GUWAHATI: Just as its dimension, there are a lot many facts noteworthy of attention about the Kamrup district. Kamrup or Kamarupa or Pragjyotisha has found mention in several historical sources, apart from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
In the 4th century BC, during the Mauryan age, the great political thinker of the time, Kautilya, included Kamrup in discussions in his work the Arthasastra. During the reign of the great Bhaskarvarman from the Varman dynasty, the famous Chinese pilgrim Huien Tsang penned down details about the socio-cultural elements of Kamrup.
It was, however, with the onset of the medieval period that Kamrup acquires a predominant role in the political history of Assam, passing from the hands of the Kamatapur kingdom to the Koch, the Baro-Bhuyan chiefdoms and also the Bengal sultanate for a brief period. Eventually, Kamrup became the centre stage of conflict between the Mughals and the eastern Ahom kingdom, with two significant battles being fought between the two; the Battle of Alaboi in 1669 and the Battle of Saraighat in 1671 by the banks of the Brahmaputra. While the former saw the martyrdom of nearly 10,000 Assamese soldiers in what we know as modern-day Dadara in North Guwahati, the latter became a decisive battle in the historical growth of Assam, inflicting a crushing defeat to the Mughal invaders under the leadership of Lachit Borphukan.
With the advent of the British empire, Kamrup's history got etched into the new books of administrative expediency. It was established as one of the four original districts under the British in Assam in the year 1836, under the charge of a Principal Assistant headquartered in Guwahati. Post-independence, an undivided Kamrup district continued to operate until 2003, when it was bifurcated into two - Kamrup Metropolitan District with its headquarters in Guwahati and Kamrup with its headquarters in Amingaon.
Today, Kamrup stands at the precipice of an exciting time of growth. It stands as a place of tremendous promise in the areas of education, research, industrial growth, tourism among many other things. It boasts of having premier institutes in the region such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Information Technology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology, National Law University and Judicial Academy and the Guwahati Biotech Park. The upcoming All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will also augment the health-care scenario of the district.
Also Watch: