Cooch Behar Rajas belonged to Mech Tribe
It has been observed that Rajbansi
intellectuals, political leaders and student leaders are inclined to claim that
the Royal Family of Cooch Behar belonged to Rajbansi or to Koch-Rajbansi race. A
Rajbanshi scholar from Cooch Behar named Wing Commander Ranjit Kumar Mandal in
his article entitled ‘Chila Ray the War Lion’ in Indian Air Force Millennium
Issue 1999 claims that “General Shukladhwaj Ray was born in a king’s race
called Rajbanshi of North Eastern India. The dynasty which he belonged to was
called ‘Kamatapur Dynasty’ which ruled over North Eastern part of India for
centuries.” Another Rajbansi bureaucrat
turned writer-scholar named Sukhbilas Barma, IAS, is also very keen to name the
dynasty that ruled Cooch Behar as Koch-Rajbansi dynasty.[1] Dinesh
Chandra Dakua, a Rajbansi, who was a Minister in the Left Front Government of
West Bengal, writes that the Cooch Behar kings and their subjects were Rajbansi
and the main dynasty was named Koch Rajbansi.[2] President
of All Koch Rajbansi Students’ Union, Assam, has gone one step ahead and
publicly declared that following the agreement signed on 28 August 1949 with
Government of India Kamatapur State was included in India.[3]
From the above
statements of the Rajbansi scholars one thing that compels us to say is that
they are attempting to pass the history of Cooch Behar as the history of
Rajbansi or Koch Rajbansi. The Rajbansi scholars, however, have not cited any
documentary evidences to substantiate their claim that Cooch Behar was founded
by Rajbansi kings or by Koch Rajbansi kings. In fact, they have utterly
dishonoured the historical facts regarding the kingdom of Cooch Behar.
It is also
surprising to note that a zealous Koch Rajbansi leader named Biswajit Roy has
created a new history by saying that Kamatapur
State was included in India consequent upon agreement signed on 28 August
1949. Why he had made such unhistorical and biased statement is best known to
him. Historically speaking, Kamatapur
kingdom ended with the defeat of its last king Nilambar at the hands of Hussain
Shah in 1498 A.D. And out of the ruins of Kamatapur a new dynasty at the close
of the 15th century A.D. rose into prominence under the Meches.[4] This new
dynasty has been called Koch dynasty by historians.
There are ample
evidences to refute the claim made by the Rajbansi scholars that the royal
dynasty of Cooch Behar belonged to Rajbansi or Koch Rajbansi race.
The oldest document that speaks about
the ethnic identity of the Royal family of Cooch Behar is a chronicle written
by a Persian Chronicler named Ibn Muhammad Wali or Shihabuddin Talish. He wrote
Fathiya-i-Ibraiya which is also called Tarikh Fath i Asham, or History of the
Conquest of Assam. The book was written between 9th August 1662 and 13th May
1663 A.D. This work informs us that the inhabitants of Koch Bihar “since
ancient times, are the Mech and Koch tribe. The Rajah belongs to the Mech. He
coins gold muhurs and Narain rupees.”[5] When
the above book was written the reigning king of Koch Behar was Maharaja Pran
Narayan. In other words, Muhammad Talish was quite aware of the fact that
Maharaja Pran Narayan was a Mech and that is why he had conclusively stated
that the “Rajah belongs to the Mech.”
Under the behest of Samudra Narayan
of Darrang Raj Family, Surjya Khari Daibajna wrote about 1791 a book called
‘Darrang Rajvamsavali’ in metrical Assamese in which it has been acknowledged
that Biswa Singha’s father named Haoria or Herya or Haridas Mandal hailed from
the highest Mech family.[6]
Ghulam Hussain Salim wrote
‘Riyauz-us-Salatin’ in 1787-88 A.D. which was translated into English from the
original Persian by Maulavi Abdus Salam. According to Riyaz “Its inhabitants
belong to two tribes, namely, Makh (Mech) and Kuj (Koch), its Rajah is of the first
tribe.”[7]
In about 1833, under the instruction
of Maharaja Harendra Narayan, his personal assistant Joynath Ghosh better known
as Joyntha Munshi wrote a book entitled ‘Rajopakhyan’. In Deva Khanda of the
said book it is written that the eight-year old Hiradevi and her elder sister
Jira were married to Hariya alias Haridas Mech, an inhabitant of Chikina hill.[8]
Munshi Joynath Ghose writes that his
work was made over to Maharjah Harendra Narayan for his reading and after
reading the whole of the same granted as a reward five villages (panchagram)
rent-free.[9] The
highly learned Maharajah Harendra Narayan did not object to the tracing of the
origin of his family to Mech race. In other words, the Maharajah had accepted
that his ancestors belonged to Mech tribe. The Maharajah could have asked his
Munshi to omit that portion and substitute it with a different story. But
he had not done this and accepted what is true.
On the
occasion of the Coronation Ceremony of Maharajah Nripendra Narayan Bhup
Bahadur, Bhagabati Charan Bandyopadhyaya wrote a book entitled ‘Koch Bihar
Rajyer Songkhipto Bibaran’ with due permission from the Maharajah. In this book
the father of Viswa Singh has been named as Hariya Mech.[10]
Maharajah
Nripendra Narayan, who received English education in India and in England, had
also accepted Haria Mech as the progenitor of the Koch Behar Royal family. In
1903, a monumental work entitled ‘The Cooch Behar State and its Land Revenue
Settlement’ was published under the order of Maharajah Nripendra Narayan. In
this book on page 225 it has been written that both Hira and Jira were “married
to a Mech of the name of Hariya, otherwise known as Haridas, who lived in Mount
Chikna.”[11]
Maharajah Nripendra Narayan highly praised
this book and it is obvious that he had gone through the book with great
interest. Interestingly the Maharajah had also accepted that his forefathers
belonged to Mech tribe or else he would have resented the insertion of the
above statement.
