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TheBaro-Bhuyans (orBaro-Bhuyan Raj; alsoBaro-Bhuians andBaro-Bhuiyans) were confederacies of soldier-landowners inAssam andBengal in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The confederacies consisted of loosely independent entities, each led by a warrior chief or a landlord.[1] The tradition of Baro-Bhuyan is peculiar to both Assam and Bengal[2] and differ from the tradition ofBhuihar ofUttar Pradesh andBihar[3]—in Assam this phenomenon came into prominence in the 13th century when they resisted the invasion ofGhiyasuddin Iwaj Shah[4] and in Bengal when they resisted Mughal rule in the 16th century.[5]
Baro denotes the number twelve, but in general there were more than twelve chiefs or landlords, and the wordbaro meant many.[6] Thus,Bhuyan-raj denoted individual Bhuyanship, whereasBaro-Bhuyan denoted temporary confederacies that they formed.[1] In times of aggression by external powers, they generally cooperated in defending and expelling the aggressor. In times of peace, they maintained their respective sovereignty. In the presence of a strong king, they offered their allegiance.[7] In general each of them were in control of a group of villages, calledcakala, and the more powerful among them called themselvesraja.[8] The rulers of the Bhuyanships belonged to different ethnic, religious or social backgrounds.[9][10]
In 13th centuryBrahmaputra Valley the system of Baro-BhuyanRaj (confederacy) was formed from the petty chieftains—the remaining fragments of the erstwhileKamarupa state.[1][11] They often resisted foreign invasions (Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Shah in the 13th century), removed foreign rule (Hussain Shah in the 16th century) and sometimes usurped state power (Arimatta in the 14th century). They occupied the region west of theKachari kingdom in the south bank of theBrahmaputra river, and west of theChutiya kingdom in the north bank. These included areas ofNagaon,Darrang andSonitpur districts. Subsequently, the Baro Bhuyan rule ended in the 16th century as they were squeezed between the Kachari kingdom and theKamata kingdom in the west and were slowly overpowered by the expandingAhom kingdom in the east.
In Bengal, the most prominent Baro-Bhuyan confederacy was led byIsa Khan ofSonargaon in the 16th century, which emerged during the disintegration of theBengal Sultanate in the region, as a resistance to theMughal expansion.[12] They carved the land ofBhati and other areas of Bengal into twelve administrative units orDwadas Bangla.[13] The Baro-Bhuyans gradually succumbed to the Mughal dominance and eventually lost control during the reign of emperorJahangir, under the leadership ofIslam Khan I, the governor ofBengal Subah.[14]
Epigraphic sources indicate that the Kamarupa state had entered a state of fragmentation in the 9th century[15] when the tradition of granting away police, revenue and administrative rights to the donee of lands became common.[16] This led to the creation of a class of landed intermediary between the king and his subjects—the members of which held central administrative offices, maintained economic and administrative links with in their own domain[17] and propagated Indo-Aryan culture.[18] This gave rise to the condition that individual domains were self-administered, economically self-sufficient and capable of surviving the fragmentation of central authority,[19] when the Kamarupa kingdom finally collapsed in the 12th century.
Amalendu Guha claims that the Baro-Bhuyan emerged in the 13th century from the fragmented remains of the Kamarupa chieftains.[1] Nevertheless, not all local Kamarupa administrators (samanta) became Bhuyans and many were later-day migrant adventurers from North India.[20]Though there exists many legendary accounts of the origin of the Baro Bhuyan these accounts are often vague and contradictory.[21]
This original group is often referred to as theAdi Bhuyan, or the progenitor Bhuyans. TheAdi-charita written in the late 17th century is the only manuscript which mentions the Adi-Bhuyan group.[22] However,Maheswar Neog has called the account as spurious or fabricated.[23]
Nevertheless, their presence is recorded in theAhomBuranjis, where it is recorded that they were instrumental in ending the rule of the Kachari and Chutia kingdom.[24] As a reward, the Ahom kingSuhungmung (1497–1539) settled these Bhuyans inKalabari,Gohpur, Kalangpur andNarayanpur as tributary feudal lords.[25] Over time, these Bhuyans grew very powerful but they were later subjugated by the Ahom kingJayadhwaj Singha. TheSaru Baro Bhuyan is a branch of theBar Baro Bhuyan that split and went west.
By the mid 16th century, all the Adi Bhuyans power was crushed, and they remained satisfied with what service they could render to the Ahom state asBaruwas orPhukans, Tamulis or Pachanis. During the first expedition ofChilarai against the Ahom kingdom, they aligned with the Ahoms (which Chilarai lost), but during the second expedition they aligned with theKoches (which Chilarai won). Chilarai appointed Uzir Bamun, Tapashi Laskar and Malamulya Laskar asRajkhowas in Uttarkula after he annexed the territories up toSubansiri River in 1563 AD.[26] This group was finally subjugated byPrataap Singha in 1623, who relocated them to the south bank of the Brahmaputra.[27] The Saru Bhuyans, who had moved west after the conflict with the Bor Baro-Bhuyans trace the genealogy of Candivara to Kanvajara, the eldest son of Sumanta, but this is not given credence.
