MORANS OF ASSAM

This map is shown not to show the railroad but the Brahmaputra and Dibru Rivers which run to the East and North of Dibrugarh.

Using this map as a guide, you can find the two rivers with respect to Dibrgarh on the large map below. The area beneath the Brahmaputra and either side of the Dibru River was, at one time the location of a large Moran community. A large flood in 1950, politics and econmic conditions have moved some of the Moran population.

There are a number of opinions regarding the meaning of Moran. According to certain numbers of Elders, the word owes its origin to a myth. It is said that an old lady of this community, a physician by profession, had the supernatural power of giving life to dead ones, for which she was called 'Moran', meaning one who can call back a dead. Mor means die an means call back.

Kedar Brahmachari expresses the view that a people knows a Maurang, Muurang or Morang, migrated to Saumar area (easternmost Part) of ancient Assam from Nepal and in course of time, came to be known as Morans.

Benudhar Sharma has mentioned that many years before the coming of Sukapha to Saumar, a man from the Meram clan of the kingdom of Dharampala, a king of ancient Assam, became king in a place known as Lahdoi. The word Moran was coined from the name of this King. According to Endle, the original home of the Morans was in the Hukong Valley and the term Moran comes from the name of their progenitor 'Moran' who came over to Assam and settled near the Tiphuk River.

J.P. Wade, one of the earliest British officers mentions the term 'Moran' to mean the rebels against the Ahom monarch. The Morans are presently found mostly in Tinisukia district of Upper Assam with some sprinkling in Arunachal Pradesh.

From a history of Assam -

By the eighteenth century the Moamora attracted the Morans, who were left undisturbed in their traditional habitat north of the Dibru River. As participatory and egalitarian tradition suited their way of life they became disciples of the Moamora Satra. However, neither the Ahom state nor the Satra Guru had absolute authority over the Morans. A highly independent community that co-existed with the Ahom system for over five hundred years without following their dictates, the Morans functioned only through their traditional organization. Their obligation to the Ahom state rested in supplying forest products like elephants, firewood, raw cotton and vegetable dyes. In lieu of this they were exempted from militia service. The Maomara Satra's following was not just confined to the Morans, it included Ahoms, Brahmans and also those Morans who had assimilated with the Ahom system. But the fact that they had a large following of the despised Morans, untouchable fishermen and sudras were viewed suspiciously by the state. The Maomara satra was denied royal patronage and were constantly persecuted.

In 1769 the Morans rose in revolt. They won over an exiled Ahom prince by promising him the throne. They occupied the capital, imprisoned the King and murdered the Barbarua who was the main patron of the Dihingya branch of the Kaal Samhati. All offices usually held by Ahom nobles were thrown open to the Morans. The paik-militia system was totally transposed. The Moamora Guru pleaded with the rebels to compromise with the nobility. But it fell on deaf ears. However the royalists recaptured the capital after six months. The rebels were ruthlessly annihilated. The Moamora Mahant and his son were executed. The causes of rebellion lay elsewhere but most of the rebels were associated with the Moamora Satra. So the rebels were called Moamoriyas. In 1783 the rebels tried unsuccessfully to storm the Ahom capital of Rangpur and the fort at Garhgaon. The royalist reprisals were brutal. The paiks who collaborated with the rebels fled to the hills. A massive depopulation took place.

Later the Morans north of river Dibru rose in revolt. In the north bank foothills, one Harihar Tanti managed to mobilize the fugitive Moamoriyas from the hills of Arunachal Pradesh as well as the Daffla-bahatiya (Tagins of present Arunachal who had taken to settled cultivation under Ahom prescriptions) into a militia. They along with the Morans conducted a protracted engagement for nearly two years. The royal forces were defeated in important battles. The Maomara Gosain pleaded for a compromise with the Ahom king but he was not heeded. The rebels occupied the Ahom capital and one Bharat Singha, a distant relative of the earlier Moamora Gosain, was placed on the throne (1788). Harihar had a free reign in the present Dhemaji district. One Howha ruled over the Majuli Island. Sarbananda, a Matak of Chutiya origin, was elected a raja of the Morans. In the meantime the Khamtis, who had recently migrated from Upper Burma and were settled by the Ahom administration in Sadiya, took it over. The Ahom king Gaurinath Singha exiled himself in Guwahati The Burhagohain shifted to Jorhat (1790) and set up capital there. The rebels could not proceed west of Rangpur, as there was fortifications set up by the royalists. Jorhat became an asylum of refugees.

