622 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1910. 



the present Kuch Bihar. The ruling section of the tribe in the 

 west called themselves Khens, while those who settled in the 

 Brahmaputra Valley proper from Tezpur to west of Gauhati 

 were known as Kacharis (lowlanders). In the extreme east of 

 the valley, the country round Sadiya, which still retained the 

 old Hindu name of Vidarbha, was in possession of another tribe 

 of the same stock called Chutiyas who appear to have descended 

 from the Hills at a later date than the original Bodos. In 

 addition to these, the Ahoms found in Darrang and Nowgong a 

 confederation of petty chieftains known as the Bdra Bhuiyas, 

 who seem in the first instance to have been established by the 

 King of Kamatapur as * ' Wardens of the Marches ' 9 to hold back 

 the Chutiyas (Gait, op. cit, p. 38), but who afterwards warred 

 indiscriminately on Kacharis and Chutiyas alike. On the whole 

 it is probable that the " Rai of Kamrud " who defeated Mughisu- 

 d-Dln was a Kachari Raja of Pragjyotishpur (Gauhati) ; but at 



the same time it has to be recollected that the story of the ori- 

 gin of the Bdra Bhuiyas indicates that the King of Kamatapur 

 was either actual ruler or suzerain of the Brahmaputra Valley 

 up to the Chutiya frontier — a fact moreover which explains why 



Kamat 



soon after their arrival from Upper Burmah. 



After 1257 A.D., according to Gunabhiram Barua, 1 the 

 Musalman invasions of the Brahmaputra Valley ceased until 

 the time of the " Great Vizier" in 1527 A.D. {vide previous 

 paper, p. 161), but the existence of the coin of Sikandar Shah 



'/ 'Arsah Kamru, 759 A.H. (1357 A.D. : 

 ;/. Indian Museum Catalogue —Bengal coins — No. 38), as well as 



Kamrup proper of 30 coins of various 



April 1893, pp. 



Kings 



Muhammadan 



continued 



old kingdom of Kamrup even to the end of the 14th century. 

 The reported expedition of the Emperor Muhammad Ibn 

 Tughluq of Dilhi into "Assam" about 1337 A.D. may also be 

 recalled in this connexion (Blochmann, Koch Bihar and Asam, 

 Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 1872, p. 79, quoting from the 

 1 Alamgirnamah) , and a recent find has proved that Muhammad 

 Ibn Tughluq' s coins minted at Sunarganw in 733 and 734 A.H. 

 (1333 A.D.) after the death of Gjiiyasu-d-Din Bahadur were 

 current in what is now western Mymensingh. Mr Gait sug- 

 gests on page 61 of his History that the portion of Mymensingh 

 east and north of the old Brahmaputra was only incorporated 

 in Kamrup at the time of Da'ud's defeat by Akbar's soldiers in 

 1575 A.D,, but geographical considerations alone would lead us 



was actually 



Kamrup. That this 



i Assam Buranji, p. 73, Calcutta 1897 edition. 



