464 Notes on Ancient Temples and other remains [June, 



Admitting also that the kingdom of Kamroop had attained to an 

 equal degree of civilization with coeval Hindu dynasties of central 

 India, * there is nevertheless but little doubt of its having fallen away 

 into a state of anarchy and barbarism, for centuries perhaps, before the 

 middle of the 15th, and this from the influx of impure tribes, on every 

 side ; and their mixing up with the original inhabitants of the plains. — 

 The advent of these having followed upon the dying off of the former 

 dynasties, or their downfal by invasion from Gangetic India, of which 

 last there are two mentioned, that of the Emperor Vicramaditya and 

 of Yitarif a pious Rajput, from Western India, who was the founder of 

 a dynasty in central Assam, which became extinct with Rajah Sukrauk 

 in 1478 A. D. 



Indeed from whatever cause, its beauty, extraordinary fertility, and 

 richness, — or perhaps the unwarlike character of its inhabitants^ — 

 it is certain we hear of Kamaroopa having been the prey of the invader 

 from India, from the time of its being the abode of the primitive 

 Assurs, and Deotas,§ to the last invasion of the Mahomedans of Bengal 

 in the middle of the 1 7th century ; I am inclined however to give its 

 downfall from former greatness, a very early date, at least to a period 

 prior to the first Mahomedan invasion of Kamroop, and would attribute 

 it solely to the peculiar tenets of its people (the worship of Siva) and 

 the prolonged struggles which in former times took place throughout 

 India, between this and the opposite sect of Vaisnava ; and here also 

 we shall find the true cause of the unfinished and ruinous state of the 

 extensive remains in central Assam, as also on its Eastern confines, and 

 not ascribe the desecration, either to the rude hand of the Mahomedan, or 

 the Shan invader. || About the middle of the 15th century, and perhaps 



* The extensive ruins of Sonitpoor or Lohitpoor, as described by the late Capt. 

 Westmacott, prove this I think, and in the praises of Chandragupta, as translated from 

 inscription No. 2 of the Allahabad Pillar, and published in J. A. S. for June 1836, we 

 have in stanza 19, " Of him who when his fame penetrated to the friendly forest of 

 Pines, to Kamarupa, to Nepal," &c. 



t Generally known as Dhuram-pal. 



% In latter days at least. 



§ In thus alluding- to the Assurs and Deotas, I am of opinion that Assam or Kama- 

 roopa was one of the earliest conquests of Indian Khetri kings, and the seat of that pri- 

 mitive Hindooism, (or shall we say Buddhism,) which existed previous to the Brahmini- 

 cal or priestly doctrine which superseded it. 



|| The first invasion of the Mahomedans is stated to have been in the parly part of the 



