A Sketch of Assam: With some account of the Hill TribesButler, John, Major
History
A Sketch of Assam: With some account of the Hill Tribes
Butler, John, Major
Assam (India) -- Description and travel; Assam (India) -- Social life and customs; Ethnology -- India -- Assam
The country of Towung being in Kumpa or Thibet, quite distinct from
Bootan, south of the Sampoo river, it appears that a portion of the
Thibet territory, or more properly the Chinese and British frontiers,
are actually in immediate contact in the Kooreahparah Dooar, about
twenty miles from the Burrampooter river. This Dooar, as we have said,
was governed by these chiefs eight months in every year. During this
period, the seven Rajahs paid periodical visits to the Dooar, and let
loose many hundreds of their followers to range throughout the Dooars,
and quarter themselves gratuitously upon the people: changing from
house to house until they had consumed all the food the poor Ryots had
to give them. The Sath Rajahs had usually a caravan of large herds of
ponies, mules, &c., as far as Umerathal, one march from Oodalgorie. On
their arrival there, the inhabitants of the Dooar were compelled to
take care of the cattle, and be in constant attendance on the Rajahs,
furnishing them with supplies of rice, cloths, spirits, pigs, &c.;
and at the approach of the hot months, the ponies, mules, and donkeys
were laden with the whole of the collections levied from the people
of the Dooar, and the chiefs retreated to the mountains at Nareegooma.
Such was the annual visitation to which the people were subjected the
moment the four months of British rule expired. A gradual decrease of
the population of the Dooar was the natural result of this tyranny; but
the grasping oppression of the Booteahs underwent no diminution. They
made no remission on account of the decay of the population: the same
amount of collections was still drawn from the remaining Ryots. The
country became overgrown with jungle, and the malaria of these plains
was so injurious to the constitutions of Bengalees or Europeans, that
the tract could not be visited with impunity for above a few weeks
in the year. The fevers were most fatal, and life was frequently
extinguished in four or five days. Thieves, highway robbers, and
murderers here sought and found a safe asylum under the shadow of
Booteah rule, by administering to the rapacity of the chiefs. They
surrendered a portion of their ill-gotten wealth in the shape of
fines for the protection given them, in opposition to treaties and
the laws of civilized nations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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