Assam is a state in Northeast India, located south of the Eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley and Barak River valleys. It covers an area of , and is the second largest state in northeastern India by area. As per the 2011 census, the state had a population of 31.2 million, and is the largest by population in the region. It shares international borders with Bhutan to the north and with Bangladesh to the southwest. It borders the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur to the east; Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram to the south; and West Bengal to the west. It is connected to the rest of the India to the west via the Siliguri Corridor (also known as the chicken neck),https://www.britannica.com/place/Siliguri-Corridor a wide strip of land. Dispur is the capital of Assam while Dibrugarh is the second capital. Guwahati is the largest city and urban area in the state.
Archaeological record from the region indicate early settlements from the second to first century BCE. Though the region finds mention in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, there is a lack of substantial archaeological evidence regarding its ancient history. The region is described as one of the frontiers of the Gupta Empire in fourth century CE. It was ruled by Varmanas (c. 350–650 CE), Mlechchhas (c.655–900 CE) and Kamarupa-Palas (c. 900–1100 CE) later. The Ahom kingdom was established in the 13th century CE, and ruled till the early 19th century CE. The period saw various conflicts with the Mughals. After the Moamoria rebellion and Burmese invasions weakened the Ahom kingdom, the British started establishing tea estates in the region in the 19th century CE. The region became part of the Bengal Presidency, and the Assam Province was established in 1912. The Assam Legislative Assembly was formed in 1937. The province became part of Independent India on 15 August 1947, and was recognised as a state after India became a republic on 26 January 1950.
The state is organised into 35 districts across five divisions. Assamese and Bodo are the official languages of the state with Meitei recognised as an additional official language in three districts of the Barak Valley and Hojai district, and Bengali in the Barak Valley. The state is known for its namesake Assam silk and Assam tea, recognised as Geographical Indications in India. Oil was discovered in the region in 1867, and oil drilling started in 1889. Wildlife tourism is a major contributor to the economy of the state, aided by the presence of various protected areas including the Kaziranga and Manas National Parks, which are World Heritage Sites. More than half of the extant wild population of the one-horned Indian rhinoceros occurs in the state. The state is a rich biodiversity zone consisting of various ecosystems including tropical rainforests, deciduous forests, riverine grasslands, orchards, and wetlands. It receives copious amount of rainfall, which feeds the Brahmaputra River system, whose tributaries and oxbow lakes form a distinctive hydro-geomorphic environment.
Etymology
The first dated mention of the region comes from Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century) and Ptolemy's Geographia (2nd century), which calls the region Kirrhadia, apparently after the Kirata population.Besatia in the Schoff translation and also sometimes used by Ptolemy, they are a people similar to Kirradai and they lived in the region between "Assam and Sichuan" "The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea (last quarter of the first century A.D) and Ptolemy's Geography (middle of the second century A.D) appear to call the land including Assam Kirrhadia after its Kirata population." In the classical period and up to the 12th century, the region east of the Karatoya River, largely congruent to present-day Assam, was called Kamarupa, and alternatively, Pragjyotisha."Prior to the thirteenth century the present region was called Kāmarūpa or, alternatively, Prāgjyotiṣapur", Lahiri, Nayanjot., Pre-Ahom Assam (Delhi 1991) p. 14 Though a western portion of Assam as a region continued to be called Kamrup, the Ahom kingdom that emerged in the east, and which came to dominate much of the Brahmaputra Valley, was called Assam (e.g. Mughals used Asham); and the British province too was called Assam. Though the precise etymology of Assam is not clear, the name Assam, first used by the British in the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, is associated with the Ahom people, originally called Shyam (Shan)."Ahoms also gave Assam and its language their name (Ahom and the modern ɒχɒm 'Assam' come from an attested earlier form asam, acam, probably from a Burmese corruption of the word Shan/Shyam, cf. Siam: Kakati 1962; 1-4)."
History
Pre-history
Assam and adjoining regions have evidences of human settlement from the beginning of the Stone Age. The hills at the height of 1,500 to 2,000 feet (460–615 m) were popular habitats probably due to availability of exposed dolerite basalt, useful for tool-making. Ambari site in Guwahati has revealed Shunga-Kushana era artefacts including flight of stairs and a water tank which may date from 1st century BCE and may be 2,000 years old. Experts speculate that another significant find at Ambari is Roman era Roman roulette pottery from the 2nd century BCE. Gupta explains that while Guwahati, formerly known as Pragjyotishpur in ancient times, is mentioned in epics like the Mahabharata and the Puranas, there is a lack of substantial archaeological evidence regarding its ancient history, especially before the 7th century AD.
