Cultural Development of Kamarupa

Kamarupa was most a powerful and formidable kingdom in Northeast India ruled by three dynasties (Varmans, Mlechchha and Palas) from their capitals in Pragjyotishpura, Haruppeshwara and Durjaya. From these three capitals, its culture and influence spread over the entire region.
Early development.
Xuanzang's account from the seventh century states the people of Kamarupa worshiped the devas and did not believe in Buddhism. There were a few Buddhists who performed devotional rites in secret for fear of persecution. Shilabhadra is said to have stated that Buddhism had spread there.
Bhaskaravarman, with tutelary deity Shiva, is said to have treated the accomplished shramanas with respect. 
This is not, however, probable for the inscription was recorded immediately after the conquest of Karnasuvarna, at least thirty years before Bhaskaravarman met either Xuanzang or Sri Harsha. Evidently the influence of Buddhism was felt in Kamarupa long before Bhaskaravarman came to occupy the throne. According to the "Rajatarangini", the Kamarupan king of the fifth century, who was the father of Amritaprabha, was himself a Buddhist as his religious preceptor was a Tibetan Buddhist. The fact is that Buddhism spread into Kamarupa at a very early era but it was not widely accepted as a faith by the people at large. Edward Albert Gait, in his "History of Assam", writes, "It was formerly thought that Buddhism had at one time great vogue in Assam, but this view seems to have been erroneous There is no trace of this religion in the old records and inscriptions."
The above statement will not stand scrutiny for, as stated above, the Law of Buddha is mentioned in the inscription of Bhaskaravarman himself. Similar mentions are found in the inscriptions of Indra Pala and Dharma Pala. Indra Pala's first inscription mentions a sasana or charter connected with the name of "Tathagata" which cannot but mean Buddha. It seems that close to the lands granted by this king there existed a chaitya or stupa, over some relic of Buddha, in favour of which an endowment was made by a previous king. It should refer here to the strong tradition current in Nepal and Tibet to the effect that the parinirvana of the Buddha took place in Kusinagara, a town in Kamarupa. Laurence Waddell identifies it with the modern town of Sualkuchi, some nine miles to the west of Guwahati and eight miles to the south of the Hayagriva Madhava Temple which is still visited by Bhutanese Buddhists. Kusinagara was, however, the chief town of the clan of Mallas who cannot, by any means, be associated with any part of modem Assam. Waddell's identification is evidently wrong. Very likely Kusinagara or Kosinagara was a town on the east bank of the Kosi as it emerged from the Nepal hills. It was therefore probably a town, on the Nepal border, within the modern district of Purnea Which was, in the ancient times, included within Pragjyotisha. The Tibetan tradition was not therefore baseless.
In his inscription, Bhaskaravarman is said to have revealed the light of Aryan religion Aryadharma in his kingdom by dispelling the accumulated darkness of the Kali age. It is not sure that here also can detect a particular reference to the Law of Buddha. It may be that Arya Dharma meant the Buddhist or Brahmanic tenets as opposed to the tribal beliefs of the numerous Tibeto-Burman tribes who lived in the country. Bhaskaravarman and his predecessors were Saivas and not Buddhists or Jainas and, being also regarded as good Kshattriyas, they were naturally looked upon as the patrons and protectors of the Brahmans. In the neighbouring Magadha empire the rulers, like the Mouryas and the Guptas, were either Buddhists or patrons of Buddhism. The Mourya emperor Ashoka, with his missionary zeal for the propagation of the Buddhist faith, must have done all in his power to popularise this tenet within his empire without going to the length of persecuting Brahmans. This is why a large number of Brahmans immigrated to Kamarupa at an early period. As pointed out by Vidya Vinod, can find, in a single village in Kamarupa, more than 200 families of Brahmans about, in 500 A.D.
The kings of the dynasty of Salastambha, between the seventh and the tenth centuries, were perhaps more orthodox in their religious beliefs than their predecessors, the descendants of Pushyavarman. In the inscriptions of these kings do not find the slightest trace of any reference to the Buddhist faith. These kings were the worshipers of their tutelary deities "Kameswara Maha Gauri" mentioned in the inscription of Vanamala. They had their capital much further up the Brahmaputra in modem Tezpur. They therefore found the necessity of having another shrine like Kamakhya near their capital. The second Kamakhya temple, on the Kamakuta hill near Silghat, mentioned in the inscription of Vanamala, was therefore founded. In this inscription mention is made of the numerous temples in the country and the sound of incantations proceeding from the various places where Yajnas were performed. Vanamala himself rebuilt the large temple of Hatakeswara. This system still persists in the Siva temples of Hajo and Dubi in Kamrup and it may have been part of the Tantrik system.
