A Sketch of Assam: With some account of the Hill Tribes

by Major John Butler

A few months after this, a reaction took place. The Assamese hearing of the indignities their king had suffered, and that Chunder Deka, a younger brother of the Bor Deka, had actually struck the king three blows with a cane for sitting in his presence when he visited him in his confinement, they determined on expelling the Muttucks from their country, either by force or stratagem. Numerous chiefs and others readily entered into the spirit of the conspiracy. A grand fete was to be given at the Bihoo festival in March 1769–70 A.D.; Rajhan Mooran and the Muttuck chiefs were to be invited; and the Assamese were to attend with arms concealed under their dress. Mogolee Jiekee Muneeporee,[2] Queen both of Rajeswar Sing and Luckme Sing, whom Rajhan Mooran had taken unto himself, was to preside and be the principal agent in the accomplishment of the project. She was to persuade Rajhan Mooran to accompany her to the dance, and when there, she was, if possible by some subterfuge, to obtain possession of his sword, which he constantly wore; and if his attention could be attracted to the dance she was to cut him down, which would be the signal for the Assamese to fall upon and slaughter the Muttucks. This diabolical plot, from the unanimity and secresy of the conspirators, was executed with the most perfect success. The Queen, who had obtained considerable influence over Rajhan Mooran, without difficulty induced him to place his sword in her hand, that he might, as she said, more easily arrange his dress, which she had artfully managed somewhat to displace. While in the act of stooping down, the Queen dexterously stepped behind him, and with one blow on the hinder part of the thigh completely disabled him. The conspirators, anxiously expecting the signal, instantly came up and put an end to his existence. The Assamese then fell on the remaining unarmed Muttucks, and a dreadful massacre ensued.

The conspirators, having successfully carried through their plot against Rajhan Mooran and the principal Muttuck chief, proceeded to the residence of the Bor Deka Ramakant, the usurper; his father, brothers, women, and children, were, with all the principal parties, captured; but Ramakant, on hearing of the death of Rajhan Mooran, had made his escape from the capital. He was, however, seized near Bet-barree and brought back to pay the forfeit of his ambition and rebellion. Luckme Sing was immediately released from imprisonment and again placed on his throne. The first order issued by the king after his restoration, was for the extermination of the Muttucks. The usurper Ramakant Bor Deka, and his brother Chunder Deka, as well as the Muttuck Gosain their father, were tied to the legs of fierce, newly caught elephants, and ignominiously dragged round the city, assailed with mud and filth and every kind of indignity that an infuriated, relentless mob, intoxicated with triumph, could inflict; and to close the scene they suffered the cruel and disgraceful death of impalement. The Muttuck chiefs and their followers were everywhere hunted down like wild beasts, and put to death: neither men, women, nor children were spared. In fact, such was the animosity of the Assamese against the Muttucks, for the time, that they seemed bereft of all feelings of mercy or compassion. Vast numbers of the Muttucks died of hunger in the jungles, and an incalculable number perished by the sword of the insatiate populace.

Luckme Sing, being now under no farther apprehensions for the safety of himself or throne, richly rewarded the actors in the late tragedy with rank and wealth: and thus terminated the first rebellion of the Muttucks.

In 1784 the Moa Mareyas again rebelled, and having expelled the Rajah Goureenath they proceeded to place two others upon the Guddee, or throne, one named Bhurt Sing as Rajah of Rungpore or Upper Assam, the other Surbamend (the father of Malebar Bursenaputtee, who died in 1839) as Rajah of Mooran or Muttuck. Both these chiefs marked their rule by establishing a mint, and some of their coins are to be met with at the present day. Being driven from Upper Assam, the Rajah Goureenath solicited the aid of the British Government; and his request being acceded to, Captain Welsh was sent with one or two battalions, in 1794, A.D. Having taken Rungpore, Goureenath was replaced on the Guddee; but Captain Welsh did not penetrate into the Muttuck country. The next Rajah, Kumalepur, raised two corps of Hindoostanees, armed and disciplined in the English fashion, and ordered them to undertake the conquest of Muttuck; but although successful in some degree, they were unable to obtain permanent possession, owing to the harassing mode of warfare pursued by the Bursenaputtee, who retired to his fastnesses. However, the struggle was at length terminated by his agreeing to pay an annual tribute in the shape of elephants, Moongah silk, &c. It is asserted by the Assamese at Rungpore and Jorehath that, at this period, the Bursenaputtee agreed to pay a tribute of 10,000 rupees; but that chief positively denied this to the Political Agent, and it is believed there is no record in existence of such a sum, or even part of it, being paid: though the acknowledgment of the Rajah of Assam is undeniable. As regards the Muttucks, the statements of the people connected with the late Court of Assam, and the followers of Doorga throughout the province, ought to be received with a great deal of caution; for both classes are animated by a bitter spirit of hatred, occasioned by the twofold conquest and plunder of their capital; and the temporary triumph of a rival sectarian party still rankles in their minds.

