Rangpur, Assam

Rangpur (pron: ˈræŋpʊə or ˈræŋgpʊə) is the 4th capital of the Ahom kingdom, was established by Swargadeo Rudra Singha in "Meteka" in 1707 after shifting the capital from Garhgaon.[1] It is currently a part of Sibsagar town. The place holds many monuments build by the Ahom dynasty, the most notable of which are the Talatal Ghar and the Rang Ghar.

Rangpur
Chen-Mun
historical place
Rang Ghar in Rangpur
Rang Ghar in Rangpur
Rangpur is located in Assam
Rangpur
Rangpur
Location in Assam, India
Rangpur is located in India
Rangpur
Rangpur
Rangpur (India)
Coordinates: 26.967°N 94.619°E / 26.967; 94.619
Country India
StateAssam
DistrictSibsagar
Languages
 • OfficialAssamese
Time zoneUTC+5:30 (IST)
ISO 3166 codeIN-AS
Vehicle registrationAS

The architectural plan of Rangpur spread over almost a thousand bighas of land. Ghanasyam, an architect from Koch Bihar, was deputed by Rudra Singha.[2][3]

Rangpur means the City of delight and in Ahom language it is called Che-mun.

Capital

Capital city

The city of Rangpur was laid in 1698 A.D. by Rudra Singha in Meteka area. It had three gates Borduar (i.e. main entrance), Na-duar and Paniduar besides an underground tunnel connected with the Dikhow river on the north. Rudra Singha's successors did much for the enhancement of splendour and expansion of the city of Rangpur. Ruchinath Kandali, a court poet of Rudra Singha, in his Markendaya Chandi states:

(T)hat king Rudra singha who founded the city of Rangpur brought many learned Brahmans from various places to his capital and established them there by giving jobs and land.

Dikhow River on the north of the town. On south a fort (Garh) near Namdang river, Baangarh on the east and Dikhow-Namdang on the west. Rudra Singha at first established the capital of his Kingdom at Tengabari of Meteka area, and excavated the famous Joysagar Tank. And there after he respectively had constructed the Talatal Ghar, Rangnath Dol, Fakuwa dol, and the Temples on the bank of Joysagar tanks. Siva Singha built five royal buildings.

Ananta Acharyya ( who received royal patronage of Siva Singha and his consort Phuleshwari), in his Ananata Lahari gives a beautiful description of Rangpur:

According to him, Rangpur was second Amaravati (first being the Amaravati of Indra) surrounded by the Visistha Jahnavi (i.e. Dikhow) in the north, the river Namdang in the west and the river Dimbawati (i.e. Dimow) in the south. It was surrounded by four successive mud forts with timber fence on the top and inside of which there were brick and stone ramparts, masonroy buildings, stores of gold, silver, copper, bell-metal, scent, precious ornament, arms and ammunition and tanks full of lotus. Besides these, Rangpur,as he writes, was covered by the lines of trees like-mango, jackal fruit, paniyal (flacourtia catsphracts), jamu (eugenia jambolana), arecanut, orange and cocoanut

Ananta Acharyya, Ananta Lahari

Pramatta Singha later built the Rang Ghar with bricks on the west of Talatal Ghar. Rajeswar Singha later also enlarged and re-constructed the Talatal Ghar with bricks. Lakshmi Singha made a flower garden in which he built the temple of Ekaneswar (siva) with a tank. It remained as dual capital of the Ahoms along with Garhgaon until the internal disturbances occurred in 1787 A.D.[4]

In the reign of Sulikphaa (Ratnadhwaj Singha), he had temporarily established the capital at Meteka, and named it Rajnagar.

Roads and Communications

The main road of the capital was Borali, starting from Dergaon to Joysagar. Some other significant roads of around Rangpur were Meteka ali, Duboroni ali, Borpatra ali etc.

The royal families and the officials used to reside in the -Jerenga pothar, Rupohi pothar etc.[5]

Decline

Rangpur remained the capital during the most glorious period of the Ahom kingdom. The capital fell twice to rebels of the Moamoria rebellion (1769–1805) for which it was deserted. In the first instance, the rebels occupied the capital from November, 1769 to April, 1770, when the Swargadeo, Lakshmi Singha (Sunyeophaa), was kept in captivity in Joy dol till the rebels were defeated by the royalist. In the second instance, the rebels occupied the capital in 1788 during the reign of Gaurinath Singha and held on to it till 1792, when Thomas Welsh of the East India Company removed them. Kamaleswar Singha made some efforts to revive its former glory but Burmese invasions left it a ruined city.

See also

Notes and references
    Citations
    1. Gogoi 1968, p. 508.
    2. "Ghanashyam, the artisan from Bengal employed to construct the Ranghar and the Kareng of Rangpur city, was put to death after being caught red handed with a map of the city concealed between two layers of a water pot." (Gogoi 2017:71)
    3. Gohainbaruah, Padmanath (2004), Asamar Buranji, Guwahati: Asom Prakashan Parishad. p. 72.
    4. Gogoi, Nityananda (2016). Nityananda Gogoi, Historical Geography of Medieval Assam. p. 355. ISBN 978-9383252701.
    5. "History of Rangpur, Sibsagar, Birth of Rangpur". onlinesivasagar.com. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
    • Gogoi, Padmeshwar (1968), The Tai and the Tai Kingdoms, Guwahati: Gauhati University
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.