Whatever that may be, although Brahmanic rites were widely prevalent amongst the populace there is no doubt that Buddhism also flourished, for it is mentioned in the "Sankara Digvijaya" that Sankaracharya, the famous leader of the Brahmanic revival, in the beginning of the ninth century A.D., came to Kumarupa in order to defeat Abhinava Gupta, the noted Buddhist scholar, in controversy. Abhinava Gupta probably belonged to Kamarupa or at least flourished there in the ninth century. About the same time, or a little earlier, Kumarila Bhatta, another Brahmanic leader, flourished in India. It is believed by some that he was a native of Kamarupa. The fact that both Abhinava Gupta and Kumarila Bhatta, two well-known leaders of two opposite schools, flourished about the same time in Kamarupa, clearly shows that there were adherents of both Brahmanism and Buddhism in Kamarupa during the rule of the earlier kings of the line of Salastambha.
Sculptured images on stones and terra-cotta plaques, which unmistakably represent Buddha and which can be assigned to the tenth or the eleventh century, have been found from excavations at Guwahati. One of them is a distinct image of Buddha on a thin stone-slab, the figure exhibiting the Abhay mudra. The other is a terra-cotta votive tablet with the image of- Buddha stamped on it. It is true that both of these images are of a portable nature and might easily have been imported from outside the kingdom by some Buddhists. Terra-cotta plaques with the stamped image of Buddha, exactly similar to the one found at Guwahati and, as a matter of fact, impressed with the same stamp, have been found in large numbers in Bengal and Bihar. Evidently these were sold at places of Buddhist pilgrimages but their occurrence in Guwahati shows that there were then Buddhists in Kamarupa. Another important find from excavations in Guwahati is a large and heavy stone-slab containing the image of a deity with four faces and eight arms and a Chaitya above the head as tiara. The image is carved in the centre of the slab, all round being lotus-petals carved deep into the stone. One side of the slab is broken. The sitting pose of the deity is adamantine (vajrasana). It is probable that this is the representation of Mahapratisara, a Buddhist Goddess of the period of Tantrik Buddhism. According to the Sadhanamala, a Buddhist work, the Mahapratisara should have a Chaitya above the head. The image is however so corroded now that it is hardly possible to interpret it with confidence. In any case, the stone-slab on which the image is carved is certainly not portable.
When the Salastambha dynasty was succeeded by the dynasty of Brahma Pala and the capital was removed to the vicinity of Guwahati the same tutelary deities, mentioned as "Mahn Gauri Kameswara" in the inscription of Indra Pala continued to be worshipped by the kings. Indrapala's first inscription states that his grandfather Ratna Pala established numerous Siva temples in the country and that during his reign the houses of Brahmans were full with riches presented by the king, the places where Yajnas were performed had numerous sacrificial altars and the sky was overcast with the smoke caused by numerous homs. It is said of Indra Pala himself that he was well-versed in the Tantras. It is clear therefore that Tantrikism had then been already introduced into the kingdom. This system, as an offshoot of Buddhism of the Mahayana school, developed about the ninth century under the Pala rulers of Magadha. It was the Pala king Dharma Pala who founded the Buddhist university at Vikramashila which became the famous centre of the Tantrik doctrines. From this centre Tantrikism probably spread into Kamarupa and Tibet. Babu Nandalal Dey writes:
This is how Tantrikism originated. It ultimately spread into Kamarupa and established for itself a stronghold in Kamakhya. This disposes of Sir Edward Gait's supposition that Tantrikism originated in Assam. The Kamarupa kings, probably after Brahma Pala, adopted Tantrikism as their tenet and, as a result of this royal patronage, Kamakhya soon became a renowned centre of Tantrik sacrifices, mysticism and sorcery. That system of mystic Buddhism, known as Vajrayana and popularly called the "Sahajia cult", found its way into Kamarupa as early as the tenth century, is corroborated from an unexpected source. It is found from Tibetan records that some of the eminent Buddhist professors in Tibet, of the tenth and the eleventh centuries, hailed from Kamarupa.
