In my second blog I have taken you to Sivasagar , our royal capital and we had visited the seven storied palaces with underground tunnels, the massive water bodies or beautiful tanks ,the hill like ' Moidams' or the royal burial mounds ,drove above the ancient ramparts , viewed the beautiful hand written manuscripts in tree barks and tried to understand a little about the significance of this civilization.
Very interestingly this ancient Tai civilization has the closest similarities with the ancient Chinese civilization. The Tais are called the elder brothers of the Chinese. They had given birth to this ancient and rich civilization in association with the Chinese.
The Tai Ahom Community had migrated from present day Yunnan in South China way back in the first half of the thirteenth century , in 1228AD to be precise. They were led by the young Tai prince Choulung Siukapha from his home Kingdom Muong Mao Lung.
It seems he had led the expedition with an accompaniment of nine thousand men and carried with him his own culture and heritage with a dream and a vision to set up a new kingdom in a new land.
When they had arrived in the present day North Eastern Region of India , the land here was governed by Chieftains of the different indigenous communities. There was no unified larger Kingdom as such. It was the philosophy of Humanism embedded and running in their veins which helped Prince Siukapha to bring together all the different communities and create a unified Kingdom called Assam.
The histories are replete with anecdotes or stories of how Siukapha tried to endear and win the hearts of the people whom he newly met. It seems the newly arrived people had sent a cordial message of open welcome and good will to the indigenous people. He had said , ' You are the owners of the land. We are the guests. The hosts should lead the way. You can show us your land '.
Such warm words of good will was never heard of by these people at a point of time when battles and fights were the language of the day. The people became interested to interact with them.
There is another beautiful story expressive of the mutual trust and affection towards ones fellow beings.
Prince Siukapha had organised a meal for the local communities.
After the meal Siukapha came to know that the people did like the cooking much. They had commented that the food had been a waste. He asked them how they cooked and asked one of the queens belonging to the Borahi community to do the cooking. Interestingly he had married girls from the different communities in his efforts to create stronger bondings.
When the queen cooked he found the food much tastier and immediately suggested that a Borahi person should be the chief cook. We gasp at his profound trust and goodwill !
History records how these people were provided with all deserving privileges. The people seemed to wonder as to why they felt so good staying with these Tai Ahom people.
This brings to mind a line from a poem by the Mughal poet Darweez regarding the people of the then Assam ' The people are very dignified and have superior qualities.' This is an observation from the community of conquerors , viewing our people as the enemy or the opposite force.
On their journey from their homeland through hills , dense thickets and forests they had had brief stays in different locations where they had explored and tried to find areas ideal for habitation.They would conduct geographical surveys. They were specially particular about the water density.Perhaps this had to do with agriculture as they were basically cultivators.
One of the very interesting facts which is my personal observation is that even now the rice and vegetables growing in some of the erstwhile royal paddy fields and lands bear such rich and original taste that we become awestruck or mesmerized. We seem to get a hint of their knowledge of the soil and about cultivation .
Another interesting feature is related to their system of governance. It appears that by virtue of their Humanism intrinsic in them , they did not seem to interfere into the private space of the individual and therefore there was scope for growth.
King Siukapha called his kingdom ' Moung Dun Sun Kham ' meaning Land of Golden Gardens which seemed to imply a vision , a concept , an ideal to achieve which he adopted certain far sighted state policies to form a unified 'Muoung Dun Sun Kham ' meaning a
Nation where the Tai people exercised dominating role while adequate space for growth through power sharing of all others had been ensured.
Another interesting aspect expressive of the profound Humanism is the respect that Siukapha showed towards the religious faiths of the different communities and how he tried to embrace them and bring them all together.
Strangely enough there is a worship called ' Umpha Puja' performed every twelve years wherein all the different indigenous communities perform their rituals together in a place called Amlokhi Deohal. These are places which bear testimony of what Humanism should mean in essence.We feel we need to go through these events of history in our present times to learn once again about religious tolerance.
It seems that the contribution of the historical records of the Ahom reign is one of the greatest contributions to Indian literature because of its objectivity and description of facts.
