Mlechchha dynasty


For the ancient pejorative term for foreign people in India, see Mleccha
is the central shrine of Kamarupa''

The Mlechchha dynasty ruled Kamarupa from their capital at Harruppesvar in the present-day Tezpur, Assam, after the fall of the Varman dynasty. The succeeding rulers were non-Indo-Aryan local chieftains, and like all other claimed lineages, their lineage from Narakasura was constructed to accord legitimacy to their rule. According to historical records, there were twenty one rulers in this dynasty, but the line is obscure and the names of some intervening rulers are not known.
The Mlechchha dynasty in Kamarupa was followed by the Pala kings.

Origins

It is not clear how Salasthambha, the first of this dynasty, came to power. An inscription from the reign of a king from the later Pala dynasty claims Salasthambha was a mlecchādhināth or lord of the mlecchas, which many scholars have interpreted to mean that Salasthambha was a mlechchha himself. Salasthambha is first mentioned in an inscription 175 years into the rule of the dynasty. Mleccha may be sanskritized form of tribal name mech..
Suniti Kumar Chatterji claims that Salastambha was a Bodo-Kachari chief of Mech. According to some historians, the remnant of the Mlechchha kingdom formed the later Kachari kingdom.

Rulers

The grants of Ratnapala give the list of 21 kings from Salastambha to his line.