Giuseppe Tucci states, on the authority of two Tibetan works viz "Grub To'b" and the "Bka ababs bdun ldan" that the noted Buddhist Siddha Minanatha, who was looked upon in Tibet as an avatar of Avalokiteswara, was a fisherman from Kamarupa. The statement of Mahamohopadhya Pandit Haraprasad Sastri that Minanatha was a native of Bengal belonging to the "Nath" or weaver caste is evidently incorrect. It is also found from the same Tibetan records that Rahula, another Buddhist teacher in Nepal, was a Sudra from Kamarupa. It is said that he was a disciple of Nagarjuna who should not, however, be confused with the famous preacher of the Mahayana. The preceptor of Rahula was perhaps the Nagarjuna mentioned by Alberuni who stated that Nagarjuna flourished about 100 years before his time. Thus both Nagarjuna and Rahula can be placed about the middle of the tenth century. Nagarjuna was also a physician and alchemist. In the Kamrupi Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia there are still certain specific remedies which are associated with the name of Nagarjuna.. Besides Minanatha and Rahula, two other Buddhist teachers mentioned in Tibetan records viz. Mohidhar and Darik also very probably belonged to Kamarupa. Minanatha is supposed to have been the author of a work known as Akulaviratantra and he is mentioned in the Sabaratantra as one of the twenty four Kapalika siddhas.
The fact that Minanatha, one of the 24 Kapalika siddhas, hailed from Assam leads one to suppose that the very revolting religious practices associated with the Kapalikaas, perhaps to some extent exaggerated by their opponents, were at one time in vogue in Kamarupa, at least among the lower classes of society, such as the fishermen. What connection these Kapalikas had with the votaries of the Sahajia cult is not known. There is however evidence to show that the Kapalika sect existed as early as the time of Asanga and Harivarman about the fourth century A.D. Evidently both of these sects were offshoots of Tantrik Buddhism and both practised similar rites. Abhinava Gupta, to defeat whom Sankaracharva came all the way to Kamarupa, was the author of two well-known works on Tantra viz, the Tantrasara and the Tantraloka. Evidently, in the ninth century, Abhinava Gupta had a great following in Kamarupa and that is why Sankaracharva found it necessary to fight him. These Tantriks have of course been painted in the blackest colours by the Brahman revivalists of an earlier age and by the Vaisnava reformers of a subsequent period, but a considerable mass of Tantrik literature has now become accessible to scholars some of whom do not seem to subscribe to the sweeping condemnation of Tantrikism as a tenet. Here is what Giuseppe Tucci, a competent authority, has got to say on the subject:-
The probability is that the esoteric teachings of the tenet were high and sublime but they were actually comprehensible only to a few, called Siddhas, whereas the common folk were mystified by the feats of sorcery performed by the lower order of the preachers who could thus trade on the credulity of the common people and compel them to submit to their demands. It is therefore well that these esoteric teachers and their practices were suppressed by the Brahmans and the Vaisnavas, of a later period, not so much with the help of the ruling kings but chiefly by appeal to the common people themselves.
The influence of Kamrupi Buddhist preachers in Tibet incidentally proves the close cultural connection between Tibet and Kamarupa in the early ages. It is find the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Stunpa acting as preceptor to a Kamarupa king, probably Balavarman I, in the early part of the fifth century. The image of Buddha found at Guwahati, exhibiting the Abhaya Mudra, with its distinctly Mongolian physiognomy and a thick shawl covering the whole body, down to the ankles, seems to be unmistakably of Tibetan origin. It will appear from what have stated above that several noted Buddhist scholars, as well as critics of the Buddhist doctrines, flourished in Kamarupa between the eighth and the tenth centuries.
