Ruins found at Kasomari Pathar, in the Golaghat district of present Assam.

Stone House found in Maibang, Assam

Stone Inscription found in Maibang, Assam

Ruins at Khaspur, Assam

Historical Ruins

A View of the Kachari Rajbari Ruins in Dimapur, Nagaland

Undiscovered History of the Dimasa

This blog talks about the undiscovered history of the Northeast India. The blog focus on the study of a particular community which had a very rich historical past. The study of this community called Dimasa Kachari remains 'invisible' in many 'Indian Historical Studies'. Its peculiar "geo-ethnic" personality and the dearth of sources occupy an uneasy position within the pan-Indian discourses and essences. The Dimasas are one of the major tribes of Northeast India. Traditionally considered as an offshoot of the larger Indo-Mongoloid Kachari group, the Dimasa as a monarchical power have their own history of rise and fall. In fact, they constitute one of the four prominent dynasties the Koch, Chutiya, Kachari and Ahom who ruled Assam of the late-medieval period.Some of the important kingdoms were . The ruling clan of the Kachari state was Dimasa and were also called as Kacharis or Cacharees.

Scholars trace the descent of the Dimasa people from the Brahmaputra river and hold that the word is linked with this river. They emphasize that the Dimasa Kachari are the original inhabitants of this large river valley. Other scholars interpreted that the word Dimasa may have been derived from the conjuction of two Dimasa Kachari words, Dima and Fisa, where the first word means a big river (Di =water and Ma =big) and second, a child. According to Edward Gait, the word ‘timisa’ given by the Ahom records in the buranjis, might actually be a corrupt version of the word ‘Dimasa.’ Sidney Endle explained the word ‘Dimasa’ as ‘great river folk’ where di means ‘river’ or ‘water.’ In fact, in the Dimasa language, ‘Dimasa’ means ‘sons of the river.’

Prior to the period of the thirteenth century, the history of the Kachari kingdom is obscure with absence of any sources or records. The only written source from which we can gather information about the history of the Dimasa is from the Buranjis (the Ahom Chronicles) which record the origin and settlement of the Dimasa Kachari dynasty in the Dhansiri valley. Historians opined that during the thirteenth century, a large portion of Assam was dominated by the union of the Kacharis, which occupied the valleys of the rivers Dhansiri and Kopili (southern tributaries of Brahmaputra), and had its center in Dimapur on the Dhansiri river. From this period onwards, the Dimasa Kachari state existed under conditions of incessant warfare, and led to the frequent changes of habitation area which resulted from the gradual ascendancy of the Ahoms from the fifteenth century who ousted the Dimasa Kacharis from the fertile river valleys and forced the Kacharis to retreat southwards to Maibang, situated in the North Cachar Hills (present Dima Hasao District of Assam) by the middle of the sixteenth century A.D. With further attacks by the Ahom forces in Maibang, the Raja had to retreat to further south to the Cachar plains, with his court and a small number of followers, while majority of the Dimasa Kacharis remained in the North Cachar hills, where they retained some degree of independence, though they continued paying tribute to the Raja in the form of tax and labour relations. These story can be corroborated by the archaeological evidences or ruins of the palaces, inscriptions, old fort brick walls, temples, still in existence in places such as Dimapur (at present day Nagaland), Maibang and Khaspur (at present day Assam).