Vol. VI, No. 11.] History & Ethnology of N.-E. India— II. 623 



[N.S.] 



Tantra (quoted on pp. 51 and 52 of Mr. Gait's Report on 

 Historical Research) that the southernmost point of Kamrup was 

 the confluence of the Brahmaputra and Lakhya rivers, i.e., 

 Egaro Sindhu, the spot where 'Isa Khan afterwards erected a 

 fort and where his final struggle with Man Singh took place 

 (cf. Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 1909, p. 372). l Raids from the 

 west and south banks, across the Brahmaputra, would easily 

 account for the occurrence of such a coin as Sikandar Shah's, 

 without any invasion of the country north of the Garo or 

 Khasia Hills being implied, while it is also probable from the 

 fact that a large portion of south-eastern Mymensingh is called 

 after Husain Shah, that this was the " Kamru " Husain Shah 

 boasts on his coins to have conquered. 



Coins in Ahom Script, 



first 



coinage was modelled on coins issued by the sons of Husain 

 Shah of Bengal — either Nasrat Shah or more probably Ghiyasu- 

 d-Dln Mahmud. The first Ahom monarch to issue coins was 

 Suklenmuii, whose coins all date from the 15th year of the 17th 

 taoslnd, or cycle of 60 years current among the Ahoms, equi- 

 valent to 1543 A.D., and the cause of the introduction of a 

 metallic coinage in place of the cowries previously in use was 

 undoubtedly the fact that, through the exertions of Siiklenmun's 

 father Siihunmiin (whose reign began in 1497), the Ahom 

 power, from a petty state, had suddenly expanded into a pro- 

 vincial kingdom roughly co-terminous with that of the ancient 

 Hindu Kings of Kamrup. In 1523, the Chutiyas had been 

 finally crushed and their country annexed; in 1536, the 



Kacharls were sirrnlaxlv t.rfta.tari : while between these dates, as 



invasions 



Muhammadan 



met and the authority of the Ahom King exercised as far as the 

 Karatoya river, i.e., over most of the territory that 40 years 

 before had comprised the Kingdom of Kamatapur. It is true 

 that this boundary was not long maintained, but henceforward, 



as 



1 The Bara Bhuiyas of Eastern Bengal, of whom 4 Isa Khan was the 

 chief, were obviously a local imitation, proximate or remote ,_of the Bara 

 Bhuiyas of Assam previously referred to. Another set of Bara Bhuiyas 

 arealso mentioned among the Kochs (Gait, Hist., p. 46), and as fc Isa 

 Khan made himself lord of Eastern Mymensingh by conquering the 

 Kochs who then held it, it is possible that he was the first to introduce 

 the nomenclature into Eastern Bengal. From the circumstances of the 

 time the Bara Bhuiyas of Bengal soon disappeared, but if an inference 

 may be drawn from the Bengali proverb H n* *TC3T wtw 5T*T *i *\" the 

 system, during its short existence, did not specially commend itself to the 

 people over whom 'Isa Khan and his fellow Bhuiyas ruled. 



