The Moran are an ethnic group found in the northeast Indian states of
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
and
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...
. They are of
Tibeto-Burman
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...
origin and belong to the
Kachari family. They speak
Assamese language
Assamese () or Asamiya ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a ''lingua franca'' in parts of Northeast India."Axomiya is the major langu ...
, though they used to speak
Moran language which was alive until the early 20th century and was closely related to the
Dimasa language.
["I have recently been able to demonstrate that Gurdon’s dialect is a variety of Dimasa, since it retains all the features examined here: it has the same consonant clusters and diphthongs as Dimasa." ] They once shared the same allied customs with other Kachari groups, but after their conversion to Vaishnavism, the customs began to diminish, but still, those customs can be seen intermixed with Vaishnavism.
The Morans were initiated under the fold of
Ekasarana Dharma
''Ekasarana Dharma'' () is a Vaishnavism#Later medieval period, Vaishnavite religion propagated by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in the Indian state of Assam. It reduced focus on Vedic ritualism and focuses on devotion (''bhak ...
in the tenure of Mayamara abbot
Chaturbhujdeva.
Distribution
They are mainly concentrated in the districts of
Upper Assam
Upper Assam is an administrative division of the state of Assam comprising the undivided Lakhimpur and Sivasagar (previously, Sibsagar) districts, of the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra valley. The other divisions are: Lower Assam, North Assa ...
(
Tinsukia
Tinsukia (Pron: ˌtɪnˈsʊkiə) is an industrial city. It is situated north-east of Guwahati and away from the border with Arunachal Pradesh. Tinsukia serves as the headquarters of the Moran Autonomous Council, which is the governing counci ...
,
Dibrugarh
Dibrugarh () is a city in the Indian state of Assam, located 435 kms east of the state capital Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of the Dibrugarh district in Upper Assam. Dibrugarh also serves as the headquarters of the Sonowal Kach ...
,
Jorhat
Jorhat ( /) is a major city in Upper Assam division, Upper Assam and among the fastest growing urban centres in the state of Assam in India.
Etymology
Jorhat ("jor" means twin and "hat" means market) means two hats or mandis - "Masorhaat" and ...
,
Sivasagar,
Dhemaji and
Lakhimpur) and adjoining districts of Arunachal Pradesh (
Lohit,
Namsai,
Changlang district).
History
The Moran community is one of the aboriginal tribes of Assam. In the 13th century, they lived in the south eastern corner of the Brahmaputra valley occupying territories between the Disang and
Dihing rivers. The Morans have a long history in the north–eastern part of India. They had their own independent chiefdom before the advent of the Ahoms. The origin of the word ''Moran'' is still remains obscure. According to the British reports the Morans are a distinct tribe inhabiting the jungle, which is, a division of upper Assam.
They had an chiefdom led by chief Bodousa before the advent of the Ahom king
Sukaphaa. Having arrived in this affluent kingdom, Sukaphaa proposed to marry princess Gondheswari- the daughter of Moran chief Bodousa. The chief Bodousa accepted his proposal and thus the Moran's became a part of the newly created Ahom polity. Due to their close relation with the Ahoms, the Morans seem to have adopted many of the Ahom rites and rituals.
They were also known by the name ''Habungiya'' or ''Hasa'' where Ha means soil or Earth in Moran language and Sa means son and Habungiya or Hasa means ''Son of the soil''.
["By their Ahom conquerors the Morons were employed in various menial capacities, as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and were sometimes known as Habungiyas, earth-folk, or true autoch-thones, " sons of the soil"]
See also
*
Moamoria ''(Matak)''
*
Moamoria rebellion
References
Printed sources
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{{refend
History of Assam
Assamese nationalism
Social groups of Assam
Bodo-Kachari
Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh
Ethnic groups in Northeast India