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



The persecution of the Moamarias that was initiated after 

 an attack on the King in 1704 ultimately led in 1708 to a serious 

 revolt, and the Buranjis state that Gaurinatha fled from Rang- 

 pur, the capital, to Gauhati, leaving the Burha Gohain behind 

 at Jorhat to cope with the rebels. Fighting went on for several 

 years, and in 1713 Bharatha Simha, the leader of the Moamarias 

 at Rangpur, showed by his action in establishing a mint that he 

 regarded Gaurinatha as no longer on the throne. It would ap- 

 pear moreover from the great rarity of the coins of the interven- 

 ing years that Gaurinatha, practically speaking, issued no coins 

 for the entire period from 1710 to 1716, when he was re- 

 instated at Rangpur by the British. 



The minting of coins by Bharatha may also supply another 

 reason, beyond that given by Mr. Gait, for the action of Gauri- 

 natha in appealing to the British in 1714. At the end of 1792 A.D. 

 (= &aka 1714) Captain Welsh, who had been deputed with six 

 companies of sepoys to help Gaurinatha, met the King fleeing 

 from Gauhati, which had been raided by some Moamaria Doms, 

 and shortly afterwards Gauhati was re-occupied. Here Captain 

 Welsh remained for more than a year, busy with the pacifica- 

 tion of Lower Assam, while in Eastern Assam, as the coins 

 show, Bharatha continued to reign. Sarvananda also appears 

 to have begun to strike coins at this time. In January, 1794 

 {Sfika 1715), an advance was made against the Moamarias. 

 Jorhat, where the Burha Gohain had maintained himself ever 

 since Gaunnatha's flight in 1708, was reached in the middle of 

 February and Rangpur entered on the 18th of March. Shortly 

 afterwards a Durbar of re-installation was held. Mr. Gait ap- 

 pears to consider that the Durbar took place in March, but as 

 the coins that were presumably struck on this occasion bear the 



date 1716 and R.Y. 1, while the SUka year 1716 does not 

 commence until April 1st, 1794 A.D. 1 , either the Durbar was 

 held after April 1st, or the coins were slightly post-dated. In 

 consequence of imperative orders from the new Governor- 

 General, the British troops three months later were withdrawn 

 from Assam, whereupon the Moamarias again compelled Gauri- 

 natha to forsake Rangpur. Presumably these were the followers 

 of Sarvananda, as, from the disappearance of his coins, Bha- 

 ratha Simha would seem to have been crushed in Captain 

 Welsh's final operations against the Moamarias. Mr. Botham 

 has pointed out to me that a corroboration of Gaunnatha's capital 



having then become Jorhat is found in the (2 =^f(Di)iovDisai 9 



the Assamese name for Jorhat that occurs at the bottom of the 

 obverse of certain other coins of this year. Another curious 

 variety of the coins bearing the date 1716, is one in the possession 

 of Mr. Botham with the Bengali nnrnW *v (68) at the bottom 



l 



Cunningham, Indian Eras. p. 196. 



