Battle of Itakhuli

VictorAhom kingdomSwargadeo Gadadhar Singha and his commanders

1682vs

SideMughal empireMansur Khan, faujdar of Guwahati

In 1679 Guwahati had been handed to the Mughals by a treacherous Ahom governor. Three years later Gadadhar Singha sent his army down the river and won it back for good.

Date: 1682 CEWhere: Itakhuli, Guwahati, AssamType: Battle

Result

The Ahoms took Guwahati and drove the Mughals back to the Manas river.

01Gadadhar Singha

Gadadhar Singha came to the throne in 1681 after years of palace murders that had left the kingdom weak. He moved at once on Guwahati. The Ahom army and fleet came down the Brahmaputra, beat the Mughal force at Itakhuli, the hillock above the river where the Mughal faujdar had his fort, and chased the survivors west. Mughal cannon were taken; one of them, kept as a trophy, can still be seen.

02The Manas border

The pursuit stopped at the Manas river. That river stayed the western frontier of the Ahom kingdom for the rest of its life, and no Mughal army crossed it again. Itakhuli closed the long Ahom–Mughal wars that had begun under Jahangir.

Dynasty · 1228–1826 CEAhom kingdomSukaphaa crossed the Patkai hills in 1228 with a small band of Tai followers, and his house ruled Assam for six hundred years. The Ahoms beat back every Delhi and Mughal invasion of the valley, most famously at Saraighat in 1671.Read →

Why it matters

The final Ahom victory over the Mughals; Assam was never again invaded from the west until the British came.