KOCH ROYAL DYNASTY UPTO 17th CENTURY. Friends, all of you know about the COOCH-BEHAR KINGDOM or the KAMATAPUR KINGDOM. It is now a district in WEST BENGAL Our GOALPARA DISTRICT AND A PART OF KAMRUP district was also in the KAMATAPUR KINGDOM .Situated at the WESTERN side of ASSAM, it was once a powerful kingdom and the kings patronized the ASSAMESE VAISHNAVITE LITERATURE and CULTURE in a very significant way. Our great guru, SHANKAR DEV, was invited by the then KOCH KING and SHANKAR DEV, ESTABLISHED the famous xotra at MODHUPUR in COOCH-BEHAR.. SHANKAR DEV was very highly respected in the royal court of the king. Here GRAT SHANKAR DEV wrote several invaluable religious books .The MODHUPUR XOTRA still exists. A very large numbers of the KOCH people live mainly in the GOALPARA, KAMRUP ,NAGAON districts of ASSAM, besides in other districts. KOCH people are IMPORTANT part and parcel of the ASSAMESE SOCIETY. Following is a short note of the COOCH-BEHAR KINGDOM and its royal dynasty up to the 17th century,-- King NILAMBOR was the last king of the SEN DYNASTY ruling over the KAMATAPUR KINGDOM .He was attacked by the NAWAB SULTAN ALA-UD-DIN HUSSAIN SHAH OF BENGAL and was killed in the battle. HUSSAIN SHAH handed over the rule of KAMATAPUR to his son and came back to BENGAL .Then there was a heavy and serious flood in KOMOTAPUR.. Most of the people took shelter in the nearby hills. There was an acute shortage of food and all other essential items .The flood remained for a long period .The MUSLIM army suffered heavily. So, they decided to leave KOMOTAPUR and moved to nearby GAUDA kingdom , present BANGLA DESH, and they did not come back. KAMATAPUR was left without any guardian. At that time, taking advantage of the situation, a few BHUYAN families were ruling over a few villages. The BHUYAN of a village called CHIKNA was a man named HARIDAS. HARIDAS married two daughters of another BHUYAN named HARO. Now HARIDAS had four sons from his two wives whose names were HIRA and JIRA.. In time all these 4 brothers became very powerful. Another strong leader named BURKA KOTOWAL were jealous of the 4 brothers. He made an attack on the 4 brothers. In the attack, MONDON, the eldest brother and also BURKA KOTOWAL got killed. BISWA SINGHA, to console MONDON’S mother JIRA, made CHANDAN a king in 1510. This, CHANDAN WAS the first KOCH KING of KAMATAPUR. KING CHANDAN,--- BISWA SINGHA, was a very powerful warrior. After making his step brother the king, he engaged himself in fighting and defeating all the BHUYANS of the land .He was successful in bringing all the BHUYANS under the king. CHANDAN, ruled from 1510 to1523 and he died. KING BISWA SINGHA,-----After CHANDAN, BISWA SINGHA ascended the throne. After conquering all the BHUYANS, he conquered a part of the GAUDA DESH. He even conquered BHUTAN BISWA SINGHA established his capital at HINGLA RAS He had eight sons ., of which, NRISINGH NARAYANA was the eldest, NARANARAYANA was second, SUKLADHWAS LATER NAMED AS CHILARAI was third. His 4th, son GOHAIN KAMAL, MADE A HIGHWAY from the capital to NARAYANPUR in ASSAM and the road is still known as the GOHAIN KAMAL ALI. BISWASINGH,, ruled from 1523 to 1544. After him his second son MOLLADEV or NARAYANA SINGH ascended the throne, It is said that when NARANARAYAN SINGH got married his wife went to show her formal respect to the elder brother of her husband namely NRISINGH NARAYANA and he blessed her that she would the queen of KAMATAPUR.. To keep his word, NRISINGH NARAYAN SACRIFICED THE THRONE for his younger brother NARANARAYAN SINGH so that his wife can become the queen of KAMATAPUR as blessed by him earlier. NARANARAYAN SINGH,--Immediately after ascending the throne NARANARAYAN, made CHILARAI as the general of his army. CHILARAI was a great warrior. With due permission from the king, CHILARAI, defeated all the BHUYANS and brought them