Ahom Dynasty: Examining Assam's Royal Burial Mounds that India proposes for UNESCO recognition

Today, the Indian government submitted the mound-burial system of the Ahom dynasty in Assam as India’s nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage List for 2023–24. The central government announced this in Parliament today.

Ahom Dynasty’s Burial Mounds

The Ahom Dynasty is still known for the royal burial mounds, which are also called Charaideo Maidams or Burial Mounds. They are also popular as the Pyramids of Assam. This place is located at the foothills of Nagaland and is 30 km away from the historical town of Sivasagar.

The capital of the Ahom Dynasty was shifted multiple times, but the Charadeio remained its symbolic center. This burial mound, just like their name, contains the sacred burial grounds of Ahom kings and queens, and it is also the place of the ancestral gods of the Ahoms. The 42 Maidams of Ahom kings and queens at Charaideo hillocks are compared to the pyramids of Egypt and are a piece of architectural wonder, as are the skills of sculptors and masons of Assam of the medieval era. After the 18th century, the Ahom dynasty adopted the Hindu way of cremation, and the bones and ashes were preserved in the Moidam.

Ahom Dynasty: History and Beyond

The Ahom of Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group that comes from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The people of this group are mixed with the descendants of Tai people who came to the Brahmaputra valley in 1228 and joined the locals. The leader of the Tai group, Sukaphaa, and his 9,000 followers established the Ahom Kingdom. The Kingdom stayed for six centuries, from 1228 to 1826, and controlled much of the Brahmaputra valley.

Reportedly, the last capital of the Ahom dynasty was Jorhat. The rule of the Ahom Dynasty ended with the Burmese invasion of Assam and its annexation by the British East India Company.

Burial Mounds Legacy: Why the UNESCO World Heritage Tag

The Indian government got 52 sites for the UNESCO World Heritage tag, and out of them, Assam’s site was selected. Moidams (or Maidams) represent the architecture of the late medieval mound burial traditions of Tai Ahom in Assam. This tradition was part of the Ahom dynasty, which ruled for almost 600 years. There are 386 Ahom dynasty burial mounds explored so far, but 90 of them are best preserved.

These Moidams are vaulted chambers (chow-chali), are double-story, and have arched passage entries. Atop the hemispherical mud mounds, layers of bricks and earth are laid. Moreover, the base of this mound is reinforced by a polygonal toe wall and an arched gateway on the west, according to the UNESCO website.

These vaulted chambers have raised platforms in the center, where the body is laid, and several objects that were used by the deceased during his life.

Ahom Dynasty: Current Status and Importance

The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of the original Tai and their culture and the local people and their culture, which they started following in Assam. The local group of different ethnic groups of Assam that absorbed the Tai lifestyle and polity were incorporated into their folds, which are known as Ahom, and this process is known as Ahomization.

Currently, Ahom people are located in Upper Assam in districts like Golaghat, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, and Tinsukia (south of the Brahmaputra River); and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Bishwanath,and Dhemaji (north), as well as some areas of Nagaon and Guwahati.

Conclusion:-

These burial mounds showcase a different culture and are a prime example of architectural brilliance. The resting place of the Ahom Royal Dynasty has a pyramid-like structure and is also compared to the Egyptian Pyramids, which were built for the same reason. The Ahom dynasty was a mix of the Tai group, which came from China, and the local people. They were first included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in April 2014.