Moamoria rebellion

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The Moamoria rebellion (1769-1806) was the conflict between the Morans, adherents of the Moamara Sattra, and the Ahom kings in the 18th century. This led to widespread popular discontent against the Ahom king and the nobles and to two short periods in which the Ahom king lost control of the capital. The Ahom kingdom emerged after the rebellion much weakened with their basis of rule, the Paik system, nearly destroyed.

1 Background
2 First phase
3 Second phase
4 End
5 References

[edit] Background

The Ahom kingdom was entering a crisis, as the Paik system on which the state was based, was unable to adapt to the changing economy and the emerging social classes. The rise of the sattras was one of the reason for the leakage of manpower from the Paik system, and as a result the Ahom kingdom and the sattras came into increasing conflict. Moamara sattra, with its adherent from the Moran tribes, were followers of the non-conformist Kala-samhati sect that competed against the royalist sattras belonging to other sects. The Ahom kingdom watched the growth of this sattra with discomfort and heaped insult and repression on the followers of this sattra.

[edit] First phase

On September 15, 1769, Ragh Neog, a leading disciple of the sattra, was flogged by Ahom officials for not supplying the required number of elephants. By November, the Morans led by Ragh Neog, Naharkhora Saikia and his two wives Radha and Rukmini, promised the throne to three Ahom princes and with their help liberated the territory north of the Burhidihing river. On November 21, 1769 the rebels occupied the Ahom capital and placed Ramananda, son of Naharkhora, on the throne. The Ahom king, Lakshmi Singha, was captured and kept a prisoner. All high officers were executed and three common Morans became the three great Gohains. Ragh Neog became the Borbarua, a kanri paik became the Borphukan and two common Ahoms became the Gohains at Sadiya and Marangi.

The rebels did not know how to sustain the rebellion, or usher in a new order. Instead, they began imitating their erstwhile leaders. Ragh Neog seized the wives and daughters of many nobles and kept them in his harem. As some of the rebel officers took on the airs of the old nobility, many rebels were dissatisfied and left the capital led by Govinda Gaonburha and reached Sagunmuri. Taking advantage of this, some of the old nobility killed Ragh on April 11, 1790 with the help of a Manipuri princess in his harem and retook the capital. In the purge that followed, Ramananda the rebel king, Naharkhora, Radha, Rukmini, Astabhujdev, the Moamara sattradhikar and his son Saptabhuj were all executed. After the capital was recaptured the remaining rebel forces under Govinda Gaoburha and others were defeated within a year and a half.

[edit] Second phase

In April 1783 an armed group of rebels attacked Rangpur and Garhgaon. The rebels were repulsed and a general massacre of Morans followed that continued for a month and a half.

In 1786 Harihar Tanti raised an army of Moamarias and Dafla-Bahatiyas. A contingent of the rebels freed Pitambar, a grandson of the late Moamara sattradhikar, who was in the custody of Auniati sattra. The rebels encircled Rangpur and on January 19, 1788 the king Gaurinath Singha and the inhabitants of the capital fled. The captured region was locally administered with Harihar Tanti in the north bank of the Brahmaputra, Howha ruling Majuli, Sarbananda ruling the Moran tracts from Bengmara (present-day Tinsukia). Bharat was made the king. Coins were struck regularly in Bharat's and Sarbananda's names. Purnananda Burhagohain tried to regroup but soon gave up, and established himself in Jorhat, the vanguard of the royalist forces. Other Ahom nobles camped in Darrang and the king in Nagaon where he had to face dissensions and as a result had to move from Nagaon to Guwahati on June 11, 1792.

The counter attacks began around 1792, when Bharat repulsed an attack from the Manipuri king. In 1792 Thomas Welsh of the East India Company came to the aid with 550 well trained and well armed troops. He occupied Guwahati on November 24, 1792 without any resistance and on March 18, 1794, restored Rangpur to Gaurinath Singha. After they received the prize money, Thomas Welsh returned to Bengal in May 25, 1794. Gaurinath Singha died in Jorhat in 1794 and was succeeded by Kamaleshwar Singha. The rebels continued to suffer reverses.

[edit] End

This experience and the military display by Thomas Welsh and his troops encouraged the Ahoms to create a standing army of mostly paid Hindustani sepoys to replace the paik based militia. Phopai, a rebel was killed in 1796 and Bharat, the rebel king in 1799. Sadiya fell to the royalists in 1800. Despite many attempts in 1802 and 1806, Sarbananda held out from Bengmara. He was finally given the title of Barsenapati, and the Matak territory conceded to him.

The Moamaria rebellion thus ended with the creation of an near-independent Matak tract ruled by a Barsenapati and the near-end of the Paik system.