AHOM BURIAL SITE - ART AND CULTURE
News: Pyramid-like
Ahom burial mounds in Assam to vie for UNESCO World Heritage Site tag
What's in the news?
● The
Centre has decided to nominate Assam’s
Charaideo Maidams - the Ahom equivalent of the ancient Egyptian pyramids
for the UNESCO World Heritage Centre this year.
Key takeaways:
● Prime
Minister Narendra Modi chose the maidams, representing the late medieval
(13th-19th century CE) mound burial tradition of the Tai Ahom community in Assam, from among 52 sites across the country
seeking the World Heritage Site tag.
● The
nomination of the Charaideo Maidams has attained significance at a time when
the country is celebrating the 400th
birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan.
● There
is currently no World Heritage Site in the category of cultural heritage in the
northeast.
● The
dossier [to push for the case of the Charaideo Maidams] was prepared in
technical collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India.
Charaideo Maidams:
● The
Charaideo Maidams enshrine the mortal
remains of the members of the Ahom royalty, who used to be buried with their
paraphernalia.
● After
the 18th century, the Ahom rulers adopted the Hindu method of cremation and
began entombing the cremated bones and ashes in a Maidam at Charaideo.
● Out
of 386 Maidams or Moidams explored so far, 90 royal burials at Charaideo are
the best preserved, representative of and the most complete examples of mound
burial tradition of the Ahoms.
Ahom Dynasty:
● The
Ahom rule lasted for about 600 years
until the British annexed Assam in 1826. Charaideo,
more than 400 km east of Guwahati, was the first capital of the Ahom dynasty
founded by Chao Lung Siu-Ka-Pha in 1253.
● The
Ahoms ruled Assam for over 600 years and have a record of being one of the
longest reigns in the world.
● They
acted as a threshold that protected the entire South East Asia from ruthless
invasions.
Lachit Barphukan:
● Lachit
Barphukan was the famous General of the Ahom army who defeated the Mughals and halted the expanding ambitions of Aurangzeb in
the second half of the 17th century.
● He
excelled in the art of Guerrilla Warfare.
● Lachit
Borphukon’s valorous leadership led to the decisive defeat of the Mughals at
the Battle of Saraighat in 1671, registering for him a unique space in the
annals of Assam history.
● In
the Battle of Saraighat, Borphukan
led his army from the front to a resounding victory despite being terribly ill.