Context: The 700-year-old mound-burial system of the Ahom dynasty, the Moidams from Assam, will be considered for nomination on the World Heritage List during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in New Delhi. If it gets nominated, it will become the first cultural site on the prestigious list from the northeastern region.
More about the news:
- The Prime Minister will inaugurate the 46th session of WHC, which is being held in India for the first time.
- The event brings together culture ministers, representatives and stakeholders from around the world to discuss the preservation of shared cultural, natural and mixed heritage.
About Moidams:
Introduction:
- The nomination dossier for the Moidams was sent more than a decade ago and is presently on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the first step towards the monument becoming a part of the final list.
- The Tai-Ahom clan upon their migration from China established their capital in different parts of the Brahmaputra River Valley between 12th to 18th CE.
- The Ahom or Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group, presently in Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
- Siukapha/Sukaphaa, established the first capital of the Ahoms at the foothill of Patkai hills and named it Cheraidoi or Charaideo.
- While the clan moved from city to city, the landscape of Cheraideo continued to retain its position as the most sacred, where the Royals used to be buried after death.
- Their unique system of vaulted mounds continued for 700 years, till many Tai-Ahoms converted to Buddhism while others adopted the Hindu system of cremation.
- The property and Buffer zones around Cheraideo are jointly protected and managed jointly by the Archaeological Survey of India and the State Department of Archaeology under the Ancient Monuments and Sites Remains Act 1958 (Amended in 2010) and by the Assam Ancient Monuments and Records Act 1959 respectively.
Significant features of Moidams:
- The Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty is a sacred landscape in eastern Assam, with more than ninety burial mounds established by the Tai-Ahom over 700 years ago.
- The moidams of Charaideo contain the remains of the Tai-Ahom kings. They are set within a sculpted landscape that reflects Tai cosmologies.
- Moidams are vaulted chambers (chow-chali), often double stories entered through an arched passage.
- On the top of the hemispherical mud-mound, layers of bricks and earth are laid, where the base of the mound is reinforced.
- Excavation shows that each vaulted chamber has a centrally raised platform where the body was laid.
- Several objects used by the deceased during his life, like royal insignia, objects made in wood or ivory or iron, gold pendants, ceramic ware, weapons were also buried.
- The crematory rituals of the Royal Ahoms were conducted with grandeur, reflecting their hierarchy.
- The Changrung Phukan (canonical text developed by the Ahoms) records the materials used to construct a Moidam.
- There is a great variety in materials and systems of construction used in building a moidam.
- From the period between 13th CE to 17th CE, wood was used as the primary material for construction whereas in the 18th CE onwards stone and burnt bricks of various sizes were used for the inner chambers.
- Boulders of different sizes, broken stones, bricks, and broken brick were used to construct the superstructure, whereas large stone slabs were used for the sub-substructure.
The Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty is an outstanding example of a Tai-Ahom necropolis (an extensive and elaborate burial place) that represents tangibly the Tai-Ahom funerary traditions and associated cosmologies.
About Tai-Ahom Kingdom:
- The Ahom kingdom (1228–1826) was a late medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley (present-day Assam).
- Established by Sukaphaa, a Tai prince from present-day Yunnan Province, China.
- The Ahom dynasty created a new state by overpowering the older political system of the bhuiyans (landlords).
- By the 16th century, the Ahom empire expanded their influence and built a large state.
- The Ahom empire followed a monarchical system of governance.
- The kingdom became weaker with the rise of the Moamoria rebellion, and subsequently fell to repeated Burmese invasions of Assam.
- With the defeat of the Burmese after the First Anglo-Burmese War and the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, control of the kingdom passed into East India Company hands.