It find from Xuanzang's biography that during his stay in Nalanda a learned pundit of Kamarupa went to engage in a controversy with the Buddhist scholars and professors assembled there. According to the account of the Chinese pilgrim, Bhaskaravarman was a lover of learning and Kamarupa was a seat of learning. He found that during the first half of the seventh century students from other parts of India came to Kamarupa for study. It has been pointed out that Visakha Datta, the author of the well-known drama Mudrarakshasam, who flourished towards the latter part of the seventh century, very probably belonged to that part of Kamarupa which lay between the Teesta and the Kausika. It is reasonable to suppose that he belonged to the colony of Nagar Brahmans settled in the Chandrapuri vishaya. This is indicated by his surname Datta. It is not therefore at all strange that Kamrupi pundits were honoured in other parts of India also. In the copper-plate inscription of Anantavarman, the Ganga king of Kalinga (Circe 922 AD.) It find the mention of a Kamrupi pandit, named Vishnusomacharya, to whom Anantavarman granted lands. This Brahman belonged to the Parasara gotra and his native village was Srangatika in Kamarupa. It is not possible now to identify this village in Assam or Northern Bengal with any degree of certainty.
The inscriptions of Vanamala and Ratna Pala, while describing their capitals, specially mention that they were abodes of many learned men, as these kings were patrons of learning. The Kalika Purana, a well-known work, gives the Sanskritized names of most of the rivers and hills of Brahmaputra valley. It gives a full account of the Naraka legend and the old city of Pragjvotishpur. It dwells upon the special merit and sanctity of the shrine of Kamakhya. There is hardly any doubt that this work, like perhaps the Yogini Tantra, was compiled in Kamarupa probably at a time when the kings claiming descent from Naraka were ruling, when the capital was in the neighbourhood of the old city of Pragjyotishpura and the shrine of Kamakhya and when Tantrikism was the prevailing tenet. It can therefore tentatively assign this work to the eleventh century when the kings of the dynasty of Brahma Pala, who claimed descent from Naraka and particularly distinguished themselves from the previous mlechha dynasty, were ruling. In the Kalika Purana the mantra given to consecrate the sword meant for the human sacrifice runs as follows:-
Chinese pilgrimage accounts.
In the seventh century Xuanzang found that the language spoken by the people of Kamarupa differed to an extent from that spoken in mid-India. This shows that the language then spoken in Kamarupa was a Prakrit proto-Axomia dialect. It was probably an eastern variety of Prakrit bearing close affinity to Maithili and it was no doubt the parent of modern Kamrupi or Assamese language. The Chinese traveller's account also makes it clear that, even at such an early age, the people in general had adopted a Prakrit language mixed with Austric,Dravifian, Tibeto-Burman dialects and that therefore 
some Aryans had settled in the kingdom and diffused their culture many centuries before his visit.
The language used in the dohas, by the Buddhists of Kamarupa in the ninth or the tenth century, was not necessarily the actual spoken language. These dohas were composed in a language which was perhaps the lingua franca in Northeastern India at that time.
It find from the inscription of Vanamala that, towards the middle of the ninth century, he reerected the lofty (like a peak of the Himalaya) white temple of Hataka Siva which had fallen down. Probably the temple had been destroyed by an earthquake. It is evident that this temple was rebuilt with bricks and stones and was white washed. The inscription of Balavarman III states that Vanamala erected a huge palace consisting of many rooms and decorated by carvings. Again in the Ratna Pala inscription it find it mentioned that in his capital at Sri Durjaya, towards the middle of the eleventh century, the disc of the sun was hid from view by the thousands of plastered turrets. The Indra Pala inscription states that Ratna Pala constructed numerous white temples of Siva throughout the kingdom. These references make it clear that architecture had reached a high state of perfection during the rule of these kings and also earlier. As a matter of fact, architectural remains, going back to first millennia, exist to this day. Although no regular archaeological exploration has yet been undertaken in Assam the existing remains are by no means inconsiderable. In sites of old cities like Guwahati, Tezpur, Xilghat and Biswanath, one can notice scattered remains in abundance.
Standard of architecture.
The capital of the Varman dynasty, around modern-day Guwahati, ceased to be the capital for more than three hundred years.
