Ahom dynasty

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The Baro-Bhuyans were warrior chiefs and landlords (zamindars) of medieval Assam and Bengal who maintained a loose independent confederacy. In times of aggression by external powers, they generally cooperated in defending and expelling the aggressor. In times of peace, they maintained their respective sovereignty. In the presence of a strong king, they offered their allegiance. Baro denotes the number twelve, but in general there were more than twelve chiefs or landlords, and the word baro meant many.[1] In Assam, the Baro-Bhuyans occupied the region west of the Kachari kingdom in the south bank of the Brahmaputra river, and west of the Chutiya kingdom in the north bank. They were instrumental in defending against aggressors from Bengal, especially in defeating the remnant of Alauddin Husain Shah's administration after 1498. They also resisted the emergence of the Koch dynasty but failed. Subsequently, they were squeezed between the Kachari kingdom and the Kamata kingdom in the south bank and slowly overpowered by the expanding Ahom kingdom in the north. In Bengal, the Bhuyans put up strong resistance to the Mughals during the time of Akbar and Jahangir. During the interregnum between Afghan rule and the rise of Mughal power in Bengal, various parts of Bengal passed to the control of several military chiefs, Bhuiyans and zamindars. They jointly resisted Mughal expansion and ruled their respective territories as independent or semi-independent chiefs. There was no central control, or if there was any, it was nominal. One group of scholars says the term Baro-Bhuiyan mean exactly twelve Bhuiyans or chiefs. They applied the term Baro-Bhuiyans to those who fought for the freedom of their motherland. This view was later modified by another group of scholars to say that only those Bhuiyans who fought against Mughal aggression were known as Baro-Bhuiyans. Even the fighters against the Mughals were many more than twelve, so this group also failed to identify the Baro-Bhuyans. In recent years, the question of identification of the Baro-Bhuyans has been studied afresh and they have been identified more or less satisfactorily. Modern scholars have found that the Baro-Bhuyans flourished during the chaotic period of Afghan rule and the period of the conquest of Bengal by the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir. So the Baro-Bhuyans received proper treatment from the Mughal historians, Abul Fazl, the author of the Akbarnamah, and Mirza Nathan, the author of the Baharistan-i-Ghaibi. Both of them used the numerical word ithna-ashara (twelve), to denote the Baro-Bhuyans; it means that the word 'Baro-Bhuiyans' was not a vague term, rather it gives the exact number of the Bhuiyans. They also categorically say that the twelve Bhuiyans(Baro-Bhuiyans) were people of Bhati and they rose to power in Bhati. But the identification of Bhati is not an easy task. On the basis of the confusing statements of the European writers, previous scholars also were in confusion about the identification of Bhati. The Baro-Bhuiyans fought against the Mughals in the reigns of emperors Akbar and Jahangir, and they submitted within a few years of Jahangir's accession. So Bhati of the Baro-Bhuyans may be identified with the help of the Mughal histories, mainly the Akbarnama, the Ain-e-Akbari and the Baharistan-i-Ghaibi. In Bengal the word Bhati generally means low land and the entire low-lying area of Bengal is Bhati. It is a riverine country, and most of it remains inundated for more than half of the year; the mighty rivers the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and their numerous branches wash and water the whole of eastern and southern Bengal. Modern scholars have, therefore, suggested that different low-lying areas of Bengal should be identified with Bhati. Some say that the whole of the low-lying tract from the Bhagirathi to the Meghna is Bhati, some others include in Bhati Hijli, Jessore, Comilla and Bakerganj. Keeping in view the theatre of warfare between the Baro-Bhuyans and the Mughals, and on the basis of the details of the warfare as given in the Akbarnama and the Baharistan-i-Ghaibi the limits of Bhati, where the Baro-Bhuyans flourished and rose to power, may be determined as the area bounded by Ichamati River in the west, the Ganges in the south, the kingdom of Tripura in the east and Alapsingh pargana (in greater Mymensingh) stretching northeast to Baniachang (in greater Sylhet) in the North. So the low-lying area of the greater districts of Dhaka, Mymensingh, Tripura and Sylhet, watered and surrounded by the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna and their numerous branches constituted Bhati in the days of Akbar and Jahangir.