A History of Cooch Behar in Bengali was
written by Amanatulla Ahmed and published in 1936. In this book also the
ancestor of Cooch Behar royal family has been traced to Haria Mech.
Maharajah
Biswa Singha’s contemporary landlords or Bhuyans knew him as Mech. Narayan
Bhuyan, the head of the Bhuyans emphatically declared before the assemblage of
the Bhuyas that “they would never submit to the Mech Chief even if it cost
them their territories, wealth and life.”[12]
Ram
Chandra Ghosh had delivered a lecture on the origin of the Kingdom of Cooch
Behar before Kuch Bihar Hitaishini Sabha and his lecture was printed at the
expense of the Raj in 1865. In his lecture Ram Chandra Ghosh stated that a
certain Mech named Haria who lived in Chikna Hill had two wives, called Jira
and Hira, by his wife Jira he had two sons Chandan and Madan and by his wife
Hira he had two sons named Sisu Singh and Bisu Singh.[13]
Dr.
Buchanan says that the progenitor of Koch Bihar family was “a certain Herya who
is said to have been of the impure tribe called Mech.”[14]
B.H.
Hodgson says that Hajo the founder of the Koch kingdom gave his daughter and
heiress to a Bodo or Mecch chief in marriage.[15]
N.N. Vasu, however, thinks that Hajo was a Mech Sardar (Chief).[16] On
the other hand, R.G. Latham considers Hajo as a “suspicious denomination” and
suggests that “Hajo is a fabulous individual, no real founder of the Kocch or
any empire; but an eponymus hero.”[17]
The real founder of the Koch kingdom appears to be Haoria Mech. The kingdom
founded by Haoria Mech which later came to be known as Cooch Behar State lasted
till the transfer of administration of the State to the Dominion
Government on the 12th day of September 1949.
The States Merger (Governors’ Provinces)
Order, 1949 was passed on 27 July 1949. The effect of this order was that the
States which had merged with the Provinces were to be administered in all
respects as if they formed part of the absorbing Provinces. This order was
amended from time to time. On 28 August 1949, an agreement of merger was
entered into between the Government of India and the Ruler of the State of
Cooch Behar and in pursuance of this agreement the Government of India took
over the administration of Cooch Behar on 12 September 1949. The State of Cooch
Behar thus became a part of the territory of India and was accordingly included
in the list of Part C States as Serial No. 4 in the First Schedule to the
Constitution of India. Thereafter, on 31 December 1949, the States Merger (West
Bengal) Order, 1949, was passed. It provided that whereas full and exclusive
authority, jurisdiction and power for and in relation to the governance of the
Indian State of Cooch Behar were exercisable by the Dominion Government, it was
expedient to provide by the order made under s.290A for the administration of
the said State in all respects as if it formed part of the Province of West
Bengal. In consequence, on 1 January 1950, the erstwhile State of Cooch Behar
was merged with West Bengal and began to be governed as if it was part of West
Bengal. As a result of this merger Cooch Behar was taken out of the list of
Part C States in the First Schedule to the Constitution and added to West
Bengal in the same Schedule, and the territorial description of West Bengal as
prescribed in the First Schedule was amended by the addition of the clause
which referred to the territories which were being administered as if they
formed part of that Province. In other words, after the merger of Cooch Behar
the Territories of West Bengal included those which immediately before the
commencement of the Constitution were comprised in the Province of West Bengal
as well as those which were being administered as if they formed part of that
Province.[18]
[1] Sukhbilas Barma,
‘North Bengal and its People’, in Socio-Political Movements in North Bengal (A
Sub-Himalayan Tract), 2007, vol. I, edited by Sukhbilas Barma, pp.8-16
[2] Dinesh Chandra Dakua,
‘A Journey from Hitasadhani to Greater Kuch Bihar’, in Socio-Political
Movements in North Bengal (A Sub-Himalayan Tract), 2007, vol. I, edited by
Sukhbilas Barma, pp. 49-50
[4] N.N. Vasu, The Social
History of Kamarupa, First printed in 1922, reprinted in 1983, vol. ii,
pp.35-36
[5] H. Blochman, ‘Koch
Bihar Koch Hajo Assam’, Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1872, vol. Xli(i)
p. 66
[12] Kayastha Patrika, New
Series, vol.xii, pp.5-6, Quoted by N.N. Vasu in his Social History of Kamrup,
vol.ii
[14] Dr. Buchanan, ‘History
of Cooch Behar’ Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1838, vol.vii, p. 11
[15] B.H. Hodgson, ‘On the
Origin, Location, Numbers, Creed, Customs, Character and Condition of the Koch
Bodo and Dhimal People’ in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
vol.xviii, 1849, p. 705
[16] N.N. Vasu, The Social
History of Kamarupa, First printed in 1922, reprinted in 1983, vol. ii, p.37.
[18] Supreme Court of
India, In Re: The Berubari Union... vs.
Reference Under Article 143(1).. on 1, April 1959. Available at
http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/727445/