Legend
According to a late text, Kalika Purana (c. 9th–10th century CE), the earliest ruler of Assam was Mahiranga Danava of the Danava dynasty, which was removed by Narakasura of Mithila and established the Bhauma dynasty. The last of these rulers, also Narakasura, was slain by Krishna. Naraksura's son Bhagadatta became the king, who (it is mentioned in the Mahabharata) fought for the Kauravas in the battle of Kurukshetra with an army of kiratas, chinas and dwellers of the eastern coast. At the same time towards the east in central Assam, Asura kingdom was ruled by another line of kings.India History Association. Session (2001), Proceedings of North East India History Association North East he came under the 'bad' influence of Banasura, ruler of Sonitapura (identified with Tezpur now under Sonitpur district in central Assam), and ended up sidelining Kamakhya in favour of Siva. Thereafter Naraka forsook the guidance
Ancient era
Evidence indicates presence of civilisation in Assam around 2nd century BCE, a rock cut stupa at Sri Surya Pahar has been dated to 200 BCE contemporary with rock cut Karle and Bhaja caves of Maharashtra. The site is located in a hilly terrain where several rock-cut shivalingas, votive stupas and the deities of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain pantheon are scattered. Samudragupta's 4th-century-CE Allahabad pillar inscription mentions KamarupaTej Ram Sharma,1978, "Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions. (1.publ.)", Page 254, Kamarupa consisted of the Western districts of the Brahmaputra valley which being the most powerful state. and Davaka (Central Assam)Suresh Kant Sharma, Usha Sharma – 2005,"Discovery of North-East India: Geography, History, Culture, ... – Volume 3", Page 248, Davaka (Nowgong) and Kamarupa as separate and submissive friendly kingdoms. as frontier kingdoms of the Gupta Empire. Davaka was later absorbed by Kamarupa, which grew into a large kingdom that spanned from Karatoya River to near present Sadiya and covered the entire Brahmaputra Valley, North Bengal, parts of Bangladesh and, at times Purnea and parts of West Bengal.The eastern border of Kamarupa is given by the temple of the goddess Tamreshvari (Pūrvāte Kāmarūpasya devī Dikkaravasini in Kalika Purana) near present-day Sadiya. "...the temple of the goddess Tameshwari (Dikkaravasini) is now located at modern Sadiya about 100 miles to the northeast of Sibsagar" . The kingdom was ruled by three dynasties who traced their lineage from a mleccha or Kirata Naraka; the Varmanas (c. 350–650 CE), the Mlechchha dynasty (c.655–900 CE) and the Kamarupa-Palas (c. 900–1100 CE), from their capitals in present-day Guwahati (Pragjyotishpura), Tezpur (Haruppeswara) and North Gauhati (Durjaya) respectively. All three dynasties claimed descent from Narakasura. In the reign of the Varman king, Bhaskaravarman (c. 600–650 CE), the Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the region and recorded his travels. Later, after weakening and disintegration (after the Kamarupa-Palas), the Kamarupa tradition was extended to c. 1255 CE by the Lunar I (c. 1120–1185 CE) and Lunar II (c. 1155–1255 CE) dynasties.
Medieval era
Following the decline of Kamarupa, political authority in the Brahmaputra valley became divided among a number of regional states and chiefly confederacies. The Kamata kingdom emerged in the west, while the Chutia kingdom and Kachari kingdom developed in eastern and southern Assam, respectively; the Baro-Bhuyans controlled several areas of central Assam, and the Ahom kingdom arose in Upper Assam. Over the following centuries, these states competed for territory and political supremacy, while the region also experienced repeated interventions from the Bengal Sultanate and, later, the Mughal Empire. In the early 19th century, the Burmese invaded the region, which led to its annexation.
Chutia kingdom
The Chutia kingdom, ruled by Chutia people of Bodo-Kachari origin, was the principal state of eastern Assam. Its territories extended on both banks of the Brahmaputra, broadly eastwards from Vishwanath on the north bank and the Buridihing on the south, and included adjoining areas of present-day Arunachal Pradesh. Sadiya formed its principal political and religious centre, while Habung was among its western dependencies before the Ahom expansion.
Competition with the expanding Ahom kingdom intensified in the early 16th century and resulted in the Chutia-Ahom conflicts. After a series of campaigns between 1512 and 1523–24, the Chutia royal state was defeated and its principal territories were incorporated into the Ahom kingdom. Chutia nobles, soldiers, artisans and administrative elements were subsequently absorbed into the expanding Ahom state, although armed Chutia resistance continued intermittently after the conquest.
Kamata kingdom
The Kamata kingdom emerged in the western part of the former Kamarupa kingdom during the 13th century, with its political centre eventually shifting to Kamatapur. Its last major ruling house, the Khen dynasty, was overthrown in 1498 by Alauddin Hussain Shah of Bengal, though Bengal's control over the region proved short-lived. In the early 16th century, Biswa Singha consolidated Koch power (another Bodo-Kachari group) and established the Koch dynasty in the former Kamata domain. Under Nara Narayan and his brother Chilarai, the Koch kingdom became one of the principal powers of the region. It later divided into the western Koch Bihar and eastern Koch Hajo, whose subsequent struggles with the Mughals and the Ahoms shaped the politics of western Assam in the 17th century.
Kachari kingdom
The Dimasa or Kachari kingdom was another major Bodo-Kachari state that ruled from the 13th century until 1854, with an early political centre at Dimapur. Its sphere of influence extended across the Dikhou, Doyang-Dhansiri and Kapili valley, including parts of central and southern Assam, and its relations with the Ahoms alternated between conflict, tributary arrangements and political accommodation.