Ahom people
The Ahom, or Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group found today in the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. They are the admixed descendants of the Tai people who reached the Brahmaputra valley of Assam in 1228 and the local indigenous people who joined them over the course of history. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9000 followers established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled much of the Brahmaputra Valley in modern Assam until 1826. Even though the Ahom made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population, they maintained their original Ahom language and practised their traditional religion till the 17th-century, when the Ahom court as well as the commoners adopted the Assamese language, and Ekasarana dharma and Shakta sects of Hinduism.
The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of the original Tai and their culture and local Tibeto-Burman people and their cultures they absorbed in Assam. The people that took to the Tai-Ahom way of life and polity were incorporated into their fold of Ahom in the process of Ahomization. Some local ethnic groups, including the Borahis who were of Tibeto-Burman origin, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community; while members of other communities, based on their allegiance to the Ahom kingdom or the usefulness of their talents, too were accepted as Ahoms. Currently, they represent the largest Tai group in India, with a population of nearly 1.3 million in Assam. Ahom people are found mostly in Upper Assam in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia ; and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Dhemaji. There is a significant presence in Karbi Anglong and Lohit District of Arunachal Pradesh.
History
Origins
The Tai speaking people came into prominence first in the Guangxi region, from where they moved to mainland Southeast Asia in the middle of the 11th century after a long and fierce battle with the Chinese. The Tai-Ahoms are traced to either Mong Mao of South China or to the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar.Sukaphaa, a Tai prince of Mong Mao, and a band of followers reached Assam in 1228 with an intention of settling there. They came with a higher technology of wet-rice cultivation then extant and a tradition of writing, record keeping, and state formation. They settled in the region south of the Brahmaputra river and to the east of the Dikho river; the Ahoms today are found concentrated in this region. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9000 followers established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled much of the Bramhaputra valley until 1826.
Initial formation in Assam
In the initial phase, the band of followers of Sukaphaa moved about for nearly thirty years and mixed with the local population. He moved from place to place, searching for a seat. He made peace with the Borahi and Moran ethnic groups, and he and his mostly male followers married into them, creating an admixed population identified as Ahoms. The Borahis, a Tibeto-Burman people, were completely subsumed into the Ahom fold, though the Moran maintained their independent ethnicity. Sukaphaa established his capital at Charaideo near present-day Sivasagar in 1253 and began the task of state formation.Ahomisation
The Ahoms believed that they were divinely ordained to bring fallow land under the plow with their techniques of wet-rice cultivation, and to adopt stateless shifting cultivators into their fold. They were also conscious of their numerical minority. As a result, the Ahom polity initially absorbed Naga, Borahi and Moran, and later large sections of the Chutia and the Dimasa-Kachari peoples. This process of Ahomisation went on for till mid-16th century when the Ahom society itself came under the direct Hindu influence. That many indigenous peoples were ceremonially adopted into Ahom clans are recorded in the chronicles. Since the Ahoms married liberally outside their own exogamous clans and since their own traditional religion resembled the religious practices of the indigenous peoples along with Hindus, the assimilation under Ahomisation had a little impediment.Localisation and Loss
In the 16th- and 17th-centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from Mughal and other invaders, gaining them recognition in world history. The rapid expansion resulted in the Ahom people becoming a small minority in their own kingdom, of which they kept control. Eventually, the Ahom court, as well as the Ahom peasants took to Ekasarana dharma, Shaktism and Saivism over the traditional Ahom religion; and adopted Assamese over the Ahom language for secular purposes.The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of the original Tai and their culture and local Tibeto-Burman peoples and their cultures they absorbed in Assam. Some local ethnic groups, including the Tibeto-Burman speaking Borahi, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community; while members of other communities, based on their allegiance to the Ahom kingdom or the use of their talents, too were accepted as Ahoms. Even though the Ahom made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population, they maintained their original Ahom language and practised their traditional religion till the 17th-century, when the Ahom court, as well as the commoners, adopted the Assamese language, and Ekasarana dharma and Saktism religions.
The everyday usage of Ahom language ceased completely by early 19th-century. The loss of religions is also nearly complete, with only a few priestly families practising some aspects of it. While the written language survive in a vast number of written manuscripts, much of the spoken language is lost because the Ahom script does not mark tone and under-specifies vowel contrasts.
