THE AHOM POLITICAL SYSTEM 33 22 Deodhai, n 12, p 103; Satsari Assam Buranji (in Assamese), S K Bhuyan (ed), Gauhati University, 3rd edn, 1969, pp 8-9. 23 Deodhai, n 12, p 105; Satsari, n 22, pp 9-10. For a similar ritual in the Hukawng valley, see Leach, n 1, pp 297-281. 24 Deodhai, n 12, p 104; Satsari, n 22, pp 9-10. In giving details of the incident, the two chronicles make some confusion over the dates, but th'n could be overlooked. Some chronicles make a mention of only two interregnums instead of three. 25 Quote from Engels, n 1, p 277. 26 Ibid, pp 195, 183-184 and 206-210, 27 Quotes from Ahom Buranji, n 14, p 40. Emphasis added. 28 Quotes from Engels, n 1, p 278. 29 Gait, n 8, pp 83-85; also P Gogoi, The Tai and The Tai Kingdoms with a fuller treatment of the Tai-Ahom Kingdom of the Brahmaputra Valley, Gauhati University, 1968, pp 274-279. Where details somewhat differ, we have followed Gait. 30 Deodhai, n 12, p 15; Satsari, n 22, p 12; Gogoi, n 29. p 282. 31 For the factual data. Gait, n 8, pp 87-96. According to tradition, Habung was a petty medieval principality governed by its Brahmin settlers themselves. It now appears from a recently found copper plate inscription that it was the same as the Ha-Vrnga Visaya where a Brahmin was given land by King Ratnapala (c 10th century). 32 Gait, n 8, pp 98-99. According to Gait, coinage in the Ahom kingdom started not before 1543 and, on a regular basis, only from 1648 onwards. However, there is literary evidence of coins being issued to commemorate coronations in the Dihingiya Raja's reign. One late chronicle gives the credit for introducing coinage to Sudangpha Bamuni-Konwar. However, this is doubtful. In any case until 1648 such issues remained more a coronation ritual than a response to actual demand for currency. 33 Ibid, pp 73n and 73-77; Gogoi, n 29, pp 541-542. 34 The office Vrhat-Patra is mentioned in the Sadiya-Ghepakhowa Copper Plate Land Grant of King (Durlava)-Narayana (c 15th century). See Maheswar Neog's article in Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Diamond Jubilee Volume, 1977-78. 35 Quote from Satsari, n 22, p 13. Translation ours. 36 Gait, n 8, p 87 and for quote, Satsari, n 22, p 21. 37 For evidence supporting this section, see our articles mentioned in n 3. The reforms are dealt with, in a general way, by Gait and other historians, 38 Hemchandra Goswami (ed), Purani Assam Buranji (in Assamese), 2nd edn, 1976, pp 60-61. Before the reforms, as this chronicle mentions, "one or two adult males (Powa) from each paik household reported for work while four, even six of them might have stayed back at home" (trans ours). 39 Virginia Thompson, Thailand the New Siam, New York, 1941, pp 292-293, 313, 541 and 675; Graham, n 10, pp 235-236. Royal demand on a quarter of a peasant's labour was also in vogue in the medieval Koch and Meithei kingdoms. In the latter, for example, an adult male had to work under the Panna/LalIup system for ten days in forty days for the king. Under the Hast-Nafari system in Afghanistan, one of every eight adult males of a village was required to work for the king until about 1919. When his term was over, another co-villager took his place. 40 An Ahom force reached the banks of the Karatoya in hot pursuit of an invading Truko-Afghan army in the 1530's. Since then "the washing of the sword in the Karatoya" became a symbol of the Assamese aspirations, repeatedly evoked in the Bar-Mels and mentioned in the chronicles. 41 For details and documentation, see Amalendu Guha, "Ahom migration: its impact on the rice economy of medieval Assam", Arthavijnana, Vol 9, June 1967. 42 Ahom Bwanji, n 14, p 38, and Deodhai, n 12, pp 100-102.