radar reflector", placed on the next rock inland from Bligh Reef for the purpose of keeping boats on course via radar.

Palast argues the original owners of the land, the local Alaska Natives tribe, took only one dollar in payment for the land other than a promise not to pollute it and spoil their fishing ground.

UK "LobbyGate" Scandal[link]

In 1998, working as an undercover reporter for The Observer, Palast, posing as a US businessman with ties to Enron, caught on tape two Labour party insiders, Derek Draper and Jonathan Mendelsohn, boasting about how they could sell access to government ministers, obtain advance copies of sensitive reports, and create tax breaks for their clients.^[17]

Draper denied the allegations.^[18] At Prime Minister's Question Time July 8, 1998 British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that all the specific claims had been investigated and found groundless "every allegation made in The Observer has been investigated and found to be untrue".^[19]

Vulture funds[link]

Starting in 2007 Palast published a series of investigations on what aid groups and investors call "vulture funds." Vulture funds are a private equity or hedge funds where companies or people buy the debt of poor countries and sue in courts to recover the funds, often at the expense of aid and debt relief. Prime Minister Gordon Brown commented on the practices saying "We particularly condemn the perversity where Vulture Funds purchase debt at a reduced price and make a profit from suing the debtor country to recover the full amount owed - a morally outrageous outcome".^[20]

In 2011, the UK made permanent the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010, which severely restricts the activities of vulture funds in the UK.^[21]

[edit] Newsnight

Since 2000, Greg Palast has made more than a dozen films for the BBC programme Newsnight with the Investigations Producer Meirion Jones, which have been broadcast in the UK and worldwide. In addition to the films on US elections they have investigated oil companies, the Iraq War, the coup against Hugo Chávez, and the vulture funds which target the poorest countries.

Alternative Ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[link]

Following the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the seven part series by JK Rowling, Palast released an alternative ending to the series, as told to him by Rowling.^[22] Differences in this ending to the one that made it into the book include Voldemort reuniting with his parents, Harry Potter getting a post at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry's wife permanently transforming into a bird. Neither JK Rowling nor her affiliates have made any claim regarding the validity of this article.

Criticism[link]

In An Open Letter to Greg Palast on Peak Oil^[23] Richard Heinberg offers friendly criticism of Palast who conflates the "amount of oil left" with "peak (maximal) flow rates" for oil, the latter being key to Peak Oil.

Left-wing MP George Galloway also criticised Palast by claiming he "conflates meetings, truths and half-truths, statements taken out of context to produce a toxic smear which would be actionable in the country he claims to work in" ^[24]

Bibliography[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Greg Palast

Books[link]

• The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. London: Pluto Press. 2002. ISBN 0-452-28391-4. 
• Democracy and Regulation. London: Pluto. 2002. ISBN 0-7453-1943-2. 
• Armed Madhouse. New York, NY: Dutton. 2006. ISBN 0-525-94968-2. ^[25]
• Vultures' Picnic. New York: Dutton. 2011. ISBN 978-0-525-95207-7. ^[26]

Films[link]

• American Blackout
• Big Easy to Big Empty [Part 1],^[27] Part 2^[28]
• Bush Family Fortunes^[29][30]
• The Election Files^[31][32]
• Palast Investigates^[33][34]

Newsnight[link]

• "Vulture Funds attack Liberia 2010"^[35]
• "Vulture Funds attack Zambia 2007"^[36]
• "Bush and the Vultures 2007"^[37]
• "US Election 2008 (2008)"^[38]
• "Tim Griffin (2007)"^[39]
• "US Election 2004 (2004)"^[40]
• "US Election 2000 (2001)"^[41]
• "Bush and the Bin Ladens (2001)"^[42]
• "Bush dances with Enron (2001)"^[43]
• "Chevron and Ecuador (2007)"^[44]
• "Secret US plans for Iraq's oil (2005)"^[45]
• "Iraq - Jay Garner's story (2004)^[46]
• "Chavez and Oil (2006)"^[47]
• "Chavez and the Coup (2002)^[48]
• "Stiglitz (2001)"^[49]
• "Microsoft (2000)"^[50]

See also[link]

• 2004 United States election voting controversies
• International Monetary Fund
• World Bank
• World Trade Organization

References[link]

External links[link]

• GregPalast.com - 'The Writings of Greg Palast' (official website)
• GregPalastOffice Greg Palast's YouTube page
• Election 2004 Shoplifting the Presidency? - interview on Democracy Now!
• Scoop.co.nz - 'OPEC & The Economic Conquest Of Iraq', Greg Palast
• New York Inquirer Interview with Greg Palast
• Palast article 'On the 2006 Mid-Term Elections'
• "A Sleeper Cell of Rove-Bots" - May 24, 2007 interview
• Greg Palast Tracks Vulture Funds Preying on African Debt - video report by Democracy Now!
• "Greg Palast "Vulture's Picnic"". C-Span. December 16, 2011. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/200266&timeline. Retrieved February 4, 2012.