Question

describe the society and culture of the ahoms.

Answer 1

The Ahom are the descendants of the ethnic Tai people who accompanied a Tai prince, Sukaphaa, in his migration from what is now the frontier regions between Myanmar and Yunnan Province in southwest China into the Brahmaputra valley in 1228. Sukaphaa and his followers established the Ahom kingdom (1228–1826), which controlled the Bramhaputra Valley and the territory of modern Assam until the British gained control of the region through the Treaty of Yandabo after their 1826 victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War. In the early days of the Ahom kingdom, although the Ahom made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population, they maintained their original Tai language and practiced their traditional religion. Over time however, the kingdom adopted the lingua-franca of the region the Assamese language as their mother tongue, and the royal court eventually converted to the dominant local religion, Hinduism.

The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of their original Tai culture and the cultures they interacted with in Assam. Some local ethnic groups, including the Tibeto-Burman speaking Borahi, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community, while members of other communities, based on their allegiance to the Ahom kingdom or the usefulness of their talents, were accepted as Ahom. Currently, they represent the largest Tai group in India, with a population of nearly 4 million in Assam, and are the majority ethnic group in the North Bank and Upper Assam Division.

Answer 2

Ahom society: was divided into clans or khels, who controlled several villages – among them were few castes of artisans in the Ahom areas who later made their ways to the nearby kingdoms. Khel often controlled several villages wherein all the adult males served in the army during the war. Also, people had started to move and shift from the heavily populated areas to the less populated ones. The peasant was given land by his village community. When the king could not take it away without the community’s consent.

Ahom culture:The Tai-Ahom were historically seen as "Assamese" people. The term "ethnic Assamese" is now associated by the Indiangovernment with the various indigenous Non-Aryan ethnic groups like Austric, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Aryan Brahmins, Ganaks and Kayasthas indigenousAssamese people of the Brahmaputra valley.