The Dimasa Kingdom"In the 13th century the Dimasa kingdom extended along the south bank of the Brahmputra, from Dikhou to Kallang and included the Dhansiri Valley and the North Cachar Hills, with its capital at Dimapur." also known as Kachari kingdomAll the possibilities of the Kachari kingdom at Sadiya or some other places of Northeast India remain unproven theories until concrete evidence is provided. Therefore, as a term denoting this particular social group, I prefer Dimasa to Kachari in the following discussion. was a late medieval/early modern kingdom in Assam, Northeast India ruled by Dimasa kings."In the 13th century the Dimasa kingdom extended along the south bank of the Brahmaputra, from Dikhou to Kallang and included the Dhansiri Valley and the North Cachar Hills."; "During 16th to 18th century AD they established a State of their own which covered modern South Assam (Barak Valley, parts of Assam Valley and intervening North Cachar Hills) and some parts of Nagaland and Manipur." "Dimasa conceive of themselves as the rulers and subjects of the Dimasa kingdom." The Dimasa kingdom and others (Kamata, Chutiya) that developed in the wake of the Kamarupa kingdom were examples of new states that emerged from indigenous communities in medieval Assam as a result of socio-political transformations in these communities."During the 13th-16th centuries, while these continued to represent the rule over older peasant settlements in western and central Assam, there emerged alongside them also new kingdoms from several tribal bases, then undergoing a process of politico-economic transformation. These kingdoms did not represent mere dynastic changes in an ongoing political society. Rather, they were almost new state formations in a seemingly political vacuum. The Chutiya, Ahom, Dimasa, Jaintia and Koch states were such formations." The kingdom's agrarian base included settled wet-rice cultivation in the fertile riverine tracts of central and eastern Assam. The British finally annexed the kingdom: the plains in 1832 and the hills in 1834. This kingdom gave its name to undivided Cachar district of colonial Assam. After independence, the undivided Cachar district was split into three districts in Assam: Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills), Cachar district, Hailakandi district. The Ahom Buranjis called this kingdom Timisa."Ahom chronicals attest the existence of "Timisa kings" (khun-timisa) who ruled over a large area of middle Assam, initially from Dimapur on the western foothills of present-day Nagaland."
In the 18th century, a divine Hindu origin was constructed for the rulers of the Kachari kingdom and it was named Hidimba, and the kings as Hidimbesvar."An important change in the Dimasa political tradition occurred in the mid-eighteenth century, probably 1745, 1750 or 1755, when the centre of administration was moved from Maibang to Khaspur in the plains of Cachar.87 From this time onwards, the Dimasa rulers used the title ‘the Lord of Heḍamba’ in their own records." The name Hiḍimbā continued to be used in the official records when the East India Company took over the administration of Cachar. "The name Hiḍimbā continued to be used in the official records when the East India Company took over the administration of Cachar. This is clear from a seal of the Superintendent of the District of Cachar of 1835. See Gait, Report on the Progress of Historical Research in Assam, p. 10.
Traditions The origin of the Dimasa Kingdom is not clear. According to tradition, the Dimasa had their domain in Kamarupa and their king belonged to a lineage called Ha-tsung-tsa or Ha-chem-sa,"(T)he Kacharis of North Cachar believe that they once ruled in Kamarupa and their royal family traced its descent from the Rajas of that country, from the line of Ha-tsung-tsa." a name first mentioned in a coin from 1520."[the coin struck by Vīravijayanārāyaṇa, dated 1442 Śaka (1520 ad)] bears the legend describing the king as ‘a worshipper at the feet of the goddess Chandī and a subduer of the foes of Hāchengsā’." Some of them had to leave due to a political turmoil, and while crossing the Brahmaputra some of them were swept away"The tradition current among the Dimasas of Cachar mention their kingdom in ancient Kamarupa and how during a political turmoil they had to cross the big river (Brahmaputra; Dilao) and a large section of their people were washed away." —therefore, they are called Dimasa ("Son-of-the-big-river"). The similarity in Dimasa traditions and religious beliefs with those of the Chutia kingdom supports this tradition of initial unity and then divergence."(That the Chutiyas and Sadiyal Kacharis were identical) is also supported by the similarities in traditions and religious beliefs associated with both the tribes." Linguistic studies too point to a close association between the Dimasa language and the Moran language that was alive till the beginning of the 20th-century, suggesting that the Dimasa people had an eastern Assam presence before the advent of the Ahoms."(B)y demonstrating that these people spoke a Dimasa dialect, we also show that a large part of Upper Assam spoke ancient Dimasa." The eastern Assam origin of the Dimasas is further reinforced by the tradition of the tutelary goddess Kecaikhati whose primary shrine was around Sadiya;"There is at Sadiya a shrine of Kechai Khaiti, the tutelary deity of the Kacharis, which the Dimasa rulers continued to worship even after the establishment of their rule in Cachar." the tribal goddess common to many Kachari peoples: as the Rabhas, Morans, Tiwas, Koch,The Tiwas, as well as the Koch, also worshipped Kechai Kati. The Koch general Gohain Kamal built temples dedicated to Kesai Khati in Khaspur for the Dehans who were Tiwa and Mech soldiers from Gobha, Nellie and Kabi. Chutias, etc.
