Mir Jumla's invasion of Assam

After Shah Jahan fell sick in 1658, the vassal ruler of Koch Bihar, Pran Narayan, threw off the Mughal yoke and began offensives in the east to recover territories in the erstwhile Koch Hajo. Narayan attacked the Faujdar of Kamrup and Hajo, who retreated to Guwahati. This confusion enabled the Ahoms to march against both the Mughals at Guwahati as well as Pran Narayan, and the Ahom kingdom took control of the region right up to the Sankosh river. During the Mughal succession war, Auranzeb's general Mir Jumla II pursued Shuja, a rival claimant of the Mughal throne, who escaped to the Arakan. Mir Jumla was made the governor of Bengal and he sent Rashid Khan to recover the erstwhile Mughal territory in Kamrup. The Ahoms fortified Jogighopa at Manas river in preparation against the Mughals. Mir Jumla, in the meantime, took possession of Koch Bihar (Pran Narayan having fled to Bhutan) and began his march against the Ahoms on January 4, 1662. The Ahom fortifications at Manas were easily overrun.

Koch Behar was occupied in about one month and a half and making administrative arrangements there, Mir Jumla came to join the advance party towards Kamrup.{{harvnb|Narayan Sarkar|1951|p=277}} The king of Assam was prudent enough to evacuate Kamrup, but Mir Jumla decided to conquer Assam also. Mir Jumla took 12,000 cavalry, 30,000 infantry, and a fleet of 323 ships and boats up river towards Assam—the naval contingent comprised Portuguese, English, and Dutch sailors.{{cite book |author1=Abdul Karim |title=History of Bengal: The reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzib |date=1992 |publisher=Institute of Bangladesh Studies, University of Rajshahi |page=446; 449 |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/history-of-bengal-mughal-period/oclc/28183749 |access-date=8 March 2024 |language=En}}

{{See also|Battle of Kaliabor}}

The Mughal army first subdued border fortresses such as the one at Jogighopa, Mir Jumla divided his army into two and advanced east, one division along the north bank and the other along south bank of the Brahmaputra River.{{Cite book |last=Gait |first=Edward A |title=A History of Assam |year=1926 |location=Calcutta |pages=133–139}} By February 4, 1662, Mir Jumla took possession of Guwahati. The Ahoms took stand at Samdhara (under the Borgohain) and Simalugarh (under Bhitarual Gohain) in the north and south banks respectively. Mir Jumla now transferred his entire army south and reached Simalugarh at the end of the month and overran it with some effort. The attack so disheartened the Samdhara fort that it was abandoned in haste and the Borgohain adopted a scorched earth retreat. After a night-long naval battle at Kaliabor, the Ahoms again fell back. Mir Jumla then reached Salagrah, which too was abandoned.

Mir Jumla brought imperial forces to conquer deep inside Ahom country, capturing the evacuated capital city of Garhgaon {{Cite book |last=Nath |first=Pratyay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmGRxgEACAAJ |title=Climate of Conquest: War, Environment, and Empire in Mughal North India |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-949555-9 |pages=68–69 |language=en}}

Sutamla had no option but to take flight, leaving some riches in Garhgaon that fell into Mir Jumla's possession. Mir Jumla entered the capital on March 17, 1662.{{harvcol|Shakespeare|1914|p=41}} from this campaign, Mir Jumla has manage to capture 100 elephants, 300000 coins, 8000 shields, 1000 ships, and 173 massive rice stores.{{harvnb|Muzaffar H. Syed|1905|p=166}}

While initially militarily successful winning the Battle of Kalibor and occupying the Ahom capital, the invasion bogged down the Mughal army placing strain on supplies and limiting movement. Mir Jumla faced threats desertion from of portions of his army in Assam since the monsoon season interrupted supplies, but the army survived.{{Cite book |last=Sarkar |first=Jagadish Narayan |title=The life of Mir Jumla, the general of Aurangzeb |publisher=Midland Press |year=1951 |edition=1 |location=Kolkata |pages=269-275}}

With the end of the monsoon conditions would once more enable the imperial army to effectively campaign. Ahom was further weakened by the defection of several nobles and releasing that they could not endure another season of campaigning Ahom sued for peace. The Treaty of Ghilajharighat was concluded, with the following terms.

(1) Jayadhwaj Singh to send his six-year-old daughter named Ramani Gabharu to the Imperial harem.{{Cite book |last=Lahkar |first=Dr Bina Medhi |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Souvenir_69th_ILA_International_Conferen.html?id=QkPzEAAAQBAJ |title=Souvenir: 69th ILA International Conference on Building the Future: Transforming Libraries for Sustainability through Capacity Building |date=2024-02-01 |publisher=Department of Library and Information Science, Gauhati University |isbn=978-81-956082-7-0 |pages=27 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Sarma |first=Anjali |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Among_the_Luminaries_in_Assam.html?id=qOqEsStmcQQC |title=Among the Luminaries in Assam: A Study of Assamese Biography |date=1990 |publisher=Mittal Publications |isbn=978-81-7099-207-3 |pages=188 |language=en}}

(2) Twenty thousand tolas of gold, six times this quantity of silver and forty elephants to be made over at once.