In the late 19th century, the foundations of an old stone and brick enclosure wall in the eastern part of this town were dug up in order to find out stones to be broken into road-metal. Numerous carved and chiseled stones were broken into fragments to provide road metal. Some were preserved, not by the authorities, but by individuals taking interest in relics of antiquities. Since the establishment of the Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti, some of these scattered relics have been collected and placed in the small museum of the Society. These collections include some sculptured images of deities, chiselled octagonal or hexagonal stone pillars, carved stone pedestals of pillars and finely carved panels containing figures of elephant-heads en face, lion-heads and human heads, used to decorate the outer side of the stone plinths of palaces or temples. The elephant-head en face is a peculiarity of Pragjyotisha as the kings invariably used the same emblem in the metal seals of their copper-plates. The rock-cut images of Vishnu and Ganesa found in or near Guwahati similarly go back to an early age. 
The shrine of Pandu contains five rock-cut figures four of which represent Ganesa and one represents a female deity, probably Durga. Two more figures cut in the open rock below, facing the Brahmaputra river, represent, according to Mr. Dikshit, the sun-god and Indra respectively. Numerous cuttings on rock are to be seen also on the western slope of the Kamakhya hill. These include miniatures of temples of the shikhara type with small lingas enshrined in them and also rock cut niches containing lingas and figures or Ganesa. On the west side of the Kamakhya temple is a modern temple, known as Ghantakarna, into the basement of which stone fragments of older temples have been built. One of these fragments, as described by Mr. Dikshit, This is also undoubtedly an ancient piece of sculptured art.
Mr. R. D. Banerji thinks that these carvings belong to the seventh or the eighth century A.D. The ruins existing in or near Tezpur are much more extensive and varied in character. The Dr. Bloch conjectured that the modem civil stations of Guwahati and Tezpur stood upon large mounds " which contain the remains of two ancient cities." In 1906, while foundations were being dug for additions to the Deputy Commissioner's office in Tezpur, the excavators came upon the remains of an ancient stone building. A large number of carved and sculptured stones were discovered. The majority of then were transferred to the compounds of the European officers and the tea-planters club for the purpose of decoration. Some of them were subsequently brought to the Cole Park and arranged there. The Mr. R. D. Banerji, Superintendent, Eastern Circle, Archaeological Survey of India, wrote as follows in the Annual Report for the year 1924-25 :-
According to the general practice in Hindu temples, the central niche or panel of the lintel of the stone door frame of the sanctum is generally occupied by the presiding deity of the temple. It appears certain, therefore, that this gigantic temple was dedicated to Surya or the Sun god. The sill of this door-frame is also of gigantic dimensions and shows a vase in the center flanked by two lions statant. Each end is occupied by a niche containing a male and a female and flanked by a smaller and narrower niche on a recessed corner, containing a single human figure. It is a pity that the jambs of this enormous door-frame have not been discovered as yet. The large jamb in the public park appears to belong to a much later period. It is impossible therefore to deduce the height of the door-frame correctly, but it is obvious from the length of the lintel and the sill that the height of this door-frame could not have been less than 15'. If the height of the stone door-frame of the main entrance to the sanctum was 15' then the height of the interior of the chamber must have been 20' to 25`, leaving to imagine the total height of the spire or shikhara of the original temple, which must have been considerably over 100'. The majority of the carved stones in the public park at Tezpur are taken from the plinth mouldings and string-courses of the gigantic temple, the door-frames of which have been described above. The string-sources were ornamented with kirtimukhas of various shapes and sizes and sunken panels containing ornamental rosettes and meandering creepers. Some of them are evidently portions of enormous capitals which were held together by metal clamps or dowels.
In the center of some of these pieces there is a projecting niche flanked by round pilasters containing divine figures. In one of these niches it find a fat female squatting on the ground, holding a piece of cloth over her head, while a female stands to her left with her hands clasped in adoration. The second specimen of the same type contains the figure of a goddess holding a lyre in her hands, evidently Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. A third specimen contains the well-known group of Kamalatmika or Gajalakshmi, more commonly known in Bengal and Assam as Kamale-Kamini in which two elephants pour water over the head of a goddess from vases held in their trunks. A fourth specimen contains figures of Siva and Durga seated in the well-known conventional posture so common in images of this particular type in northern India. The outlines of the plinth mouldings show that the medieval architects of Assam employed the same motifs and figures as those in other provinces of northern India. Some of these ornaments appear in relief as diamond-shaped and circular rosettes, set in between arabesque work of a type known from the temples of Orissa.