I would like to wind up today by mentioning about the Humanism of Siukapha who is popularly known as the one who unified seven kingdoms to one Kingdom and created the Ahom Kingdom which was noted for its glory ,prosperity , self sufficiency , humanism and the long reign of six hundred years from 1228 AD to 1826 AD.
Very interestingly this ancient Tai civilization has the closest similarities with the ancient Chinese civilization. The Tais are called the elder brothers of the Chinese. They had given birth to this ancient and rich civilization in association with the Chinese.
The Tai Ahom Community had migrated from present day Yunnan in South China way back in the first half of the thirteenth century , in 1228AD to be precise. They were led by the young Tai prince Choulung Siukapha from his home Kingdom Muong Mao Lung.
It seems he had led the expedition with an accompaniment of nine thousand men and carried with him his own culture and heritage with a dream and a vision to set up a new kingdom in a new land.
When they had arrived in the present day North Eastern Region of India , the land here was governed by Chieftains of the different indigenous communities. There was no unified larger Kingdom as such. It was the philosophy of Humanism embedded and running in their veins which helped Prince Siukapha to bring together all the different communities and create a unified Kingdom called Assam.
The histories are replete with anecdotes or stories of how Siukapha tried to endear and win the hearts of the people whom he newly met. It seems the newly arrived people had sent a cordial message of open welcome and good will to the indigenous people. He had said , ' You are the owners of the land. We are the guests. The hosts should lead the way. You can show us your land '.
Such warm words of good will was never heard of by these people at a point of time when battles and fights were the language of the day. The people became interested to interact with them.
There is another beautiful story expressive of the mutual trust and affection towards ones fellow beings.
Prince Siukapha had organised a meal for the local communities.
After the meal Siukapha came to know that the people did like the cooking much. They had commented that the food had been a waste. He asked them how they cooked and asked one of the queens belonging to the Borahi community to do the cooking. Interestingly he had married girls from the different communities in his efforts to create stronger bondings.
When the queen cooked he found the food much tastier and immediately suggested that a Borahi person should be the chief cook. We gasp at his profound trust and goodwill !
History records how these people were provided with all deserving privileges. The people seemed to wonder as to why they felt so good staying with these Tai Ahom people.
This brings to mind a line from a poem by the Mughal poet Darweez regarding the people of the then Assam ' The people are very dignified and have superior qualities.' This is an observation from the community of conquerors , viewing our people as the enemy or the opposite force.
On their journey from their homeland through hills , dense thickets and forests they had had brief stays in different locations where they had explored and tried to find areas ideal for habitation.They would conduct geographical surveys. They were specially particular about the water density.Perhaps this had to do with agriculture as they were basically cultivators.
One of the very interesting facts which is my personal observation is that even now the rice and vegetables growing in some of the erstwhile royal paddy fields and lands bear such rich and original taste that we become awestruck or mesmerized. We seem to get a hint of their knowledge of the soil and about cultivation .
Another interesting feature is related to their system of governance. It appears that by virtue of their Humanism intrinsic in them , they did not seem to interfere into the private space of the individual and therefore there was scope for growth.
King Siukapha called his kingdom ' Moung Dun Sun Kham ' meaning Land of Golden Gardens which seemed to imply a vision , a concept , an ideal to achieve which he adopted certain far sighted state policies to form a unified 'Muoung Dun Sun Kham ' meaning a
Nation where the Tai people exercised dominating role while adequate space for growth through power sharing of all others had been ensured.
Another interesting aspect expressive of the profound Humanism is the respect that Siukapha showed towards the religious faiths of the different communities and how he tried to embrace them and bring them all together.
Strangely enough there is a worship called ' Umpha Puja' performed every twelve years wherein all the different indigenous communities perform their rituals together in a place called Amlokhi Deohal. These are places which bear testimony of what Humanism should mean in essence.We feel we need to go through these events of history in our present times to learn once again about religious tolerance.
It seems that the contribution of the historical records of the Ahom reign is one of the greatest contributions to Indian literature because of its objectivity and description of facts.
I would like to wind up today by mentioning about the Humanism of Siukapha who is popularly known as the one who unified seven kingdoms to one Kingdom and created the Ahom Kingdom which was noted for its glory ,prosperity , self sufficiency , humanism and the long reign of six hundred years from 1228 AD to 1826 AD.
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