Kamrup region

Ancient Kamrup (350–1140)

The first historical mention of Kamarupa comes from Samudragupta's 4th-century Allahabad prasasti, where it is mentioned along with Davaka and Samatata as frontier kingdoms of the Gupta empire. Davaka, currently in Nagaon district (central Assam), is not mentioned in historical texts again, which indicates that the kings of Kamarupa must have absorbed it. Though the kingdom came to be known as Kamarupa, the kings called themselves the rulers of Pragjyotisha (Pragjyotishadhipati), and not Kamarupa; nevertheless Kamarupa continued to be mentioned in inscriptions, such as Nidhanpur inscription of Bhaskar Varman. Vaidydeva, an 11th-century ruler, named Kamarupa as a mandala within the Pragjyotisha bhukti. According to Sircar, the Kamarupa mandala is congruent to undivided Kamrup of the modern times.

Although the epigraphic records define Kamarupa as a smaller region within the historic kingdom, the 9th–10th-century shakta work Kalika Purana names the kingdom Kamarupa. Yogini Tantra provides the traditional boundary: Karatoya river in the west, Dikkaravasini (Sadiya) in the east and the Brahmaputra-Lakhya river confluence in the south forming a triangle. Both the western boundary as well as the name agrees with the 7th-century account left by Hiuen Tsang, who identified the kingdom as Kamarupa (Ka-mo-lu-po) which was located to the east of the Karatoya (Ka-lo-tu). Thus the ancient kingdom covered not just the present undivided Kamrup region, but also the rest of the Brahmaputra valley as well as most of the northern parts of Bangladesh. The medieval and modern usage of “Kamrup” does not cover this vast region.

Kamrup/Kamata (1255-1581)

The Kamarupa region soon lost a unified political rule. Sandhya, a 13th-century ruler in the Kamarupanagara (Guwahati), moved his capital to present-day North Bengal and his kingdom came to be called Kamata; or sometimes as Kamata-Kamrup, with its eastern boundary at the Manas river. This kingdom was a part of the original Kamarupa kingdom and included in general Koch Bihar, Darrang, Kamrup districts, and northern Mymensing. In the extreme east of the erstwhile Kamarupa kingdom the Sutiya, Kachari and the Ahom kingdoms emerged, with the Baro-Bhuyans providing the buffer between these kingdoms in the east and the Kamata kingdom in the west.

Kamrup/Koch Hajo (1581-1615)

In the beginning of the 16th century Viswa Singha filled the vacuum left by the destruction of the Khen dynasty of Kamata and consolidated his rule over the Baro-Bhuyan chieftains ruling over the Kamrup region, and by the time of Naranarayana, the kingdom extended a firm rule between the Karatoya and the Bhareli rivers. Even though the Koch kings called themselves Kamateshwars (lords of Kamata), their kingdom came to be called the Koch kingdom and not as Kamrup.

In 1581 the Kamata kingdom was bifurcated with Raghudev gaining control over the portion to the east of the Sankosh river up to the Bharali river in the northbank; and east of the Brahmaputra in present-day Bangladesh. Raghudev’s kingdom came to be called Koch Hajo in Muslim chronicles, and Kamrup in Ekasarana documents. As the Mughal gained power in Dhaka, Koch Bihar entered into an alliance with them, and arraigned themselves against Parikshitnarayana, the son of Raghudev, who had come to power in Koch Hajo in the meanwhile. The Mughals pushed eastward, removed Parikshit from power in Koch Hajo/Kamrup by 1615 (up to the Barnadi river), and came into direct military conflict with the Ahom kingdom; and after the first round of battles, they established control over nearly the entire Koch Hajo, right up to Barnadi river.

Sarkar Kamrup (1639-1681)

The Mughals established four sarkars in the newly acquired land---among which were Dhekeri (between Sankosh and Manas) and Kamrup (between Manas and Barnadi). The Mughals lost Kamrup for ever in 1682.

Kamrup/Borphukan's domain (1682-1820)

After the Battle of Itakhuli (1682), the Ahom kingdom established control over Sarkar Kamrup, and it became the domain of the Borphukan, based in Guwahati. The region continued to be called Kamrup and its eastern and western boundaries were identical to the later British district. In addition to the Kamrup region, the Borphukan's domain included the additional region to the east up to Kaliabor. The Koch prince that oversaw Darrang, too, reported to the Borphukan. The Ahoms did not impose their administrative system fully over Kamrup, and the resultant pargana-based system was a mixed Mughal-Ahom system, in contrast to the Paik system in the rest of the kingdom.

Kamrup/Burmese empire (1821-1826)

The region became part of Burmese empire between 1821 and 1826.

Colonial Kamrup (1833-1947)

The region came under Burmese control in 1822. The British, in control over the region to the west of the Manas river since the transfer of Bengal in 1765, marched into Guwahati on March 28, 1824 at the beginning of the First Anglo-Burmese War and established administrative control by October. The Kamrup district that the British constituted in 1833/1836 was largely congruous to the Mughal Sarkar Kamrup of 1639.

Modern Kamrup

After Indian Independence in 1947, the Kamrup district maintained its form. The district was divided, beginning in 1983, and the original district is often called "Undivided Kamrup district". The Kamapitha, Sarkar Kamrup of 1639 and the Undivided Kamrup district from the Colonial as well as the Independent periods is today defined as the Kamrup.