The later Baro-Bhuyans had ensconced themselves between the Kachari kingdom in the east and theKamata kingdom in the west on the south bank of theBrahmaputra River. According to Neog, the leader (shiromani) of the group, Chandivara, was originally a ruler ofKannauj, who had to flee due toFiruz Shah Tughlaq's 1353 campaign againstShamsuddin Ilyas Shah and reachedGauda, the domain of Dharmanarayana.[28] As a result of a treaty between Dharmanarayana and Durlabhnarayana of Kamata kingdom, a group of seven Kayastha and sevenBrahmin families led by Candivara was transferred to Langamaguri, a few miles north of present-dayGuwahati.[29] During the harvesting season in Lengamaguri, theBhutiyas attacked and looted the country and in one instance the Bhutiyas captured Rajadhara, the son of Candivara. Candivara chased the Bhutiyas as far as Daimara between Maguri (nearChangsari town) andDewangiri (inBhutan), killed few of them and released his son from captivity. In next four or five years, the people of Lengamaguri finding that Bhutiyas were planning an attack in retaliation decided to hand over Candivara as the person responsible for the massacre of the Bhutiyas.[30] The Bhutiyas chased Candivara as far asRauta (in present-dayUdalguri district) but had to suffer defeat at the hands of the Baro-Bhuyans.[31] Candivara and his group in search of a safe haven did not stay in Lengamaguri for long and moved soon to Bordowa in present-dayNagaon district with the support of Durlabhnarayana.[29] Among the descendants of Candivara wasSrimanta Sankardeva.
After the death of Candivara, Rajadhara became the Baro-Bhuyan. During the late 14th century, Gadadhara Bar-bhuya, the younger brother of Rajadhara in order to increase his influence collected an army in Bordowa and attacked theChutiyas andKhamtis but was held captive, he was later set free and had to settle inMakhibaha (in present-dayNalbari district).[32]
A second group of five Bhuyans joined the Candivara group later.[29] In due course, members of these Bhuyans became powerful.Alauddin Husain Shah, who ended theKhen dynasty by displacingNilambar in 1498, extended his rule up to theBarnadi river by defeating Harup Narayan who was a descendant of Gandharva-raya, a Bhuyan from the second group established by Durlabhnarayana at Bausi (Chota raja of Bausi), among others.[33] The Baro-Bhuyans retaliated and were instrumental in ending the rule of Alauddin Husain Shah via his sonShahzada Danyal. But very soon, the rise ofBiswa Singha of theKoch dynasty in Kamata destroyed their hold inKamrup[34] and squeezed those in the Nagaon region against the Kacharis to their east. They had to relocate to the north bank of the Brahmaputra in the first quarter of the 16th century, to a region west of the Bor Baro-Bhuyan group. The increasing Koch and Ahom conflicts further ate away at their independence and sovereignty.
At the end of theKarrani Dynasty (1564–1575), the nobles ofBengal became fiercely independent.Sulaiman Khan Karrani carved out an independent principality in the Bhati region comprising a part of greaterDhaka district and parts ofMymensingh district. During that periodTaj Khan Karrani and another Afghan chieftain helpedIsa Khan to obtain an estate inSonargaon andMymensingh in 1564. By winning the grace of the Afghan chieftain, Isa Khan gradually increased his strength and status and by 1571, he had become the ruler of Bhati.[35]
Mughal histories, mainly theAkbarnama, theAin-i-Akbari and theBaharistan-i-Ghaibi refers to the low-lying regions of Bengal asBhati.
This region includes the Bhagirathi to theMeghna River is Bhati, while others include Hijli,Jessore, Chandradwip andBarisal Division in Bhati. Keeping in view the theatre of warfare between the Baro-Bhuiyans and the Mughals, the Baharistan-i-Ghaibi mentions the limits of the area bounded by theIchamati River in the west, theGanges in the south, theTripura to the east; Alapsingh pargana (in presentMymensingh District) andBaniachang (in greaterSylhet) in the north. The Baro-Bhuiyans rose to power in this region and put up resistance to the Mughals, untilIslam Khan Chisti made them submit in the reign ofJahangir.[12]
Isa Khan was the leader of the Baro Bhuiyans (twelve landlords) and azamindar of theBhati region in medieval Bengal. Throughout his reign he resisted theMughal invasion. It was only after his death, the region went totally under theMughals.[12]
TheJesuit mission who was sent to Bengal managed to identify that 3 of the chieftains were Hindus, they were Ramchandra Basu ofChandradwip, Bakla (Barisal), Surendranath Sur of Present Southern West Bengal,[36] andPratapaditya of Chandechan, Jessore while the rest were Muslims during Isa Khan's rule.Nalini Kanta Bhattasali affirms that there were more than twelve Bhuiyans, with the wordbaro signifying a large number.[37][38]
Shah-i-Bangalah, Shah-i-Bangaliyan and Sultan-i-Bangalah