The most remarkable specimen in the collection in the public park at Tezpur, however, is a slab taken from the upper part of the plinth mouldings. It is divided into a number of sunken panels by means of circular pilasters, each containing a male or female, two females or two males. Beginning from the right it find a man fighting with a lion, a male playing on a flute and a female dancing by his side, two males playing on conch shells, a male playing on a drum and a female dancing by his side, a female playing on a lyre and another dancing to her right, a male playing on a drum and another dancing to his left. This slab apparently formed part of a series of similar panels all round the lower edge of the walls of the sanctum. Another slab bears on it a conventional representation of the Chaitya-window pattern, so common in the temples of Central India, especially those in the Rewa State and at Khajuraho. The interior of the sunken panels is entirely covered with geometrical patterns with a half rosette in the center. The second group of sculptures at Tezpur belongs to a temple erected in the twelfth century A. D. if not later. The size of the stones indicates that the temple was very large in size and provided with a very tall spire.
There are two specimens in the public park at Tezpur which appear to belong to another temple of some later date. One of these is a high doorjamb and the second a slab bearing three sunken panels occupied by very crude human or divine figures. The entire collection contains only a single specimen carved in the round, a lion, presumably on an elephant. The conventional representation of the lion shows that the inhabitants of the Assam valley were not very familiar with the king of beasts. As remarked by Mr. Banerji "Assam is the only province of India the history of the architecture and sculpture of which is still practically unknown".
It is for this reason that it have made a lengthy quotation front the report of a competent authority on the subject. It is, however, in doubt whether Mr. Banerji's conjecture that the ruins in Tezpur town represent only temples is correct. The remains of the stone building dug up in the Kutchery compound may he of the palace of Vanamala which he erected in the ninth century. It cannot, however, agree with Mr. Banerji that any of the buildings mentioned by him was erected in the twelfth century for, towards the end of the tenth century, the capital Haruppeswara was, in all probability, abandoned by Brahma Pala. The buildings in Tezpur must therefore belong to the ninth century. Further, the lofty temple the ruins of which he has described in the quotation given above and which, he conjectures was a sun-temple, may be the Himalaya like temple of Hataka Sulin which Vanamala is said to have recrected. In his report for the year 1925-26. Mr. Banerji gives a full description of the Bamuni Hill ruins to the east of Tezpur town. In his opinion the remains belong to a group of seven shrines. He writes:
The ruins discovered at Parbatia, to the west of Tezpur town, are far more interesting. The following is Mr. Banerji's description of these ruins:
The temple at Parbatia is therefore not only the oldest but the finest piece of architectural work in Kamarupa. This temple must have been built by a predecessor of Bhskar Varman in the fifth or the sixth century A.D. During the clearance of the ruins of this temple a number of terracotta plaques, showing a seated human figure in each, were discovered. According to Mr. Banerji the moulding of the torso and the general technique proves beyond doubt that these plaques cannot be later in date than the sixth century A.D. Two of these plaques reveal the existence of a modified form of the acanthus motif in Assam in this early age. This device has been noticed in some of the Gupta temples of other parts of northern India notably at Bhumra and Nachna Kuthara. Another striking feature of this piece of work is the-pose of the figures of Gangs and Jamuna which seems to be characteristically Greek while in their anatomical correctness these figures resemble Hellenic art more than anything else. Relics of ancient architecture and sculpture are not confined to Guwahati and Tezpur. They are to be found in many other places. Two images were discovered on the Golaghat-Dimapur road. One of them is an image of Vishnu which is now preserved in the museum of the Kamaruppa Anusandhan Samiti. With regard to this image Mr. K. N. Dikshit writes:
Ruins of ancient edifices have been found in Bishnath and also in Negriting. In the last named place the medieval temple was actually built on the mound containing the ancient stone-built temple. Both in Umananda and Aswakranta in Guwahati the medieval temples were built with stones and carved images belonging to more ancient temples. The Ananta-Sayi Vishnu of Aswakranta is a piece of sculpture of very high merit. It belongs probably to the tenth or the eleventh century. Another very fine piece of sculpture, now deposited in the museum of the Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti, is an image of Vishnu of the Yogaswami variety sculptured on black schist. The image exhibits the Dhyana mudra and is surrounded by ararana devatas such as Durga, Ganesa and Kartikeya with the winged Garuda: below it. With regard to this image Mr. K.N. Dikshit writes that
There is a collection of stone images and other architectural fragments preserved at the entrance of the Sub-divisional officer's residence in Sibsagar. These are believed to be the remains of a Vishnu temple, in the neighbourhood, dating approximately from the tenth to the eleventh century A. D. According to Mr. Dikshit Very probably the ancient temple near Sibsagar was constructed by the Kamarupa kings of the tenth or the eleventh century and it is thus evident that even till the eleventh century the Kamarupa kings exercised their rule as far as the easternmost corner of the Assam valley. Mr. Dikshit also remarks that "the affinities of Assamese art would seem to lie more with the schools of Bihar and Orissa than with the contemporary Pala art of Bengal. This is not unnatural as of the streams of influence that have moulded the culture of Assam, the strongest current has always been from North Bihar and Mid-India". The cultural affinities between Mithila and Kamarupa have already been alluded.
