Sadiya Serpent Pillar
| Sadiya serpent pillar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Writing | Language; Tai language, Script; Ahom script |
| Symbols | A pair of snakes biting their tails is twisted around it |
| Created | 1532[1] |
| Discovered | Sadiya, between the Dibang and Deopani rivers |
| Present location | Assam State Museum |
Sadiya Serpent pillar, is a medieval octagonal stone pillar that was erected in the region of historical Chutia kingdom in present-day Sadiya in Assam, India. It contains the earliest example of Ahom script and the pillar is inscribed with the Ahom equivalent year of 1532 CE.
Description and Location[edit]
As per the Assam Gazetteer (1928), the pillar was found between the Dibang and Deopani rivers, on the eastern side close to the seventh milepost of the road from Sadiya to Nizamghat. There was a stone bridge located nearby to the pillar and a road led from this bridge to a brick tank in the vicinity.[2][3] The British explorer S. F Hannay found a brick gateway, stone bridge and a brick tank in the same region (between the Dibang and Deopani rivers), but fortified by tall ramparts.[4]
The stone pillar contains one of the earliest Ahom inscription founded to date inscribed in it, dated to 1532.[5][6] The inscription dates to the reign of Suhungmung Dihingia Raja (1497–1539). Ahoms who captured Sadiya in 1523 and entered into a treaty with the local Mishmi tribe, the terms of the treaty were inscribed on an eleven feet high stone pillar, constructed in a design of a huge serpent encircling it from bottom to top.[7] The epigraph consisting 9 and a half lines on the pillar is a proclamation issued by Phrasenmung Borgohain (Ahom governor of Sadiya) asking the Mishimis to pay annual tribute in certain articles and to dwell on one side of the Dibang River.[8]
The snake pillar shares similarity with the octagonal stone snake pillars symbols found in the Tamreswari Temple of Sadiya.[9]
Present[edit]
It was removed from its original site in 1953, and placed in Assam State Museum and since then has been in display there.[10]
Gallery[edit]
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Caption about the Sadiya Serpent pillar in Assam State Museum.
Notes[edit]
- ^ "The famous Snake Pillar of Sadiya, dated 1532 AD, erected as a mark of truce between the Ahoms and the Mishmis"(Das 1980:53)
- ^ (C. Allen 1928:18)
- ^ (Sen 1978:94)
- ^ (Prinsep 1838:676)
- ^ "The earliest examples of Ahom script are from the sixteenth century: on the Sadiya Snake Pillar (at the Assam State Museum, Guwahati), a lithic inscription most probably made some time after 1524 CE when the area came under Ahom control"(Wharton 2019:8)
- ^ (Nath 1948:20)
- ^ (Bhattacharya 1977:142)
- ^ (Phukan 1997:7)
- ^ (C. Allen 1928:94)
- ^ (Phukan 1997:107)
References[edit]
- Sen, Pada Sen (1978). Sources of the History of India: Assam. Sikkim. Tamilnadu.
- Bhattacharya, Asutosh (1977). The Sun and the Serpent Lore of Bengal. Firma KLM.
- Nath, Rajmohan (1948). The Back Ground Of Assamese Culture.
- Das, Jogesh (1980). Folklore of Assam. National Book Trust.
- C. Allen, B (1928). Assam district gazetteers. Vol. XI. Baptist Mission Press.
- Phukan, J.N. (1997), Studies in some aspects of inscriptions of the Ahom kings, Gauhati University
- Prinsep, F.R.S James (1838). "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal". 7. Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India).
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Wharton, David (2019). "Historical Evidence for the Early Lik Tai Scripts".
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