THE BARAR VALLEY : A HISTORICAL OUTLINE

Sujit Choudhury

T. S. Eliot speaks of ‘Contrived corridors and cunning passages of history’. So, there is nothing

unusual if socio-cultural boundary of a region does not conform to the political identity imposed on it at a

given point of time through a trick of history. Three southern Assam districts of Cachar, Karimganj and

Hailakandi, commonly known at present as the Barak Valley, is a pointer to this fact. Politically, it is a part

of Assam, but it has nothing in common with Assam proper. ie. the Brahmaputra Valley. Also, the region

differs in all respect from other units of Northeast India.

Geographically, linguistically, culturally and socially, the Barak Valley is an extension of the eastern

Bengal. In 1874, when Assam was organised as a province by the British, two Bengali speaking districts

of Sylhet and Cachar were carved out of the Bengal Presidency and incorporated in Assam to meet the

revenue deficit of the newly formed province. The twin districts were then placed under a

Commissionership and came to be known as the Surma Valley division. In 1947, the major part of the Sylhet

district was transferred to erstwhile East Pakistan. The remaining part of the Surma Valley division is now

known as the Barak Valley which has since been reorganised into three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and

Hailakandi within the state of Assam. But, for all practical purposes, the Surma Barak Valley (i.e. the pre-

independence districts of Sylhet and Cachar) forms a single cultural unit since time immemorial. Niharranjan

Roy aptly summarises the situation :1

“The Barak Surma Valley is nothing but the northern extension of the Meghna Valley (Dacca-

Mymensing-Comilla). There is nothing like a natural boundary between these two valleys and that is why,

the traditions and culture of these districts of East Bengal so easily spread into sylhet-Cachar in ancient

and medieval periods. Even now the society and culture of the Hindus and Muslims of Sylhet-Cachar is

bound with the eastern districts of Bengal in one thread.”

If we venture to reconstruct the past of the Barak Valley, frequent reference to Sylhet becomes

obvious. There is a dichotomy between the political boundary of the present day and socio cultural legacy

of the past.

The Barak Valley is surrounded by the North Cachar hills and the Khasi hills in the North, hills of

Manipur in the east and Mizo hills in t he South. The only opening it has is in the western direction where

lies the district of Sylhet connecting the Valley with the plains of eastern Bengal. The region thus demar-

cates the natural border between the riverine Bengal and the hilly northeast. This geographical factor itself

has a major historical significance. As J. B. Bhattacharjee observes :2

“The Indo-Aryan settlement extended from Bengal in early times in its spontaneous eastward march

to the farthest limit of the plains land. They moved along the familiar terrain and stopped at the foot of

the hills, which encircled the valley from three sides, as these hills are not suitable for settled cultivation.”

For this reason the Barak Valley, till the late Medieval period, remained the easternmost outpost of

the Aryanised or Brahmanised India. Brahmanical Hinduism could move further east only in the eighteenth

century when a Vaisnava missionary from Sylhet converted King Pamheiba (also known as Garib Nawaz)

of Manipur.

We do not know for certain who where the earliest inhabitants of the Barak Valley. From indirect

evidences, it is presumed by scholars that the earliest settlers in the valley were Austric speaking people.

They were followed by groups of people speaking different varieties of Tibeto-Burman speeches whose

phased migration started quite early and continued till the nineteenth centure. Perhaps fusion between these

groups formed the basic strata of the society of the Barak Valley.

As already mentioned the Valley underwent a vigorous process of Aryanisation or Brahmanisation

than any other part of the Northeast. Dearth of sufficient data prevents us from formulating a chronological

account of this prolonged process of Aryanisation. It was believed earlier that the eastern Bengal came

under the fullfledged influence of the North Indian sociocultural trends and ideas during the Guptas. But

the discoveries at Wari-Batesvar, Bhairavabazar and some other stray finds manifest a much earlier date

of this contact. Dilip Kumar Chakrobarti observes:3

“On the whole, it has to be asserted even on the basis of the foregoing disjointed data that Wari-

Bateshwar and the entire area close to the Arial Khan and former course of the Brahmaputra constituted

a very significant focus of early historic occupation in the eastern portion of Bangladesh. Its begining is

unlikely to be later than C. 200 B. C. but, in all probability, it is a couple of centuries earlier.”

Since the Surma-Barak Valley is an extension of the Ganga-Padma basin, it can be presumed that

this early phase of Aryanisation also covered this region.

However, it should be admitted that we do not have any direct evidence to reconstruct the socio-

political scenario of this region during the Mauryas or even during the early Gupta rule. The Nidhanpur

copper plate of Bhaskaravarman is the first indisputable material evidence of the socio-political

Aryanisation of the Surma-Barak Valley. From this inscription we come to know that a part of the Valley

was known as Chandrapuri Vishaya in late fifth or early sixth century A.D. and it has been under the rule

of the successive Bhauma-Naraka rulers from Bhutivarman to Bhaskaravarman. Perhaps other regions of

the Valley were under the Samatata rulers as evident from the Kalapur inscription of Marundanatha which

was issued in late seventh or early eighth century. Lokanatha, an ancestor of Marundanatha, conquered

Joytungavarsha and Nalinikanta Bhattashali identifies Joytungavarsha with the Jatinga Valley of Cachar and

North Cachar districts. Between the eighth and the eleventh century, the region often played a dominant

role in the political developments of eastern India as the core zone of the famous Harikela Kingdom. In

the tenth century, Srichandra of the renowned Chandra dynasty of the eastern Bengal, incorporated a major

portion of the Valley within his kingdom. During t his period Chandrapura Matha or monastery, situated near

