254 W. N. Edwards & H. H. Mann —Assamese Fortification. [No. 3, 
> ; 
An ancient Assamese Fortification and the Legends relating thereto.—By 
Walter N. Edwards and Harold H. Mann. 
(With Plates IV and V.) 
[Read April, 1903.] 
The North Bank of the Brahmaputra in Assam has been explored 
for the remains of the older kingdoms and civilisations in many places 
by Colonel Hannay, who worked in the district lying East and North of 
Dibrugarh, and in 1848 described the forts ascribed to Raja Bishmukh, 
near Sadiya, and by Captain Dalton, whose explorations along the base 
of the Himalayas led to the discovery of a considerable number of 
remains of archaeological interest. In particular was this the case with 
the fortifications which he found in the jungle on the banks of the 
Buroi river some miles before it emerges into the plains of Assam from 
the Himalayas. 
His description 1 of these fortifications runs as follows :— 
“ The mud forts are of considerable size, with lofty ramparts and 
deep ditches, and having tanks of good water within the defences. 
That nearest the village of Gomiri has, raised above its ramparts, high 
mounds of earth which may have been constructed over the graves of 
deceased kings and used also as watch towers. The broad roads are 
well thrown up, and as they lead from the Berhampooter to the gorge 
of the Burhoi, they show that the settlement in the low hills on the 
banks of that river, of which a high stone wall is all that remains, must 
have been of considerable importance. The massiveness of the wall, 
and the labour and trouble that seem to have been bestowed upon it 
point to it as having been the appendage of no mean work. It is about 
a hundred yards in length, of great breadth, and built of solid blocks of 
stone squared and piled with great nicety. A gateway in the centre 
opens towards the river. In some places, the interior is faced with 
brick, and seems as if buildings of that material had been built against 
it. The hill has been levelled to some extent, but no further traces of 
buildings are now discernible. 
1 Taken from the Calcutta Review , 