Revivalism
Though the first political organisation was created in 1893 it was in 1954 when Ahom connection to other Tai groups in Assam was formally established.Society
''Ban-Mong'' Social system
The traditional social system of Tai-Ahom people was known as Ban-Mong which was related to agriculture and based on irrigation. The Ban or Ban Na is a unit composed of families that settled by the side of the rivers. While many Bans together forms a Mong which refers state.Ahom clans
Ahom clans, called phoids, formed socio-political entities. At the time of ingress into Assam, or soon thereafter, there were seven important clans, called Satghariya Ahoms. There were Su/Tsu clan to which the Chao-Pha belonged; his two chief counselors Burhagohain and Borgohain ; and three priestly clans: Bailung, Deodhai, Mohan and Siring. Soon the Satghariya group was expanded—four additional clans began to be associated with nobility: Dihingia, Sandikoi, Lahon and Duarah. In the 16th-century Suhungmung added another great counselor, the Borpatrogohain and a new clan was established. Over time sub-clans began appearing. Thus during the Suhungmung's reign, the Chao-Pha's clan were divided into seven sub-clans—Saringiya, Tipamiya, Dihingiya, Samuguriya, Tungkhungiya, Parvatiya, and Namrupiya. Similarly, Burhagohain clan were divided into eight, Borgohain sixteen, Deodhai twelve, Mohan seven, and Bailung and Siring eight each. The rest of theAhom gentry belonged to clans such as Chaodangs, Gharphalias, Likchows etc. In general, the secular aristocratic clans, the priestly class, and the gentry clans did not intermarry.
Some clans admitted people from other ethnic groups as well. For example, Miri-Sandikoi and Moran-Patar were Sandikoi and Patar from the Mising and Moran communities, while majority of Chetias as well as the Lahon clan belonged to the Chutia community. This was true even for the priestly clans: Naga-Bailung, Miri-bailung and Nara-Bailung.
Literature
Ahom people are Literally well developed. They had their own developed writing system which is a Tai-Kadai Script is known as Ahom script, which is now in disuse. The Ahom script was evolved from Tai Nuea which was looked similar till it was modified under the present Chinese Government. They have various manuscripts on History, society, astrology, rituals, etc. Ahom people used to write their chronicles known as Buranji. The priestly classes are the custodians of these manuscripts.Year System
Ahom people have their own Lunar calendar known as Lak-Ni Tao-Si-Nga, which is an ancient way of calculating Years. This system was prevalent in the Middle Kingdoms and was brought by Tai Ahoms to Muong-dun Sun -kham. But is still in vogue in China and South-East Asian Tai people. All these things were written Books and Manuscripts of Dates, Months and Years.Culture
Housing
There is a lot of affinities of a style of the living house. Like the rural Thai people of Thailand, the house rural Ahom families have been made of wood, bamboo, and two roofs are typically designed by the thatching grasses. Every families orchard and plow land are situated near their house. The houses of the inhabitant have been built in scattered fashion within the bamboo groves. At one time, The Ahom built their house on still called Rwan Huan with about two meters high above the ground level.Food Habit
The food habit is one of the important variables of the culture of Tai-Ahom. Most of the Ahoms, particularly in the rural areas are mostly Non-vegetarian still maintain a traditional menu of their own food like the other Tai Peoples.Besides, porks, chicken, duck, slices of beef, frogs, many kinds of fishes, hukoti maas Muga lota eggs of red ant are their typical items of dishes. Even, some kinds of insects are also good food, for the Ahoms. Rice is the staple food and Lao ; Luk-Lao or Nam-Lao are traditional drinks. They consume "Khar", "Betgaaj" and many other naturally grown herbs vegetables which possess medicinal properties. Ahom food habits resemble Thai cuisine. Some of them are Thu – dam, Khao – Moon "Xandohguri", "ChewaKhao", "Chunga Chaul","Til pitha", Khao-tyek. The process of preparation of this item was quite unknown to population other than the Ahoms and the Thais, Khao, Tupula Khao (Kind of rice cooked packing with a particular kind of plant leaf with good smell called, 'tora pat' and preserved bamboo sauce are some of the favourite food items of the Ahoms which are almost similar to the traditional diet of the this. Like the Thais, the Ahoms prefers to take boiled food having little spices and directly burnt fish, meat and vegetable like brinjal, tomato, etc.Wedding
Cho Klong is the main marriage ritual among the twenty marriage rituals of Tai Ahom people. The name Cho Klong is derived from the Tai Ahom language . The ritual is described in an ancient Tai Ahom script Lai Lit nang Hoon Pha. 101 ban-phai-s or lights are lit. The bride offers the groom a heng-dan to protect her, their children/family, the race and the country. Sum of twenty rituals are performed in ahom wedding along with cho klong. Some of Those are -- Ju-ron
- Rik-Khwan
- Aap-Tang
- Chow Ban
- Jon-ming
Religion
Language
The Ahoms today use the Assamese language after the traditional language, the Ahom language, fell into complete disuse. The Ahom language, a member of the Tai branch of the Kra–Dai_languages is now dead, with its tone system completely lost. Nevertheless, it is being revived by some Tai Ahom organisations.Starting in the late 20th and continuing into the early 21st century, there has been renewed interest among the Ahoms in their culture and language leading to increased study and attempts at revival. The 1901 census of India enumerated approximately 179,000 people identifying as Ahom. The latest available census records slightly over 2 million Ahom individuals, however, estimates of the total number of people descended from the original Tai-Ahom settlers are as high as eight million. The Ahom script also finds a place in the Unicode Consortium and the script declared the topmost in the South-East Asia category.