Lachit Barphukan And His Times- (A History of the Assam Mogul Conflicts of the Period 1667-1671 A.D)

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A short paper on Lachit Barphukan was read at the first session of the Indian History Congress held at Poona in June 1935. It was warmly received, specially by my Maratha friends who found in the Assamese general a great counterpart of their own national hero Shivaji Maharaja, both of whom and at the same time were engaged in resisting the mighty power of the Moguls, Lachit Barphukan in Eastern India and Shivaji in the Deccan. The paper was partially revised and enlarged, and left at that stage when I proceeded to England in September 1936, from where I returned two years later.

Other preoccupations intervened, and I could come back to my labours on Lachit Barphukan towards the end of 1945, when the termination of World War It enabled many of us to return to our favourite pursuits and studies. I went over again through all the sources discovered mainly through the efforts of the Assam Gov- ernment Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, and incorporated a mass of new information. Whatever leisure I could command during the last fourteen months has been devoted to the revision and enlargement of this history, and the work in its present form has been completed in the middle of December 1946.

The story of Lachit Barphukan is of absorbing interest to students of Indian History, for it brings into the picture some of the greatest figures of the time Emperor Aurangzeb, Shivaji Maharaja. and the Sikh Guru Teg Bahadur-all of whom were directly associated with the events leading to Raja Ram Singha's deputation to Assam. So I have taken great pains in making the narrative as broad-based as possible in order to lay out an accurate background and perspective. This purpose has been followed specially in reference to Raja Ram Singha, a knowledge of whose antecedents and tactics is necessary to understand the significance of his war- measures in Assam, and to properly appreciate the leadership of his antagonist Lachit Barphukan.

The story is also interesting for the revelations concerning the off shoots and ramifications of the Mogul conflicts from the stand- point of the invaded country; and no race in India has preserved such a detailed and systematic record of these reactions and repercussions as the Assamese people, through their contemporary Buranjis or chronicles. What the Mogul commanders did in Assam, what they said, how they behaved, and what difficulties they faced, are all to be found in the Buranjis, and they thus add considerably to the knowledge derived from the Persian chronicles, to which therefore the Assamese Buranjis are indispensable supplements.

**Contents and Sample Pages**