830 Memoir of Sylhet, Kachar, ^ adjacent Districts. [No. 104. 



The Ha-tsung-tsa family was expelled from Kamrup by the Rajas 

 of Kooch Behar, and being driven* into Hirumbha maintained them- 

 selves in a reduced but independent form until the time of Raja 

 Gobindchundra, who after many vicissitudes of fortune, became in 1 824 

 a British tributary, and being murdered in 1830, and leaving no blood 

 relations, terminated the line. 



The people of Tippera are said to have the same origin with the 

 Kacharis, and the similarity of religion, customs, and appearance, 

 makes this probable. It may be added, that the Rajas of both 

 countries have formerly acknowledged the connexion ; the Tippera 

 family being described as a younger branch of the ancient royal 

 family, which in their expulsion from Kamrup established itself in- 

 dependently in the country which it formerly held as an appendage. 



The dates of these transactions cannot be traced? but the Assam 

 Baraujis state, that at the commencement of the Ahom dynasty in up- 

 per Assam, in the 12th century, the Kooch Behar princes had possession 

 of Kamrup, from which, as well as from the date of the first Mahomedan 

 expedition into Kamrup (in 1204) it may be concluded that the sub- 

 version of the Kachar dynasty considerably preceded that era, and that 

 the assertion made by the Kachar chiefs, that their ancestors con- 

 quered Assam about one thousand years ago, is tolerably correct. 



The existence in Kachar, even in these days, of many poor and 

 proud families who disdain to labour for their subsistence, and look to 

 official employment alone as a becoming source of livelihood, the 

 number of offices, and their nature, so inconsistent with the poverty 

 and insignificance of the late petty Court, are among the circumstances 

 which attest the credibility of the story of former power, and taken 

 with traditions current in these countries, entitle the pretensions of the 

 Kacharis to a degree of credit, which they would not otherwise 

 deserve. 



The Kachari language is unwritten, having been superseded for 

 all purposes of business by the Bengali for many centuries, and this 

 circumstance greatly increases the difficulty of all attempts to trace the 



* The tradition is, that the invaders from Kooch Behar were preceded by Brahmans 

 mounted on cows, against whom the Kacharis either could not, or dare not, oppose 

 themselves ; but this is obviously a Hindu fiction. 



