Chutia kingdom

Origins

The Chutia kingdom took shape in the far east of the Brahmaputra valley, around Sadiya in modern Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Its traditional founding is dated to 1187 under a ruler remembered as Birpal, though the early history rests mainly on later chronicles. By the 14th century it was a significant power north of the river.

Rule and society

The Chutias were a Bodo-Kachari people whose rulers adopted Hindu forms of kingship, patronising Shakta worship, notably the Tamreswari temple near Sadiya. Copper-plate inscriptions of the 14th and 15th centuries record land grants and use Sanskrit and early Assamese. The kingdom was known for metalwork, including the manufacture of guns and cannon, and for its control of trade routes to the hills.

Decline and legacy

After a long series of wars, the Ahom king Suhungmung defeated the Chutias and annexed their kingdom in 1523 to 1524. Sadiya became the seat of an Ahom frontier governor, the Sadiya-khowa Gohain, and many Chutia nobles and artisans were absorbed into Ahom society.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.