ASSAM MOIDAMS - HISTORY
News: Assam’s
pyramid-like structures known as moidams or maidams have met all the technical
requirements of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre.
What’s in the News?
Charaideo Maidams
- The Charaideo
maidams represents the late medieval (13th-19th century CE) mound burial
tradition of the Tai Ahom community in Assam.
- The Ahoms preferred
to place the departed family members at Charaideo where the first king
Sukapha was laid to rest.
- The historical
chronicles inform that wives, attendants, pet animals and huge quantity of
valuables were buried with the departed kings.
- 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
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.
Architecture details
- Architecturally it
comprises a massive underground vault with one or more chambers having
domical superstructure.
- It is covered by a
heap of earthen mound and externally it appears a hemispherical mound.
- At the top of the
mound a small open pavilion chow-chali is provided.
- An octagonal dwarf
wall encloses whole maidam.
Ahoms Dynasty
- The Ahom, also known
as the Tai-Ahom, are an ethnic group from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in
India.
- This ethnic group is
made up of interbred descendants of the Tai people, who first came to
Assam’s Brahmaputra valley in 1228, and indigenous people who later joined
them.
- Sukaphaa, the Tai
group’s leader, and his 9000 supporters founded the Ahom empire (1228–1826
CE), which ruled over part of modern-day Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley until
1826.
- Charaideo, more than
400 km east of Guwahati, was the first capital of the Ahom dynasty founded
by Chao Lung Sukaphaa in 1253.
The current Ahom people and culture are a mix of the
ancient Tai people and culture, as well as indigenous Tibeto-Burman people and
cultures that they assimilated in Assam.
Source:
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/assams-700-yr-old-moidams-to-be-considered-for-world-heritage-list-9464542/#:~:text=The%20700%2Dyear%2Dold%20mound,in%20New%20Delhi%20on%20Sunday.