Mula Gabharu: The Ultimate Woman Warrior of Assam

By Hiranya Borah

This is a novel based on the life of Mula Gabharu, the ultimate war heroine of Assam. Though I try my best to be accurate in the historical events by going through many books written by many authors, I have to join many dots through my imagination. I try to project Mula as a good citizen, good warrior, good sister, good wife and a good mother. One can find Mula as a tragedy queen also who had lost each and every close family member untimely except her elder brother, King Suhungmung, stepbrother, Konseng Borpatra Gohain and her children.
The book is written contextually and therefore there will be some repetition which is deliberate so that readers need not have to recollect chronologically the major events.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hiranya Borah
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005618216

Hiranya Borah

Born in a teachers' family in a village of Assam, a province of India, Borah started his journey of writing at a tender age of eleven. He published two novels in Assamese language and other fictional and non-fictional stories in Assamese periodicals during his college days. Then Borah almost stopped his literary activity for more than three decades. In the meantime he became a Gender specialist.However,so far, he has published more than one hundred and sixty five books on this platform in English and one book in Hindi within a span of five years. The books are on different topics like inspiration,romance and love, humour, ghosts, suspense thriller, children etc and those are written both in prose and poetry.Eight English and two Assamese books are also available in printed form. 2nd edition of his first book, 'Random Thoughts' is also in the public domain.

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Mula Gabharu: Ultimate Woman Warrior of Assam

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A Novel

Copyright 2021 Hiranya Borah

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Preface

This is a novel based on the life of Mula Gabharu, the ultimate war heroine of Assam. Though I try my best to be accurate in the historical events by going through many books written by many authors, I have to join many dots through my imagination. I try to project Mula as a good citizen, good warrior, good sister, good wife and a good mother. One can find Mula as a tragedy queen also who had lost each and every close family member untimely except her elder brother, King Suhungmung, stepbrother, Konseng Borpatra Gohain and her children.

The book is written contextually and therefore there will be some repitition which is deliberate so that readers need not have to recollect chronologically the major events. Further, a student of Assam history may avoid the introduction chapter, as the facts of this chapter are taken from different history books, Google and Wikipedia only. Similarly, those who are aware of 1897 Earth Quake in Assam, they can skip that part as it is taken from some sources including Wikipedia and is not part of the novel par se as this chapter is written to develop an interest in Assam history for common people who are not history students.

Two things I am to clarify before start of the novel, the word ‘Bangal’ means in those days outsider, not Bengali. For example, Euorpean, particularly British were referred as ‘Baga Bangal’ which means ‘white skinned outsiders’. Again the battle between Mughals and Ahoms were not Hindu Muslim conflict as the Mughals at Saraighat was led by a Hindu King, Ram Singh and one of the important Navy Generals of Ahom Army, Bagh Hazarika was a Muslim. In other words, Mughals were not representing Muslims and Ahom was not representing the Hindus. It was basically conflicts of two powers, one was attacking and other one was defending. Defenders were victorious in most of the cases and therefore outside rule could not be established in Assam till British took over Assam in 1826 as per the Yandaboo Agreement between the Burmese King and the British.

Further, the word Bangal means outsiders/ invaders in those days; not the Bangalis . For example Baga Bangal means white skinned outsiders mainly the British.

I am thankful to Google for their free photograh of an Assamese warrior which I made base for my coverpage. Further I am thankful to Google Wikipedia and different writers of Assam History for using their compilation for verifying facts and also using some of them as it is.

I am thankful to all my family members, particularly to my wife, for their constant support to write something usual and unusual. I love them all.

I need not have to say that it is the love of my readers which inspires me to write books one after another.

I would like to submit my sincere thanks to smashwords for publishing this e-novel on their platform.

Author

Chapter I: Introduction

Assam was the only province of India which was not ruled by Mughals or any other Muslim rulers of Delhi who ruled India since twelfth Century till the advent of British Raj in the nineteenth century. After establishment of Ahom Kingdom in 1228 by its first king Sukapha, upper Assam was mainly ruled by Ahoms since thirteenth century to 1826. It is not that the Muslim rulers in Delhi did not want to subjugate Assam; they actually orchastered 17 major attacks on Assam from the early fifteen century till the end of the seventeen century. Except in one occasion, they failed to defeat Assamese Army decisively. Only in one occasion they were able to defeat Assamese Army but that was also short lived and could not keep Assam under their control for even a decade and they were evicted from Assam by demolishing the myth of invincibility of Mughal Empire under Emperors, Humayun, Shahzehan and Aurengazeb. Surprisingly during Akbar and Jehangir no attack on Assam was made. However, many attributed the defeat of the Mughals and other Muslim Rulers of Delhi to the topography of Assam, particulary due to mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries alongwith more than six months’ of rainy season and flash flood even in April and in October. Further, due to swarms of mosquitoes outsiders have to fall to malaria which made havocs in all ranks. Even the most successful Mughal General Mirjumla who was able to occupy Gargaon, capital town of the Ahoms also lost his life due to malaria. However, to the great satisfaction of the agressors, the greatest Ahom General of all times, Lachit Barphukan also could not escape from the pangs of Malaria and also lost his life just one year after his great victory over Mughal General Ram Singh at the epic battle of Saraighat in 1671.

