BISWANATH CHARIALI, Jan 19 ? A very startling fact has come to light recently. There was sale and purchase of human beings in public in the 19th century Assam. According to the documents found recently in Biswanath, sale and purchase of women in Biswanath was not a too uncommon feature towards the last phase of Ahom rule.
Dr Nityananda Gogoi, noted scholar and historian, who decoded the four ancient documents belonging to the first quarter of the 19th century, told The Assam Tribune that the fact of auctioning women unraveled by the four Sanchi documents may also throw new light on the socio-economic conditions of Assam during that period.
According to Dr Gogoi, the documents also rectify the established historical fact that though the Swargadeo was the supreme ruler in the Ahom kingdom, various matters of local importance in the rural areas were transacted by the people through the panchayati system. Such panchayats were regularly instituted at the Biswanath Chora also.
The four Sanchi documents, belonging to the regions of Ahom Swargadeos Kamaleswar Sinha and Purandar Sina, reveal that even parents sold their daughters publicly at the Biswanath Chora. The first document (1802 AD) states that in the panchayat held at the Biswanath chora, Saru Kalita, Phedela and Manjur sold Dabahi and Merali, wife and daughter of Puhai, to Harihar Pujari for Rs 16 and Rs 10 respectively. According to the second document (1818 AD), the same Harihar Pujari bought Sarhari?s daughter Japari from Komal at Rs 6. On the other hand, the third document of just before the Yandabo Treaty records the sale of one Jila by her father Bhulai to Harihar Jalbhari at Rs 8. Likewise, the fourth document says that Chengkali Butari sold her daughter Chenehi to Mahai Borthakur for Rs 10. Interestingly, people present at the panchayats where sale and purchase of women took place were considered as witnesses. It was mandatory for the sellers to put their thumb impressions on the documents. Besides, the documents also recorded the names of writers such as Kakati Raghab Chakraborty, Madhuram Kataki, etc. Mention has also been found of offering betel-nuts, betel-leaves and gamocha to the panchayat as a token of respect.
It is worth mentioning that records of women auction in 19th century England have been found in histories and literary works. Thomas Hardy?s Mayor of Casterbridge offers such an episode where a Wessex farmer and the future Mayor, Michael Henchard, sold his wife to a sailor. But the fact about women sale in Assam has been quite new. The economic downfall in Assam towards the last phase of the Ahom rule due to weak rulers, the conflict among the noblemen for contending power and the Burmese Aggression coupled with the demand for cheap woman labour, might have prompted the public sale and purchase of women in Biswanath, experts commented. They, however, observed that the fact has provided ample scope for research towards the study of the State?s history in a new light.