05-30-2009, 11:07 PM
<b>400-year-old cannonballs in Assam </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Guwahati, May 29: A bull turned archaeologist yesterday, digging up a piece of 400-year-old history linked perhaps to Assamâs biggest military feat.
The stray bull knocked over a layer of earth with its horns on a hillock on the Brahmaputraâs banks at Chandrapur, around 30km from Guwahati. Out came an armoury of Ahom-era cannonballs, probably dating back to the 17th century.
<b>âThere are over 1,000 cannonballs there. We have recovered just 165. They may shed new light on the Ahom war machinery,â </b>the assistant curator of the Assam State Museum, Jiten Shyam, said today.
The Ahoms, said to be from Yunan in China, ruled Assam for nearly 600 years since their chief Sukaphaa set up a kingdom in Upper Assam in 1228. Ahom rule ended when the British annexed the kingdom through the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826.
The cannonballs were handed over to the museum today by police after they had been informed of the âhuge collection of stone spheresâ by local people.
Shyam said the name of the locality â Kajolichoki â suggested it was once a site of military importance. <b>Choki denotes an Ahom-era sentry post.</b>
He said there could be â<b>a link between the findings and the Battle of Saraighatâ, the most famous battle of the Ahom era in which the Mughal army of Aurangzeb was beaten back from the state. The 1671 battle, on the Brahmaputraâs banks, ended years of military campaign by the Mughals to annex Guwahati, then known as Pragjyotishpur</b>.
The eventâs defining moment came on the night before the final battle when Ahom general Lachit Barphukan beheaded his own maternal uncle for sleeping when he should have been supervising the construction of a defensive rampart.
Shyam said the site of discovery âresembles a hillock that could have been a rampart onceâ, and that it was ânot too far away from the place where the Battle of Saraighat was foughtâ.
He added: âA road had been cut by the side of the hillock a few years ago but the armoury stayed hidden. I was told a bull owned by a resident of the locality knocked off the top layers of the earth late yesterday afternoon. The local people realised these stone spheres could be something special and informed the police.â
Shyam said the cannonballs, of different diameters, would be examined to confirm which period they belonged to.
âWeâll match them with samples found earlier, or go for forensic testing. But one thing we are sure of is the craftsmanship: these cannonballs are perfect spheres.â
Dipankar Banerjee, an authority on the history of Guwahati, said that âin all likelihood the discovery is related to the Ahom empireâ.
<b>âThe Battle of Saraighat and many of its splinter battles were fought on the Brahmaputraâs banks. Since the discovery has taken place on the riverbank, it is logical that these are from the Ahom age. Besides, the British did not use such cannonballs,â</b> he said.
Shyam said the cannonballs were âtypically Ahomâ, cut and polished from a granite-like stone which gave it its toughness.
<b>âThey were packed into cannons and fired at the enemy with the use of explosives. These cannonballs could kill foot soldiers and cavalry and even knock out elephants. The bigger ones could sink boats and pierce through defensive scaffoldings,â</b> he said
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The stray bull knocked over a layer of earth with its horns on a hillock on the Brahmaputraâs banks at Chandrapur, around 30km from Guwahati. Out came an armoury of Ahom-era cannonballs, probably dating back to the 17th century.
<b>âThere are over 1,000 cannonballs there. We have recovered just 165. They may shed new light on the Ahom war machinery,â </b>the assistant curator of the Assam State Museum, Jiten Shyam, said today.
The Ahoms, said to be from Yunan in China, ruled Assam for nearly 600 years since their chief Sukaphaa set up a kingdom in Upper Assam in 1228. Ahom rule ended when the British annexed the kingdom through the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826.
The cannonballs were handed over to the museum today by police after they had been informed of the âhuge collection of stone spheresâ by local people.
Shyam said the name of the locality â Kajolichoki â suggested it was once a site of military importance. <b>Choki denotes an Ahom-era sentry post.</b>
He said there could be â<b>a link between the findings and the Battle of Saraighatâ, the most famous battle of the Ahom era in which the Mughal army of Aurangzeb was beaten back from the state. The 1671 battle, on the Brahmaputraâs banks, ended years of military campaign by the Mughals to annex Guwahati, then known as Pragjyotishpur</b>.
The eventâs defining moment came on the night before the final battle when Ahom general Lachit Barphukan beheaded his own maternal uncle for sleeping when he should have been supervising the construction of a defensive rampart.
Shyam said the site of discovery âresembles a hillock that could have been a rampart onceâ, and that it was ânot too far away from the place where the Battle of Saraighat was foughtâ.
He added: âA road had been cut by the side of the hillock a few years ago but the armoury stayed hidden. I was told a bull owned by a resident of the locality knocked off the top layers of the earth late yesterday afternoon. The local people realised these stone spheres could be something special and informed the police.â
Shyam said the cannonballs, of different diameters, would be examined to confirm which period they belonged to.
âWeâll match them with samples found earlier, or go for forensic testing. But one thing we are sure of is the craftsmanship: these cannonballs are perfect spheres.â
Dipankar Banerjee, an authority on the history of Guwahati, said that âin all likelihood the discovery is related to the Ahom empireâ.
<b>âThe Battle of Saraighat and many of its splinter battles were fought on the Brahmaputraâs banks. Since the discovery has taken place on the riverbank, it is logical that these are from the Ahom age. Besides, the British did not use such cannonballs,â</b> he said.
Shyam said the cannonballs were âtypically Ahomâ, cut and polished from a granite-like stone which gave it its toughness.
<b>âThey were packed into cannons and fired at the enemy with the use of explosives. These cannonballs could kill foot soldiers and cavalry and even knock out elephants. The bigger ones could sink boats and pierce through defensive scaffoldings,â</b> he said
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