Another instance of the architectural and engineering skill of the people of Kamarupa in ancient times was the construction of stone bridges over rivers. There is still a small stone bridge in the western part of North Guwahati which is called Silsako. The other Silsako (stone bridge) was over a channel of the Barnadi, an important transit point from west. Bridge was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1897. It appears that this bridge was constructed without lime and mortar and such construction was no doubt necessitated by the heavy rainfall in the country and the luxuriant vegetation which attacks all masonry structures in which mortar is used. Hannay, who in 1851 saw and measured the bridge, wrote as follows:
Both sculptural and architectural skill degenerated during the medieval period as, until the medieval kings were thoroughly Hinduized, the art lacked royal support and encouragement. The result was that when in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries the medieval kings set themselves to rebuilding the Hindu temples the Assamese sculptors of the day, known as Silakutis, were hardly equal to the task. Their sculpture was distinctly inferior. The finer images that it now see mounted on some of these post-medieval temples were actually recovered from old ruins. In some instances the medieval kings did not disturb the mound of ruins at all but erected an inferior brick structuxe on the top of it, the scattered old stones being commonly used for steps leading up to the mound. There is clear evidence to prove that quite a good number of carved and sculptured stones, chiselled bases, columns and capitals belonging to an older age found scattered or recovered from old ruins were utilized by architects of more recent times in reconstructing temples demolished either by the subsequent invaders or by earthquakes. Old bricks also have been similarly utilized. Such old bricks and also pottery, belonging to a period much earlier than the advent of the medieval rulers, can also be met with here and there.
The collection of pottery in the museum of the Knmarupa Anusandhan Samiti, recovered from excavations in Guwahati town, includes certain specimens which exhibit the ceramic art of a bygone age may be a very old age, possibly pre-Aryan but here also lies a field of study entirely unexplored. Remains of military fortifications like Garhs and of works of public utility such as embanked roads and tanks, belonging to the ancient period, are still in existence. The large rectangular tank in Guwahati, known as the Dighli tank, is clearly of ancient origin. The Dighli tank in Guwahati is believed to date back to the time of Bhagadatta for, it is said, the tournament of archery, arranged in connection with the marriage of Bhagadatta's daughter Bhanumati, was held on a platform erected over this tank. It is said that a fish was tied aloft at the end of a long pole and the great archer Karna looking at the image on the water aimed overhead and pierced the eye of the fish with his arrow. He thus won the tournament and obtained the hand of Bhanumati but, at his request, she was married to Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas. It is on account of this relationship that Bhagadatta sided with Duryodhana in the Mahabharata war.
The Hajarapukhri in Tezpur is a large tank excavated by Harjaravarman in the ninth century. Masonry buildings, roads and fortifications constructed by the kings of Kamarupa were not confined to modern Assam. They existed also in that part of modern Bengal which was included in the old kingdom of Kamarupa. One can find in the accounts of Buchanan Hamilton and Glazier and also in the contributions to the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in the last century, many references to cities, temples, roads and fortifications erected by these: kings long before the rise of medieval kings.
Warfare technology.
