Medieval stone pillar with Assamese inscription discovered

BISWANATH CHARIALI, March 8: An Assamese inscription engraved on a stone pillar was found inside the precincts of the present Biswanath Temple of Sonitpur district by MC Das, GC Ramachandran, T Das and Goswami on February 25 last. Receiving the information Nityananda Gogoi and Khiradhar Borua of Biswanath College visited the site next day and found the pillar under a 'bhaluka' bamboo grove about 20 m away from the Biswanath Temple (repaired) towards north-eastern direction. Gogoi says that although the full text of the inscription is yet to be deciphered due to its badly mutilated condition, from the readable portion it can well be understood that this inscription bears records about the erection of the Salal Garh rampart by Bhandari Gohain and other officers by the order of Ahom King Swarganarayan Pratap Singh in 1542 or 1620 AD. The pillar is 82 cm in height overground with sufficient depth underground and 115 cm in diameter. It bears nine lines in Assamese language and script. Of the four sides of the pillar, the inscription bearing side is 34 cm in breath while another side bears a figure of Trishula (Triden) 102 cm long. According to Gogoi, this piece of stone was originally a part of destroyed Biswanath Temple's door frame of earlier period, posted at the gateway of the Biswanath Khetra or at the starting point of the famous Pratap Garh or Salal Garh rampart at Biswanath, which was originally stretching into the Daffala Hills on the north, by the Ahom king, Pratap Singh to resist the Mughal invasion. This inscription supported the events recorded in the Assamese chronicles or Buranjis and as famous one of the earliest Assamese inscriptions on stone of the Ahom period so far discovered.