01Over the Patkai
The Buranjis, the court chronicles that the Ahoms kept with great care, say Sukaphaa was a Tai prince of Mong Mao who left his homeland with nobles, soldiers and families, and after years of travel crossed the Patkai range into the valley in 1228. He did not drive out the people he found there. He married into Moran and Borahi families, brought them into his state, and took up wet rice farming in the Brahmaputra plain. Around 1253 he set his capital at Charaideo, where the earth-mound tombs of the Ahom kings, the maidams, still stand.
02Six centuries
The kingdom Sukaphaa founded grew from the upper valley until it held almost the whole of the Brahmaputra plain. Over the centuries the Ahom kings took up the Hindu faith and Sanskrit names, built the Shiva and Devi temples of Sivasagar, and gave land to the satras. They beat back the armies of Bengal and of the Mughals many times, most famously at Saraighat in 1671. Assam observes 2 December as Asom Divas, Sukaphaa Day. In 2024 the Charaideo maidams were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
