Tipam

Tipam (located around present-day Joypur and Dehing-Patkai region) was an early regional polity and later a province of the Ahom kingdom. Before the arrival of Ahoms, the region was inhabited by Moran people.^[a] The Buranjis record that Sukaphaa stayed at Tipam for three laknis, or annual cycles. When the locality was flooded by the Buri Dihing River, he appointed an officer named Kanngan to take charge of the country and proceeded to Abhoipur.^[4] The appointment of an officer, together with later references to Tipamia chiefs and princes, indicates that Tipam was an inhabited and politically organised territory rather than merely a temporary encampment. In the later Ahom administrative system, the region around Joypur on the right bank of the Burhi Dihing was governed by a royal prince styled the Tipam Raja, who ranked after the Charing Raja in the order of succession.^[5]

The place is recorded in the Chinese chronicle Ming Shilu and is referred to as 底板 or Di-ban^[b], an early 15th-century polity ruled by the chief Kan-jia-li-mei.^[c] The Ming Shilu describes Di-ban as one of the three Ahom polities annexed in 1408 by Podi-nalang (last name Narayan)^[9] of Da Gu-la, an unidentified polity located somewhere in Assam, in the year 1408 AD.^[10] According to the chronicle, Podi-nalang attacked the three Ahom polities of Di-ban, Ba-jia-ta (identified with Bakata^[11]), and Meng-lun, occupied their territories, and carried off their chiefs Kan-jie-li-mei, Dao-Qing-Han, and Dao-Han-Ti^[d] respectively.^[14] The subsequent imperial order described the three polities as “isolated and weak, without ready assistance”, and instructed Podi-nalang to return their territories, officials, people, livestock and property.^[15]

The Ahom chronicles independently describe Tipam as a distinct tributary country ruled by its own chiefs during approximately the same period. During the reign of Sudangphaa, the king was informed that the Tipamias had conspired to seize and kill him. He invited their leaders to a feast, killed many of them and subsequently married Chao Nangsheng, the daughter of the Tipamia Gohain.^[16] A Tipamia prince named Chao Tao-Shulai later fled to the ruler of Mogaung and sought military assistance against Sudangphaa. An army sent from Mogaung advanced to Kuhiarbari in Tipam but was defeated by the Ahom king.^[16][17] The chronicle further states that Tipam, Khamjang and Aiton withheld tribute for eight years, after which the ruler of Mogaung instructed “Bhai Tipam” to pay tribute to the Ahom king.^[16] The Chinese and Ahom accounts thus both portray early fifteenth-century Tipam as a separately governed but relatively small polity situated between larger neighbouring powers.

Tipam was eventually incorporated into the Ahom kingdom. A Tipam princess became the mother of Susenphaa, indicating the integration of the Tipamia ruling family into the Ahom royal genealogy.^[18] In later centuries, the earlier local chiefship was replaced by the office of the Tipam Raja, which was conferred upon a prince or close relative of the reigning Ahom monarch. The latter Tipam Raja should therefore be distinguished from the independently attested Tipamia chiefs of the formative period. Tipam remained vulnerable to attacks from the frontier even after its full incorporation into the Ahom kingdom. In 1563, the Chutias revolted and plundered the Ahom settlements of Namrup and Kheram (near Namrup). The king sent Tipam Raja (Chaolung Tipam) with his men to fight the rebels, and a battle was fought. In the battle, the elephant of the Tipam raja was injured, and thus he retreated, crossing the Dihing river. The rebellion was later crushed.^[19][20][21]