During this period of revolt (1786-94) the Ahom administration had several other problems in Darrang, Nagaon and Kamrup to contend with. The full force of its might could not be applied against the fortified rebels.. The rebels too were not allied to the classical neo-Vaishnavite faith though they called themselves Moamoriyas. In the early 18th century a few unorthodox and esoteric practices found their way into the religious fold of some minor satras of Easternmost Assam. It has been mentioned earlier that the Kaal Samhati satras were very numerous in the Sibsagar district, which was the core area of the Ahom system. Secrecy thrives under strict supervision. Again persecution for over a century led to secrecy of religious practice and the revival of magico-religious aspect of fertility cult and debased Tantricism. The common feature was the extreme secrecy by way of night-worship (rati-khowa). The chronicles refer to these pseudo-Vaishnavite night worshippers as a- ritya- mat. Most of the disciples of these minor satras were tribals. But rebels too used these night sessions to secretly stir up discontent and hatch conspiracies. Magic and miracles were interwoven with egalitarian principles. The rebels were ill armed except for carrying bamboo sticks consecrated with so called magical charms. Belief became current that they could make cannon balls ineffective. Harihar, it was said, could cast a spell on the enemy by throwing charmed cloth. These myths helped instill fear and panic amongst the royalist rank and file. The lower ranks were totally demoralized and they refused to fight their fellow peasants. Many paiks deserted or joined the rebels.

Thus non-conformism in the neo-Vaishnavite creed had a serious role to play in the decline of the Tai-Ahom power. Ahom commoners were involved in these revolts and their hatred was directed towards the oppressive section among the nobility. This helped accelerate the complete breakdown of their revenue-linked militia system The Ahom King in exile had to implore the Jaintia, Kachari, Manipuri and the Nara (Upper Burma) Rajas to help subjugate the rebellion. But it was ultimately the East India Company who had to dispatch a team of mercenaries under Captain Welsh to recapture the Ahom capital Rangpur (1794).

But the complete subjugation of a rebel leader like Bharat, for instance, took another 5 years. Sadiya was reoccupied and the Khamptis subjugated only in 1800. Sarbananda, the Moran chief, had to be conferred the title of Barsenapati. He enjoyed a free jurisdiction over an area of 1800 square miles with a new capital at Rangagora. His son inherited this title. When the Singphos began to raid Assam they found the people ruled by the Bar Senapati better able to defend themselves than the subjects protected by the ragtag Ahom militia. So the Singphos termed the people residing in the Bar Senapati's territory as Matak (meaning strong) and the Ahom plebian as Mulung (meaning weak). The term Matak thus began to be applied to the people residing in the tract of country ruled by the Moran chief and has no denotation to any specific caste or tribe. As majority of the inhabitants of this tract were disciples of the Moamora Gosain the Moamora rebels were also known as Matak. Of course there is a sectarian rendering of the word Matak as a compound of mat (faith) and eka (one) i.e. men of one faith.

The Morans (or properly Mataks) were ultimately subjugated by the British (1820) and the Bar Senapati's territory annexed to British India in 1839.

Acknowledgements:

Banikanta Kakati Mother Goddess Kamakhya P.P.Duara, Guwahati 1948
Maheswar Neog: Sankardeva And His Times. Guwahati University 1965.
H.K.Barpujari ed. Comprehensive History of Assam Vol. II & III. Publication Board Assam, Guwahati 1990
S.N.Sarma. The Neo-Vaishnavite Movement and the Satra Institution of Assam. Guwahati University 1996.
Amalendu Guha: Medieval and Colonial Assam: Society Polity Economy Center of Social Sciences Calcutta 1991.
Sivnath Burman: An Unsung Colossus, Forum of Sankardev Studies Guwahati 1999.
Bhaba Prasad Chaliha ed. Sankardeva: Studies in Culture. Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha, Guwahati 1978
Jogendranath Sarma Axomor Nad-nadi, Assam Sahitya Sabha, Jorhat 1993
N.N.Acharya. A Brief History of Assam. Omsons Publication Guwahati 1990.

THE MORANS
A field note by:
N.Shakmacha Singh, Srikant, Kumud Saikia, Jitu Goswami Moran

Largely concentrated in the Tinsuka district of Assam, the Morans inhabiting in this region (traditionally called the Samarpith area) identify themselves as the people who devote their life with the domestication of elephant. According to a native of Ubon village, "elephant has been our cultural property and we have been living together with elephant since time immemorial". It is also said that their ancestors came to the region with elephants and during the days of monarchy, the Morans were the only people who fulfill the demand of elephants to the King.

Well trained in the catching of wild elephants, they are also the true friend of this beautiful animal. In the olden days it is said that the life of a Moran family is incomplete without elephant. Inherited from their ancestral past, the Morans have the knowledge to read the mind of an elephant.

Their traditional house has a reserved place at the front varendah especially for keeping the belongings of their elephants. Traditionally, Moran house is constructed in a rectangular ground plan with an extension of Kitchen as another segment of the house followed by rooms for the family members. The uniqueness of traditional Moran house is the way they use huge wooden pillar (Komar Khuta) and the horizontal posts resting on it. This super structure makes the house unique and one can feel the pillar as the legs of an elephant.

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