Sukladhwaja (popularly known as Bir Chilarai; 1510–1571 AD) was the 3rd son of Biswa Singha, founder of the

Koch Dynasty The Koch dynasty (; 1515–1949) ruled parts of eastern Indian subcontinent in present-day Assam and Bengal. Biswa Singha established power in the erstwhile Kamata Kingdom which had emerged from the decaying Kamarupa Kingdom. The dynasty c ...

in the

Kamata Kingdom The Kamata Kingdom ; in the eastern Sivalik Hills, emerged in western Kamarupa probably when Sandhya (ruler of Kamarupa), Sandhya, a ruler of Kamarupanagara, moved his capital west to Kamatapur sometime after 1257 CE. Since it originated in ...

and younger brother of Nara Narayan, the second king of the Koch dynasty of the Kamata kingdom in the 16th century. He was Nara Narayan's commander-in-chief and finance minister ''(

Dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

)'' of the kingdom. He got his name Chilarai because, as a general, he executed troop movements that were as fast as a ''chila'' ( kite/Eagle).

Military career

Confrontation with Manipur

Historical sources suggests that King Naranarayan and Chilarai have defeated the Ahoms. Ripu Singha, the king of Manipur did not resisted the Koch forces under Chilarai, after getting informed about the war between the Ahoms and Koch dynasty. The king surrendered to them and paid twenty thousands of silver rupees, one thousand of gold coins and forty elephants. Besides this, Naranarayan imposed an annual tribute of rupees twenty thousands, three hundred gold coins and ten elephants on the Manipuri king.

War with the Jaintia Kingdom

The Koch army then marches towards the Kingdom of Jaintia, consisted of the

Jaintia Hills The Khasi and Jaintia Hills are a mountainous region in India that was mainly part of Assam and Meghalaya. This area is now part of the present Indian constitutive state of Meghalaya (formerly part of Assam), which includes the present distri ...

and north to the

Barak River The Barak River or Barbakro or Agu flows through the states of Manipur, Mizoram and Assam in India. It flows into Bangladesh where it bifurcates into the Surma river and the Kushiyara river which converge again to become the Meghna river before ...

. Unlike the king of Manipur, the Jaintia king preferred to resist the Koch power and came into an armed conflict with them. He was killed in action during the war. Subsequently, his son ascended the throne and submitted to the Koch. He gave Chilarai a thousand horses, ten thousand silver coins and one thousand gold coins and one hundred special type of Jaintia swords called ''Khanga,'' as compensation for the war. The king also agreed to pay an annual tribute of ten thousand silver coins, seventy horses and three hundred ''Nakoidaos'' (a special kind of knife).

Invasion of Tripura

The Vamshavali states that after Chilarai's war with the Jaintia Kingdom, he marched towards Tripura Kingdom with 40,000 soldiers. Historical sources suggests that the king of Tripura was slain in the battlefield, and 18,000 of his soldiers were put to death. The battle fought at Langai in the southern border of Kachar. The dead king's brother surrendered to the Koch paying them ten thousand silver coins, one hundred gold coins and ten horses. He was installed on the throne on the condition of paying an annual tribute of nine thousand gold coins.

Invasion of Sylhet

Chilarai invaded

Sylhet Sylhet (; ) is a Metropolis, metropolitan city in the north eastern region of Bangladesh. It serves as the administrative center for both the Sylhet District and the Sylhet Division. The city is situated on the banks of the Surma River and, as o ...

, which was under the rule of the

Karrani dynasty The Karrani dynasty (, ) was founded in 1564 by Taj Khan Karrani, an ethnic Afghan from the Karlani tribe, hailing from Bangash district. It was the last dynasty to rule the Sultanate of Bengal, before the region became a Subah of the Mugha ...

Bengal Sultanate The Bengal Sultanate (Middle Bengali: , Classical Persian: ) was a Post-classical history, late medieval sultanate based in the Bengal region in the eastern South Asia between the 14th and 16th century. It was the dominant power of the Ganges- ...

during the reign of

Sulaiman Khan Karrani Sulaiman Khan Karrani (, ; reigned: 1565–1572) was an Afghan Sultan of Bengal. He ascended to the throne after the death of his brother Taj Khan Karrani. According to the '' Riyaz-us-Salatin'', he shifted the seat of government from Gaur t ...

. Sylhet was then administrated by a governor with the rank of ''Nawab,'' named Amil, under the allegiance of the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

and the Sultan of Bengal. After two days of constant battle, Chilarai rushed and beheaded Amil. Seeing the condition of Amil, his forces retreated away from the battlefield. Amil's brother submitted and paid a large amount of three lakhs of silver rupees, gold coins, horses and elephants to the Koch dynasty. After the victory in Sylhet, Chilarai was returning back to his kingdom. On his way, he defeated a small chiefdom named Dimrua. Panteshwar, the king of Dimrua was imprisoned and released later.

Religious patronage and character

It was only due to his royal patronage that

Sankardeva Srimanta Sankardev (, ; 1449–1568) was a 15th–16th century Assamese polymath; a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of ...

was able to establish the ekasarana-namadharma in Assam and bring about his cultural renaissance. Several rulers, namely the then king of

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

and the Khasi tribal chief (Viryyavanta), submitted to Chilaray. Chilaray and his army also vanquished and killed the Jaintia king, and kings of Tippera (Tripura) and Sylhet. Chilaray is said to have never committed brutalities on unarmed common people, and even those kings who surrendered were treated with respect. He was harsh to kings and soldiers who refused to surrender, but neither him nor his brother ever annexed territories or oppressed the common people. They only collected tributes from the vanquished kings. They even treated enemy prisoners kindly, and gave them land-grants to settle.

Death

Chilaray died in 1571 of

small pox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and pla ...

on the bank of

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

Bir Chilaray Diwas

The birth anniversary of Mahabir Chilaray is organised by

Government of Assam The Government of Assam or Assam Government abbreviated as GoAS, is the Subnational legislature, state government of the Indian state of Assam. It consists of the Governors of states of India, Governor appointed by the President of India as th ...

annually from 2005. The Government also declares this day as state holiday. It is celebrated on the Purnima of Magh Maah of Hindu Calendar.

Bir Chilaray award

The Directorate of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam instituted these awards in 2005. Theycomprise a shawl, a citation, and a cash award of Rs. 100,000http://www.samachar.com/Bir-Chilaray-Ganesh-Gogoi-Bhaben-Saikia-awards-presented-lcvkPDcbeja.html

Notes

References

* * * * {{refend 16th-century Indian people People from Assam