The Tai Ahoms of Assam are the members of the great Tai or Thai people of south-east Asia who are found to inhabit in cast region of Indo-China and they are named differently in different places. In East Asia particularly in Myanmar, Thailand (Siam), Indo-China and Yunnan province, they are known respectively as Shan, Siamese, Lao and Pai. But the members of this great race to whatever local groups they may belong call themselves Tai. The Tai population spreads from Assam in the west to Kwangshi province of China in the east and from the Pacific Ocean in the south to the interior of Yunnan province in the north. The first Tai group who came to Assam is locally called the Ahoms. The Ahoms of Assam are the descendants of the Shan branch of Tai people.
The traditional rituals to death had been maintained by the Ahom kings till they came under the influence of Brahmonical Hinduism. Originally, the Ahoms used to bury the dead body which is called “Maidam Diya”. The burial of dead bodies was called “Gorkara”. When a king fell ill and at his death-bed, the news was kept in close secret. Even the close relatives of the king were not informed. The secret is kept till his successor is selected from among the Royal Houses by the nobles (Dangarias) of the court. Immediately on making the news of the death officially public, the new king was placed on throne with all the formalities and grandeur. In this way, the continuity of the rule is maintained and no tangible gap or interval is allowed to exist without king on the throne.
Moreover, when a king died, the dead body was kept inside a six-sided coffin, called “Rung-Dang” made of timber planks of the urium tree. It is the new king who can order a coffin to be made for the dead body of the king to be buried. If the king is alive, but in critical condition without any hope of survival, a religious ceremony called “Dȃm-Lao-Dȃm-Phil” is performed to cut short the period of suffering and the members of the fourteen clans including the three royal priests, three ministers are treated with a feast for which fowls, pigs, goats and cows were killed.
Generally, the dead body of the king is buried by observing certain rites at Charaideo. When a king died, his dead body was not immediately brought out from the palace. A raised platform is made generally of bamboo on the north-east corner within the palace compound with a drain under earth for water to flow. The dead body was then brought out and placed in a sitting posture on the platform which is called “Tai-Ce” where ‘Tai means ‘dead’, and ‘Ce’ means ‘to wash’ or ‘to wet’. A fowl’s egg was broken by striking it on the forehead of the dead body to drive out evil spirits. Then the dead body was washed with a paste of black pulse (Mȃti Mah) and turmeric. An old man of the ‘Lukhurakhan’ clan sits close to the feet of the dead king and gets engaged in washing his feet. This old man volunteers to go into the grave with the dead king. To be buried with the king is regarded as a special privilege. In later period of the Ahom rule, the man of the Lukhurakhan family was replaced by a fowl which is tied near the feet of the dead body at the time of washing it and then buried alive with it. After this the dead body was dressed up with new clothes and kept inside the Rungdang. Only the people belonging to the Lukhurakhan clan could become pall-bearers of the dead bodied of the royal family.
Before the burial procession started towards Charaideo from palace compound, the earthen pots (Udhȃn) of the family kitchen are removed to the courtyard and properly set up for cooking. A fowl is killed and cooked with green vegetables such as Lȃi-Sak without salt and oil. In an earthen vessel separately fine rice of the measure of five muthis (five fistful) (about ¼th of a seer) is boiled. This cooked food is taken in a plate to the dead king sitting on the platform and shown to him. After placing before him, the food is thrown away. Nobody takes it. Meanwhile, some people were engaged in search of a suitable plot for the royal Maidam. After selection, the plot was purified by scattering on it, a handful of gold and silver coins, and then the persons started digging the grave. The dead body was brought out from the palace not through the main entrance but by some new opening made in a corner of the compound. The coffin or the Rung-Dang was borne by the persons belonging to the Gharfalia clan towards the side of the head and the persons belonging to Lukhurakhan clan towards the side of the feet.
The Chief Queen, sons, daughters, other relatives and ministers paid their last respect and offered floral tribute on the ‘Rungdang’. The funeral procession proceeded towards Charaideo along the highway with royal grandeur and formalities as if the king is alive. Everybody along the way must pay obeisance to the deceased king. All the attendants both male and female, with body guards, holding the hengdang walked by the side of the coffin in proper order.
Atleast, ten attendants of the deceased king had to accompany the funeral procession. The ten attendants which were indispensable are- (1) Hengdangdhara-who carries the sword or the kings guard, (2) Changmai- randhani- royal cook, (3) Tamuli-who prepares and supplies betel nut to the king, (4) Pachani-royal messenger of households, (5) Ga-chua-ligiri – personal female attendants, (6) Ligira-male personal attendant, (7) Dhuwakhuwadhara-holder of the tobacco pipe or hooka, (8) Chunwardhara- the holder of the whisk made of the hairs on the tail of a yak, (9) Jara dhara-the holder of the water port with a spout, (10) Pikdan dhara-the holder of the spittoon. These ten attendants are meant to serve the dead king, at least in theory, even in the grave. The dead king is also regarded as living till entombed. If any subject of the king makes a complaint to the king in the coffin on its way to the cemetery, the reply by the coffin bearer or the attendants is tantamount to king’s order and nobody can violate it.