It have already alluded to the development of arts and industries during the time of Bhaskaravarman, the extensive use of iron in making weapons of war and armours for men and even elephants and the building of large war-boats which constituted an important arm during the attack on Karnasuvarna both by land and water. Even till the time of the medieval rulers the soldiers of Assam were proficient in naval warfare. Harjaravarman's rock inscription, in the early part of the ninth century, shows that the boats maintained by the king were numerous and, even in so wide a river as the Brahmaputra, regulation of boat traffic was found to be necessary in order to prevent collisions between the royal barges and the boats of fishermen. Vanatnala's inscription states that the royal boats were beautifully carved, painted and decorated and also fitted with musical instruments.
Metal technology.
Iron was plentiful as in the adjacent hills iron-ore could be had in abundance and iron-melting by a crude process was known. Of the more precious metals, gold and copper could be obtained within the kingdom-itself. From time immemorial, till very recent times, gold-washing had been practised in the rivers of Assam. The Subansiri (Axomia- Xuwon xiri) derives its name from the gold that it carries. Even the water of the Brahmaputra was known to contain gold for it find a clear mention of it in the inscription of Vanamala wherein it is stated that the river carried the gold dust caused by the friction of huge gold-bearing boulders of the Kailsa mountain. Jaya Pala, the last king of the dynasty of Brahma Pala, offered, according to the Silimpur inscription deciphered by Mr. Basak, to make a gift of gold equal to his own weight to a learned Brahman over and above 900 gold coins.
It is evident therefore that gold was, by no means, a rare metal in the kingdom in the old days. Incidentally, the reference in the Silimpur inscription proves that the Kamarupa kings used to mint gold coins though unfortunately no such coins have yet been discovered. The inscription of Ratna Pala mentions the existence of a copper-mine within the kingdom which the king worked with profit. Evidently copper was used for coinage also. Harjaravarman's ordinance, inscribed on the rock, prescribed a penalty of 100 cowries for infringement of the regulations. This shows that the cowry was a legal tender but it does not mean that metal coins were not then in circulation. In the vicinity of Sadiya existed a temple having a roof made of coppersheets and this temple was dedicated to the goddess Durga called Tamreswari mai. This temple was erected by the premedieval kings.
Crops.
Rice was then, as now, the staple crop. The extent of the lands, granted by the various inscriptions, was stated in terms of the yield of paddy. Xuanzang noticed that coconut and jack trees were numerous. As a matter of fact coconut thrives within the present districts of Goalpara and Kamrup. As regards the cultivation of areca nut and betel leaf in Kamarupa, it find a mention not only in the Nagaon inscription of Balavarman III but also in the Aphshad inscription of Adityasena (circa 672 A. D.) wherein the betel plants being in full bloom on the banks of the Brahmaputra is stated.
The Nagaon inscription describes the areca nut trees within Pragjyotishpura being wrapped by the betel creepers (pan), a system of growing pan which persists till today. Pragjyotishpur was, even in the ancient times, noted for its betel-nut groves which subsequently gave the name Guwahati to this town. The presents sent by Bhaskaravarman to Sri Harsha, about 606 A.D. included sugar in the form of liquid molasses in earthenware pots. This indicates that sugarcane was cultivated even in the most ancient times. The other more important products of the kingdom as stated by Xuanzang, and also mentioned in some of the inscriptions, were Aguru or agaressence, musk, silk-fabrics and elephants.
Trade and Commerce.
There is evidence to show that from the earliest times the people of Kamarupa traded with the people of other parts of India. This trade was carried on by a class of people called Xodagors and the main trade routes were the river Brahmaputra and the various navigable tributaries feeding it.
It appears that the Xodagors of Kamarupa carried their merchandise in large boats down the Brahmaputra and reached the sea after skirting round the Garo Hills. They crossed this sea and traded in seaports like Tamralipti. The bardic tales relating to Behula mention that Chand Xodagor, whose trier ghor in Soigaon, built of stones, existed till recent times, used to trade in seagoing boats. It is supposed that a gold-mine existed then in this part of India. As a matter of fact, the gold was obtained by washing in the Brahmaputra, Subansiri and other rivers.
In one of the aphorisms of Dak, who is placed about the eighth century A.D., mention is made of the profitable trade with the people of Lanka. Probably this Lanka is not to be identified with Sri Lanka but with the country on the Myanmar coast which Xuanzang named Kamalanka and which, according to him, lay to the south-east of Samatata on a bay of the sea. Perhaps traders from Champa, Kamarupa and Vanga visited this coast for purposes of trade.