It is difficult to ascertain what was the precise status of the Bursenaputtee in the distracted reigns of Chunderkant and Poorunder Sing. It is said that the usual tribute was paid, but this is denied by the other party; we presume, therefore, that in these weak and divided times the Muttucks were nearly independent. When the Burmese invaded the country, the Bursenaputtee, at their requisition, afforded them supplies in labour and provisions, but no aid in troops or money; and they, therefore, made no attempt to seize his possessions. On the conquest of Assam by the British Government, the Bursenaputtee acknowledged its supremacy, and bound himself to obey its orders; he further engaged to supply three hundred soldiers in time of war, no tribute having been demanded of him. The interior management of his territory was left in his own hands, excepting as regarded cases of murder and other capital offences, which were to be made over for trial to the Agent of the Governor-General or Political Agent in Upper Assam. This arrangement had evidently in view the impressing a rude people with a greater regard for human life, which the more rigid investigation and sanctity of British forms of justice might be expected to create. This state of things subsisted until January 1835, when, under the instructions of the Agent to the Governor-General, the obligation to supply troops was commuted into an annual payment of 1800 rupees. No census has been taken of the population, but from the best information it is estimated at sixty thousand or seventy thousand persons. It yields a revenue of 20,000 rupees per annum.

In his personal manners the late Bursenaputtee Malebur was plain and straightforward, and accustomed to think and act for himself. In his political character, his fidelity was much doubted a few years back, but he was always found ready to answer every call; as evinced in the expedition against the Duffa Guam in 1835, and the Singphoo Luttora chief in 1838, which proved that he was faithful to his engagement. But his communications with British officers were not always carried on in the smoothest manner. Accustomed to act as an independent chief for forty or fifty years, and his territory being unoccupied by troops, either Burmese or British, he was naturally independent and blunt in his manners; which bearing, combining with the testiness of age and dislike of innovation natural to that period of life, occasionally gave rise to improprieties of expression and seeming acts of disobedience. He departed this life in January 1839, leaving ten sons, five daughters, and three widows; and, pending the final orders of Government, Muttuck was placed under Bhageerut Majoo Gohain, the second son of the late chief: the Bor Gohain, or eldest son, having waved his claim of birth in compliance with the wishes of his father.

On the 4th of August 1839, the Political Agent was directed to confer on the Majoo Gohain the title of Bursenaputtee, and the management of Lower Muttuck, on his agreeing to the conditions offered for his acceptance. These were based on the settlement entered into with his late father, but a new census was required to determine the amount of tribute to be paid. These terms also withheld Upper Muttuck, until an amicable understanding could be come to between the chiefs of that part of the country; who, with their spiritual head, the Tiphook Muhunt, were averse to the rule of the family of the late chief. This party being only 1000, or 1500, out of a population of 60,000, it seemed hard to sever them from the jurisdiction of the Bursenaputtee, without any specific acts of oppression having been committed by the late chief or his family. The real objection rested on religious grounds: they are the disciples of a Gosain or priest professing different religious tenets from those of the Bursenaputtee’s family; consequently they preferred a ruler of their own persuasion, although they had not experienced any persecution from the late Bursenaputtee.

In November 1839, the Political Agent arrived at Rungagora, the capital of Muttuck, and having assembled the principal members of the late chief’s family, and head men of the district, made known to them the resolution of Government. The Majoo Gohain Bhagerut and his brothers, finding that Upper Muttuck was not at once to be included in the settlement, peremptorily refused to accept of the management of the country; the whole of Muttuck was therefore annexed to the district of Luckimpoor, and pensions in money and land, to the amount of 7637 rupees per annum, were granted for the support of the members of the late chief’s family.

Thus terminated the independence of the Muttucks, a rude, fanatical, stiff-necked people. Accustomed to a very slight assessment, tendered to their chief in the shape of presents for settling their disputes, and exercising a considerable share in their own government, it was feared they would not readily submit to the heavier rate of taxation for the purposes of good government under British rule; but these apprehensions, it seems, were unfounded, since, for the last four years, no resort to force has been found necessary to compel taxation, or to further any other measures for their general welfare.

Husbandry is the chief occupation of the Muttucks; and their district possessing a fine fertile soil and abounding in extensive rice plains, intersected by large tracts of tree and grass jungle, expectations are entertained that, in the course of time, this country will prove a prosperous and valuable acquisition; if improvements are not impeded by the inroads of border tribes. Two corps of local Assam Light Infantry, and a company of local Artillery are ever vigilantly occupied in promptly suppressing combinations or insurrections raised with a view to the acquisition of plunder and slaves from our subjects; and there is, therefore, little fear of any organized obstruction to improvement.