Beyond Conflict: Mughal-Ahom Interactions and Mutual Exchanges in Medieval Assam

Abstract

The Ahoms and the Mughals were two contemporary states one confined to northeast India while the other in most of India. Both groups were migrants -one from the northwestern frontier and the other from north east frontier. The Ahoms laid the groundwork for a kingdom that lasted for almost 600 years when they established their dominion in the Brahmaputra Valley under the leadership of Sukapha. The Mughals on the other hand established their empire in 1526 in Northern India. The Mughals and the Ahoms lived in the same time, in the same vicinity and the social and economic systems they created could not have survived without mutual exchanges of practices, ideas, and institutions. Both the Ahoms and the Mughals were migrants who were unfamiliar with the land they ruled. Their stories of migration, settlement, expansion, and adjustment in a new environment among diverse and heterogeneous people were similar. The Ahoms had to import ideas, practices, functionaries, arts, and artisans from Mughal India, and vice versa. Yet the co-operation between the two systems has remained unexplored and the exclusivity of one and the expansionism of the other is discussed as a story of collision. Two such large polities can't exist side by side with no interaction at all, and their interaction could be limited to 'invasion' and expulsion. This paper seeks to examine the interactions and exchanges between these two great powers, as well as to provide a more nuanced understanding of Assamese society in Medieval Assam.