Panchakhanda region in the pre-partition subdivision of Karimganj, became a centre of learning of some

repute. From the remains of Bhuban hill, we know that the region around Silchar came under the Pala

influence, but whether this cultural influence was backed by the political domination of the Palas, we

cannot say with any amount of certainty. From two Bhatera inscriptions of Govinda Keshavadeva and

Ishandeva, we know about an independent Srihatta Rajya, within which the whole of the modern Sylhet

district and a maor part of Cachar-Karimganj was incorporated :4

“The common historical developments of the Surma-Barak Valley was somewhat disrupted when

Hajrat Saha Jalal conquered Sylhet region in the early fourteenth century and the region came under the

administrative domain of the Bengal Sultanate. After the fall of the Bengal Sultanate the region passed on

to the Mughals who organised it as Silhat Sarkar. The Sarkar of Sylhet came under the British domination

in 1765 with the grant of Dewani of Bengal of the East India Company by the Mughal Emperor.”

On the other hand, the eastern expansion of the Valley beyond Badarpur was not conquered by Shah

Jalal and in later days also neither the Sultans nor the Mughal Subedars of Bengal ever tried to incorporate

this region within their domain. Most of the territories of the Cachar plains during this period were perhaps

under the nominal control of the Tripuri royal house. According to historian J. B. Bhattacharjee, Bengali

population increased in the plains of Cachar during this period (15th century). Subsequently, Chilarai, the

brother of Koch King Naranarayan, conquered the region and put it under the charge of one of his official.

The Koch kingdm was divided even during the life time of Naranayana and the officer-in-charge of the

Cachar plains within no time freed himself from his overlord and started functioning as independent ruler

from Khaspur, his capital. This petty kingdom was later amalgamated with the Hairamba kingdom through

a matrimonial alliance. Since the Hairamba kings were also known as the Dimasa Cachari, the kingdom

came to be known as Cachar. A series of the Ahom invasions rendered this kingdom weak and disintegrated

and when its capital was shifted from Maibong to Khaspur in the early eighteenth century, there was a

divorce between ;the monarchy and its tribal support base which furthered the process of decadence.

Ultimately, in 1832, the British annexed Cachar making a proclamation. It then became a part of the Bengal

Presidency and the Surma Valley division was formed with the districts of Sylhet and Cachar. :5

As already said, socially and culturally, Cachar plains always maintained its close contact with

neighbouring Sylhet throughout these periods of political disruption. It is for this reason, the Hairamba

royal court accepted Bengali as the language of administration and culture even when its capital was

situated at hilly Maibong. When the capital was shifted to Khashpur, the royal house encouraged settlement

of the Bengalees for economic advancements of the kingdom and the same policy was followed by the

British. In 1874, the district of Sylhet and Cachar were tagged with Assam., the Governor General promised

to protect the linguistic and cultural identity of the Surma Valley. The Indian National Congress also

recognised this fact and hence District Congress Committees of Sylhet and Cachar were put under the

jurisdiction of the Bengal provincial Congress Committee till 1947. Today the Bengali-speakers form 80%

of the population of the Barak Valley. This demographic fact manifests the culmination of the historical

process which was started in the earliest historical period and as study of the folk cults of the Valley can

best be appreciated if one keeps in mind this socio-cultural legacy of the Barak Valley.

The Bengali Hindus of the Barak Valley like the Hindus of other pats of Bengal adhere to the

Brahmanical Hinduism. But there are some local variations. Beneath the surface of the Brahmanical

superstructure, some native, indigenous and non-scriptural features exist. For more than one reasons, these

features offer interesting scope for investigation.

First the Austric-speaking Khasis and also some tribes speaking languages of the Tibeto-Burman

origin had been and still are the close neighbours of the local population. It is understood that the prede-

cessors of these people contributed significantly to the composition of the local indigenous population. This

racial fusion is likely to exert some influence in the arena of cultural and religious life.

Secondly, Hinduism in this region had to encounter challenges from at least two other dominant faiths.

Buddhism had been a dominant faith here and in fact the region is regarded as one of the last strongholds

of the eastern part of India.6

Subsequently, in the early fourteenth century Sylhet was conquered by the Muslim saint Shah Jalal

and the conquest was followed by large scale conversion of the people, mainly of the lower strata, into

Islam. Hinduism had to take recourse to combat the advent of these faiths. In some cases peculiar com-

promises were made which gave the local folk cult a synthetic character.

The socio-economic factors at times operate as a motive force in the formulation of the cult practices

at the lower level. Since the society of the Barak Valley is still very much under a feudal fold, and the

Hindu rural folk here is essentially conservative, this aspect of the local popular religion offers an inter-

esting scope of study. In fact, from sowing time to harvest, the peasantry here observe and perform a

number of customs and practices which still retain their original magical significance that seeks to influence

nature for direct or indirect economic gains. And some of these rites contain features which may help us

in interpreting a number of traditional Hindu customs and rituals having a wider diffusion throughout the

country.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Niharranjan Roy, Bangalir Itihas (in Bengali), translated by J. B. Bhattacharjee, P. 65.

2. J. B. Bhattacharjee, ‘The Ancient Political Structure of the Barak Valley’, The North Eastern Hill

University Journal of Social Science and Humanities Vol. X, 1992. P.3.

3. Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, Ancient Bangladesh P. 60.

4. Bhattacharjee, op. cit, pp. 26-30.

5. For a detailed account of the history of this period, see J. B. Bhattacharjee, Cachar Under the

British Rule in North-Eastern India.

6. P.C. Choudhury, History and Civilization of the people of Assam, PP. 423-24.