Sabir Nishat
(sabirnishat554@gmail.com)
One of the greatest warriors Assam has ever produced is none other than the Ahom general, Lachit Barphukan who crushed the formidable Mughals in the historic Battle of Saraighat.
To commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of this great warrior, the Government of Assam is organizing the event in a grand manner not only in Assam but also in the national capital on November 23 and 24.
"The aim behind holding the event in Delhi is to bring into national limelight the great warrior, who is hitherto lesser known in other parts of the country," said Director of Information & Public Relations, Bishnu Kamal Bora.
As part of the celebrations, an app and a portal lachitbarphukan. assam.gov.in have been launched by Assam Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma.
On February 25 this year, the then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind kick-started the 400th birth anniversary celebrations of the 17th century Ahom general in Guwahati.
The defeat in the Battle of Saraighat near Guwahati in 1671 sounded the death knell of the expansionist policies of the Mughals in the North-East.
In the greatest naval warfare ever fought, Ahom general Lachit Barphukan inflicted a crushing defeat on the formidable Mughals.
But before this battle, the Ahom forces led by Barphukan lost the Battle of Alaboi on August 5, 1669 in which around 10,000 Ahom soldiers lost their lives.
Even before that in the year 1663, the Ahoms had to suffer another defeat at the hands of Mir Jumla, the Bengal subedar of the Mughal kingdom, during the reign of Jayadhwaj Singha. The next Ahom king, Chakradhwaj Singha took the pledge that he would not rest till he wrested the territories lost to the Mughals following the Treaty of Ghiljarighat. And who could be the better choice to lead the Ahom army than the courageous, valorous and man of steely determination, Lachit Barphukan? Chakradhwaj appointed Barphukan as commander of the Ahom army in August, 1667. Soon afterwards on November 4, 1667, Lachit's army emerged victorious and recaptured Guwahati from the Mughals. Following this defeat, Aurangzeb sent a massive army headed by Raja Ram Singh comprising 30,000 infantry, 4,000 troopers, 21 Rajput chiefs with their contingents, 18,000 cavalry, 15,000 archers, 5,000 gunners, 1,000 cannons and 40 ships.
Fully aware of the challenges he was confronted with, Barphukan resorted to guerilla warfare tactics and constructed several mud embankments in and around Guwahati to impede the movement of the Mughal army. His strategic move was aimed at compelling the Mughal forces to take the river route, as he was aware of the fact that though the Mughals were a force to reckon with in cavalry, they were not in a state of preparedness to wage naval warfare.
Racing against time, the Ahoms under the command of Barphukan went on to raise mud embankments to foil the desperate bid of the Mughal army to reconquer Guwahati. While inspecting an embankment during midnight at Agiathuri near Guwahati, Lachit saw that there was no activity at all at the construction site with all the soldiers lying fast asleep. He got furious and asked his maternal uncle, who was entrusted with the task of building the embankment, as to why construction work had come to a standstill. His uncle replied that the soldiers were drained out to carry out further work. Without waiting for a second, Barphukan took out his 'Hengdang' (Ahom sword) in a flash and beheaded his uncle saying, "Dexotkoi Momai Dangor Nohoi (My uncle is not greater than the country)."
In the wake of the reversal at the Battle of Alaboi, Lachit took some time, almost two years, to re-galvanize his forces. With a well laid-out strategy, Barphukan was waiting to pounce on the Mughals. However, he fell seriously ill. When this news spread, the Ahom soldiers became demoralized. Much against the advice of physicians, Barphukan went to the battle front. His unbounded love for his land comes to the fore when he uttered, "In the midst of an invasion against my country and my army fighting and sacrificing its lives, how can I rest my body because I am ill? My country is in trouble. How can I think about heading home to my wife and children?"
Lachit's presence ignited his army and infused great vigour in them. Ahom warships started pounding on the Mughal navy with impunity following which Mughal admiral Munnawar Khan and more than 4,000 Mughal soldiers perished.
Smarting under the humiliating defeat, Ram Singh, the commander of the Mughal army, wrote a letter to Emperor Aurangzeb heaping encomiums on the Ahom soldiers: "Every Assamese soldier is an expert in rowing boats, archery, digging trenches and wielding guns and cannons. I have not seen such specimens of versatility in any other part of India. One single individual leads all the forces. Even I, Ram Singh, was not able to find any loophole."
Soon after this historic victory, Lachit Barphukan succumbed to his illness at Kaliabor.
To perpetuate his hallowed memory, a war memorial is coming up at Alaboi near Dadara in the Kamrup district. Besides Barphukan's statue, the memorial will also showcase a 100-ft-long 'Hengdang'.
It would not be out of place to recall the contributions of former Governor of Assam Lt Gen (Retd) SK Sinha in taking the story of Lachit Barphukan to the rest of India. One of Sinha's biggest achievements was to convince the authorities at the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune to institute an award in the name of Lachit Barphukan. The NDA confers the Lachit Barphukan gold medal to its best cadet every year.
Sinha was also instrumental in the unveiling of Lachit's bust at the NDA's entrance on November 14, 2000. The monument in North Guwahati known as Kanai Borosi Bowa Sil, too, owes its resurrection to Sinha.
While the rest of India was ruled by foreigners, Assam was the only state which thwarted all invasions and remained truly Indian. And for this, salute must be accorded to great warriors like Lachit Barphukan who defended the land from external aggressions with all their might.