(3) Three hundred thousand tolas of silver and ninety elephants to be supplied within twelve months,

(4) Six sons of the chief nobles to be made over as hostages pending compliance with the last mentioned condition.

(5) Twenty elephants to be supplied annually,

(6) The country west of the Bharasi river on the north bank of Brahmaputra, and of the Kallartg on the south, to be ceded to the Emperor of Delhi,

(7) All prisoners and the family of the Badnli Phukan to he given up.

Sakar analysis is that Mir Jumla achieved peace with honour, indeed being rewarded by the emperor. Pratyay analyses that the treaty terms were enough to save the face of Mir Jumla.{{Citation |last=Nath |first=Pratyay |title=Moving East, Moving West: War, Environment, and Imperial Expansion |date=2019-09-19 |work=Climate of Conquest: War, Environment, and Empire in Mughal North India |pages=74 |editor-last=Nath |editor-first=Pratyay |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/32277/chapter-abstract/268480558?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-03-25 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-949555-9}} Ray analyses that but placed the Ahom king in the status of a tributary to the Mughal empire, while Richards calls the Ahomese a vassal following the treaty.{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=John F. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9780511584060/type/book |title=The Mughal Empire |date=1993-03-18 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-25119-8 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511584060}}

Hostages and gold was exchanged on the 5th January 1663. There were further rounds of negotiations as a proposed hostages had died from smallpox in since the treaty had been negotiated. Mir Jumla settled for the hostages that he had received, as well as the gold and elephants and announced to his army that they would leave Assam on the 10th of January.

The march out of Ahom was meticulously planned, with the treasures both secured by treaty and those plundered from Garhgaon secured. Road construction enabled the army to move at good pace through the jungle, with it wide enough to allow passage by six horsemen together.

Upon reaching Lakhau, dispute arose with the Ahoms wishing that the border followed the 1638 treaty, while Mir Jumla insisted that the newly concluded treaty was followed. After the border demarcated according to the 1663 treaty, the army continued on to Pandu arriving on the 11th of February where arrangements were made to administer the re-captured territory of Kamrup, where despite a worsening illness Mir Jumla appointed Rashid Khan its faujdar and Muhammad Khalil Bakhshi, and placed the hostages in charge of the former. Five hundred men and forty warships were left with Rashid Khan to defend the reconquered territory.

During the return march Mir Jumla's fever worsened, and he delegated much active command to Dilir Khan, before he died on the 30th of March.

Mir Jumla's Ahomese adversary - the King Sutamla died soon after in 1663. The territorial acquisitions of Mir Jumla were short lived, the subsequent Ahomese King Chakradhwaj Singha, used the peace to strengthen Ahom militarily and economically given the destruction it had suffered during the invasion of Mir Jumla before hostilities resumed in 1667 during which the Ahomese would successful reverse many of the dissatisfactory border changes imposed by the treaty of Ghilajharighat.{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Saudiptendu |title=The Ahom Mughal Conflict: A Brief Introduction |publisher=Vivekananda International Foundation |year=2024 |isbn=978-93-91498-61-0 |location=New Delhi |pages=20–21}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Citation

|last=Shakespeare

|first=Leslie Waterfield

|year=1914

|title=History of Upper Assam, Upper Burmah and northeastern frontier

|isbn=9780342896868

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UW9CAAAAIAAJ

|place=Calcutta

}}

• {{Cite book|last1=Narayan Sarkar |first1=Jagadish |title=The Life of Mir Jumla, the General of Aurangzab |date=1951 |publisher=Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts |url=https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/65196.pdf |access-date=8 March 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.8760 |archive-date=2020-03-16 |language=En}}
• {{cite book |author1=Muzaffar H. Syed |title=History of Indian Nation : Medieval India |date=1905 |publisher=K. K. Publications |isbn=8178441322 }}
• {{Citation |last=Sarkar |first=J. N. |contribution=Chapter VIII Assam-Mughal Relations |editor-last=Barpujari |editor-first=H. K. |title=The Comprehensive History of Assam |volume=2 |pages=148–256 |publisher=Assam Publication Board |place=Guwahati |year=1992}}

{{refend}}

Category:Conflicts in 1662

Category:Conflicts in 1663

Category:1662 in India

Category:17th century in the Ahom kingdom

Category:1663 in India