To know about the attempts made by the Mughals we have to peep into this particular part of History of Assam in a nutshell.

Suhungmung (Ruled from 1497 to 1539) was one of the greatest kings of the Ahoms, many even think he was undisputedly the greatest king of the Ahoms for his vision, strength, diplomacy and military leadership, who ruled almost entire Assam in the medieval period of Assam history. His reign was watershed period for formation of Ahom to Assamese kingdom through conquers or through assimilation among different ethnic groups of Assam breaking away from typical early Ahom rule of isolation of pure blood and ruled by pure blood. He was the first Ahom ruler who introduced a multi-ethnic polity in his kingdom. Under him the Ahom kingdom expanded greatly for the first time since its first king Sukapha, at the cost of the Chutiyas, Dimasas even at the expenses of the Mughals who started their rule at Delhi since the First Battle of Panipat, on 21 April 1526. He also successfully defended his kingdom against Muslim invasions, first by a general called Bar Ujjir (under Sultante of Delhi) and another by Turbak Khan during Mughal rule. During his rule, in the present Lower Assam, the Khen Dynasy collapsed and the Koch Dynasty ascended in the Kamata Kingdom. His general and nephew, Ton-kham, the son of Mula Gabharu and Frasengmung Borgohain and his younger brother Konseng Borpatra Gohain pursued the Muslims up to the Kortowa River, the western boundary of the erstwhile Kamrup Kingdom, the farthest west an Ahom king had ever ventured in its entire six hundred years of rule.

He was the first Ahom king to adopt a Hindu title, Swarganarayana, indicating a move towards an inclusive polity; and Ahom kings came to be known as the Swargadeo which is the Assamese translation of Tai-Ahom word Chao-Pha. He is also known as the Dihingia Raja, because he made Bakata on the Dihing River as his capital town. Suhungmung was the last progenitor (selected through a selection process of the eligible princes by a group of advisers of the Ahom Kingdom) Ahom king (all subsequent kings of Ahoms were his descendants only).

Suhungmung annexed Panbari of Habung (previously a Chutiya principality) in 1512 excercising little military effort from his side with a surprise move to dislocate the Chutiya administrator. Angered by his unexpected action, the Chutiya king Dhirnarayan attacked the Ahoms at Dikhoumukh in the next year after almost one year of full preparation. As Suhungmung was already prepared for this attack he was able to repulse the Chutiya attack easily. As a result of the fierce battle Chutiya had to lose a number of its soldiers and failed to reoccupy Habung.

After long seven years the Chutiyas again attacked the Ahoms in 1520 and this time they were able to occupy the areas up to Namdang and Mungkhrang but not Habung. Unfortunately for the Chutiyas, soon after the partial victory over the Ahoms, Dhirnarayan died (according to some chronicles, he left the kingdom following Banaprashtha ashram system followed by the Hindu Kings) and the reign of the kingdom was passed on to his son-in-law named Nitipal who was a hopeless king. Nitipal was inefficient in administration and was not visionary at all. His wife Sadhani, daughter of Dhirnarayan was an intelligent and efficient administrator. However, due to inefficient handling of administration by Nitipal, many other Chutiya Chieftians earlier ruled under the larger umbrela of Chutiya Kingdom led by Dhirnarayan revolted against Nitipal. As a result of the revolts by the chiefs of Lakhimpur‌, Majuli, Biswanath, the Umbrela King Nitipal became weak and weaker day by day and and these princely states declared themselves as independent states free from any obligation from Nitipal. Taking advantage of enemity and lack of unity among the princely Chutiya states to confront the mighty Ahoms, Ahom King Suhungmung annexed all these small Chutiya kingdoms one after another without any resistence from any of them. In 1522, the Ahoms, re-occupied their lost territories to Dhirnarayan and erected a fort at Dibrumukh, near present Dibrugarh city. Chutiya King Nitipal tried to attack the fort the following year with an army of few thousand. However, it was nothing but a disaster for the Chutiyas as they lost almost entire army without any gain. In fact Chutiyas were pushed further and expectedly, Suhungmung then extended his territory to the mouth of the Tiphao River. He ordered to construct a new fort at Tiphao Mukh.

Smelling the danger of an Ahom attack, the Chutiyas fortified Sadia but in vain as super strategist and cunning Ahom General Phrasengmung Borgohain attacked them on the third day of the Bihu when other than the Deories (the Chutiya Purohit) none was allowed to carry weapons. It was a massacre of the Chutiyas and they were decisively defeated. The Chutiyas were pursued further and their king and the prince were killed in a ‘one sided battle’ after getting information of their hiding from a Chutiya defector. According to most of the chronicles, Sati Sadhani refused to surrender and fought well for sometime; but fearing her capture she committed suicide by jumping from a hill.

Upon annexing the Chutiya territories, the Ahoms came in contact with hill tribes like Miris, Abors, Mishimis and Dafalas. Suhungmung established the office of the Sadiyakhowa Gohain and gave charge to Phrasengmung Borgohain to look after the newly acquired Sadiya region. The rest of the