The particular road along which the dead body of the king was carried to Charaideo is called Sa-Nia-Ali (dead body-carrying-road). But the king’s dead body is not buried immediately after is death. It is first embalmed and then made to lie in state for a number of days in a specially built city for preserving royal dead body(Sa-thua-nagar) before burial. For instance: The Ahom king Rudra Singha’s body had been preserved for over 50 days. It is really surprising how a dead body was preserved for a long time. It can be assumed that the Ahoms mush have known some high quality chemicals or organic materials for preservation of dead bodies.
When the dead body of the king reached Charaideo along with the procession, it was customarily washed in a tank called “Sa-dhua-pukhuri”. If construction of the Maidam had not been completed before the arrival of the dead body, it was learnt that the dead body was kept at “Gamotha Nagar” till completion of the Mȃidam. At the place where the Rung Dang was to be buried, a small house was made with the planks of the timber of Sal tree and it is called ‘Kareng-Rung-Dang’. The dead body was placed with the head towards the east, the legs towards the west. As in the case of the pall-bearers, only the persons belonging to Lukhurakhan clan could go inside the Kareng Rung Dang. Then the door of the Kareng Rung Dang was closed and soil was given over it. First soil on the Maidam must be given by the members of the Lukhurakhan clan and others followed later.
Three to four roomed or sometimes two-storied house was made with the planks of Sal tree and later by brick and stone inside the Maidam. From the beginning of the reign of Rudra Singha, the system of using bricks and stones for construction of Maidams, started. It was Rudra Singha, who constructed the Maidam of his late father Gadadhar Singha with concrete. King Gadadha Singha , who established peace in the kingdom after a long period of anarchy and disorder, was not only a powerful king but also led an aristocratic life till his death. So, a two storied palace was constructed inside his Maidam.
Sometimes, even the attendants of the deceased king, elephants and horses were buried alive along with the dead body of the king. To add with, when Pratap Singha’s(1603-41 A.D.) mother died, he entombed her dead body along with four elephants, ten horses, and seven men. The Maidams of the kings were constructed bigger than those of other officials and commoners.
With embracing of Hinduism by Ahom kings, the burial system of the Ahoms underwent a sea-change. The change from burial to creamtion, a Hindu practice, was enforced by Bar Raja (king over king) Phuleshwari, the non-Ahom wife of Hso-Jan-Hpha or Siva Singha (1714-1744 A.D). But she was not cremated but buried and Maidam was constructed by Shiva Singha.
The dead body of king Rajeswar Singha(1751-69 A.D.) was first cremated and later the remains were buried at Charaideo by his successor Lakhmi Singha. According to Ahom Buranji, King Rajeswar Singha died at Dergaon. The new king Lakhmi Singha consulted with the three Dangorias as well as Kirti Chandra Barbaruah and asked their opinion as to what should be done with the corpse. The Barbaruah advised the king to burn the dead body and the king agreed with the Barbaruah. This created discontentment among the Ahom priestly class. Meanwhile, great disorder broke out within the kingdom. When normalcy returned, the king requested the Deodhai Pandits to examine the legs of the fowl. The Deodhais did accordingly and advised the king to entomb his predecessor (i.e. Rajeswar Singha)’s effigy at Charaideo after having performed necessary ceremonies. So, a gold effigy and as well as effigy made of straw was burnt down and the remains were brought to Charaideo and put into a grave. From then onwards, a system of cremation of the dead bodies of Ahom kings first, followed by burial of the remains emerged.
But, nowadays both the system of cremation as well as burial is performed by descendants of the Ahom royal family. However, after annexation of Ahom kingdom by the East India Company, the Ahom royal family as well as aristocrats were deprived of all privileges. So, they had no capabilities to build Maidam after cremation. The reason behind cremation of dead bodies is not acceptance of Hinduism alone but scarcity of burial land also. But some descendants of Ahom royal family have been maintaining the system of burial of the dead bodies though in a very simple way.
Syu Ka Pha is said to have left Maulung in 1215 A.D. with a following of 8 nobles, and 9,000 men, women and children, it may be surmised, that the great majority of his followers were adult males. He had with him 2 elephants, and 300 horses. For 13 years, he wandered about the hilly country of the Patkai, making occassional raids of Naga villages, and in 1228 A.D., he arrived in Khamjang.
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