According to legend, Hachengsa (or Hatsengtsa) was an extraordinary boy brought up by a tiger and a tigress in a forest near Dimapur who replaced the existing king following divine oracles, which likely indicates the emergence of a strong military leader able to consolidate power. Subsequently, the Hachengsa Sengfang (clan) emerged and beginning with Khorapha (1520 in Dimapur)," The very first example comes from the coin struck by Vīravijayanārāyaṇa, dated 1442 Śaka (1520 AD). It bears the legend describing the king as ‘a worshipper at the feet of the goddess Chandī and a subduer of the foes of Hāchengsā’. Vīravijayanārāyaṇa is a name apparently unrecorded in other sources, but Rhodes considers that it was probably the Sanskrit name adopted by Dimasa king Khorapha, who was killed during the Ahom invasion in 1526." the Dimasa kings continued to draw lineage from Hachengcha in Maibong and Khaspur till the 19th century.
Kacharis had three ruling clans (semfongs): Bodosa (an old historical clan), Thaosengsa (the clan to which the kings belonged), and Hasyungsa (to which the king's relatives belonged)."Those Kachari clans which were most closely connected with the raja and his entourage were the first to rise to dominant positions. They were the Bodosa, the most senior, known as the former ruling clan; the Thaosengsa, the clan to which the ruling dynasty belonged in the period for which data are available; the Hasyungsa, the clan of the king's relatives (Crace 1930)."
Given different traditions and legends, the only reliable sources of the early history of the Dimasa kingdom is that given in the Buranjis, even though they are primarily narrations of wars between the Ahom and the Dimasa polities."As Gait pointed out, the only trustworthy information regarding the early history of the Dimasas is contained in the Ahom chronicles, though the details are almost confined to a narrative of wars."
Early history The historical accounts of the Dimasas begin with mentions in Ahom chronicles: according to an account in a Buranji, the first Ahom king Sukaphaa encountered a Kachari group in the Tirap region (currently in Arunachal Pradesh), who informed him that they along with their chief had to leave a place called Mohung (salt springs) losing it to the Nagas and that they were settled near the Dikhou river. This supports a tradition that the eastern boundary of the Kachari domain extended up to Mohong or Namdang River, before the arrival of the Ahoms. Given that the settlement was large, Sukaphaa decided not to engage with them before settling with the Barahi and Moran polities. During the reign of Sukaphaa's successor Suteuphaa, the Ahoms negotiated with this group of the Dimasa, who had been in the region between Dikhou and Namdang for about three generations by then, and the Dimasa group moved to the west of the Dikhou River."(P)robably in the reign of the second Ahom king Sutepha (1268–81), the outlying Dimasa settlements, east of the Dikhu river, withdrew before the advance of the Ahoms." These isolated early accounts of the Dimasas suggest that they controlled the region between the Dikhou River in the east and the Kolong river in the west and included the Dhansiri, Kapili valley and the north Cachar hills from the late 13th century."[T]he only trustworthy information regarding the early history of the Dimasas is contained in the Ahom chronicles, though the details are almost confined to a narrative of wars. A reading from these records suggests that the sphere of Dimasa influence in the thirteenth century seemed to extend from the Dikhu river to the Kallang river and also include the Dhansiri valley and the north Cachar hills."