672 Account of the Moa Morah sect. [Aug. 



artificial means. The name of the first gossain was Onee Rood, and 

 disciples seem to have flocked in to him from all the different tribes, 

 such as, Cassarees, Ahoms, Dhooms, Kuleetas, Kaysts, Harees, and 

 others of the lowest classes. And from the upper part of the valley, 

 may be added Sooteahs, Morans, &c. &c. &c. 



Nothing particular is recorded of this sect, until the reign of raja 

 Luckmee Sing, when having joined in the rebellion of this raja's bro- 

 ther, a general massacre was ordered, which was carried into effect, and 

 the gossain, with all his family killed. It is related of Luckmee Sing 

 that his feelings were so vindictive against the gossain, that although 

 he was positively informed not only of his death but that his body had 

 been cut in pieces, still he had the river dragged, for the remains of his 

 enemy, in order to satisfy himself that he had really been killed. 



This general massacre fell very severely on the Morans, and other in- 

 habitants of the Upper Booree Diking, who formed a large portion of 

 the army, which for a time overthrew the rule of Luckmee Sing ; and 

 to this indiscriminate massacre may be attributed the subsequent civil 

 wars of Assam, which in the end have brought it to its present degene- 

 rate and comparatively impoverished state. 



Luckmee Sing seems however to have relented shortly after the 

 massacre above mentioned, and, on a representation beino- made to him 

 by the priests of the opposite sect, he appointed another Gooroo, or 

 spiritual head, over the Moa Mureeahs, in the person of a man named 

 Pitumber, who was said to have been a nephew of the former gossain. 

 As might have been expected this priest and his party retained all the 

 vindictive feeling of their relatives towards the sovereigns of Assam and 

 a second rebellion broke out, in the following weak reign of Goureenath 

 Sing, who fled from his seat of Government for seven years, during 

 which time the Moa Mureeahs set up several rajas of their own. 

 Their names were as follows, Duffla Bohoteea*, Boora Phokan, his 

 son Ugnee Kumwar, and lastly Baroteea, who got rid of his prede- 

 cessor by a trick of rather a ludicrous nature. Having had much influ- 

 ence over Ugnee, he persuaded him that the north bank of the Burhum- 

 pooter was the proper place for his raj, and when he had seen him and 

 his party safely off, he returned, and quietly set himself up in his stead 

 at Rangpore. During this confusion the setting up of rajas seems to 

 have been quite common in Upper Assam, as even the Dhooms of the 

 Moa Mureeah sect set up a raja for themselves, first at Sudiya, and 

 afterwards at Douka khana, on the north bank of the Burhumpooter . 

 This raj was overthrown by the Khamtis. 

 * A Duffla slave. 