under the king .Then, he defeated the kings of ASSAM,CACHER,MANIPUR, JAINTIA,SYLHET ( SRI HATTA ) etc. Thus KAMATAPUR became famous as a big and powerful kingdom. The famous KAMAKHYA temple, destroyed by the MUSLIM general, KALAPAHAR, was reconstructed by NARANARAYAN with the help of his brother CHILARAI.T he stone images of NARANARAYAN and CHILARAI still exist in KAMAKHYA temple. During his rule our great guru SHANKAR DEV was invited by the king and SHANKAR DEV, established the famous MODHUPUR XOTRA ,which still exists. BHANUMOTI DEVI, the queen was a very wise and educated lady. NARANARAYAN INVITED MANY BRAHMIN SCHOLARS from KAMRUP, MITHILA and donated lands to them to settle in KAMATAPUR. These scholars adorned the royal court. NARANARAYAN, ruled from1554 to 1587. LAXMI NARAYAN,---During the rule of this king ,the MOGHUL emperor JAHANGIR SHAH, sent his army to attack the GAUDA KINGDOM. The great MOGHUL, AKBAR sent an army under his general KULI KHAN, TO CONQUER the GAUDA KINGDOM, completely. They conquered all the parts of the GAUDA kingdom, including the part under the KAMATAPUR king. LAXMI NARANARAYAN, was defeated .During, his rule another VAISHNAV guru DAMODAR DEV who was a disciple of SHANKAR DEV preached his own group of THE VAISHNAV religion. LAXMINARAYAN had to concede many areas of his kingdom in the eastern part of his kingdom to the MOGHULS. He ruled from 1587 to 1621 and died .In his place his son BIR NARAYAN was crowned as the next king. BIR NARAYAN,--This king tried his best to look after his subjects well .He tried to spread education in his kingdom .For this he established many schools in the kingdom .BHUTAN, stopped paying tributes to the KOCH king .during his time .He ruled from 1621 to 1626 only. PRAN NARANAYAN, --- After the death of BIR NARAYAN, his son PRAN NARANAYAN became the king. He was a poet himself and a very expert musician .In fact he wrote books on music. He formed a committee named “ PANCHA-RATNA “ comprising of 5 great and wise scholars. He was very courageous and a capable king In 1658, when SHAH JAHAN was ill in DELHI, his sons were fighting for the MOGHUL throne .there was a little indiscipline in the MOGHUL empire. PRAN NARANAYAN, took his chance and reoccupied many parts of his lost kingdom in the KAMRUP DISTRICT defeating the MOGHUL SUBEDAR POSTED at HAJO. He also fought against the AHOMS,BUT WAS DFEATED BY KING JOYODHWAS SINGH.. MIRJUMLA, the ruler of GAUDA, attacked PRAN NARAYAN but was defeated by PRAN NARAYAN PRAN NARAYAN, constructed many SHIV temples. He also constructed many roads in his kingdom. He had four sons and he ruled from 1626 to 1685. Before his death, he made his second son MOD NARAYAN, a king to replace him. MOD NARAYAN,--- He was a very weak king. Initially during his rule ,the powerful ministers and his brother;s sons were dictacting terms to him. MOD-NARAYAN, with the help of some of his loyal soldiers, defeated and killed these ministers and some were removed from their posts. In 1680, MOD NARAYAN died leaving no heir to the throne. At that time a son of his brothers with the help of the BHUTAN army tried to take over the kingdom .But then two RAICOT leaders, JOYGNA DEV and VOJDEV RAICOT, formed RAICOT army and defeated the BHUTAN army. Then the EAICOTS made BASUDEV NARAYAN, the third son of the previous king, the king of KAMATAPUR. BASUDEV NARAYAN,- -- After only two years of his reign, this king again faced an attack fom the BHUTAN king. The king died in the war. The RAICOTS AGAIN CAME TO DEFEAT THE Bhutan ARMY The RAICOTS then appointed MOHINDRA NARAYAN as the new king. MOHINDRA NARAYAN was a grand son of the king PRAN NARAYAN. This article was prepared, with the help of an ASSAMESE note written by SRI P, RAJKHOA, published in the AWAHON its 3rd. edition of its 9th year.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 04:14:41 +0000