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| | History of Assam |
 | | The Ahom, a Shan tribe from which the name Assam is probably derived, crossed the Patkoi Mountains from Burman in 1228 AD and by the sixteenth century had absorbed the Chutiya and Kachari kingdoms of the upper Brahmaputra, subdued the neighboring hill tribes, and integrated the bhuyans into the administrative apparatus of a feudalistic state. |
 | | During the latter half of the sixteenth century, the revered gossain (teacher, saint) and Assamese cultural hero, Shankara Deva, inspired a popular Vaishnavite movement that sought to reform the esoteric practices of Tantric Hinduism and to limit the prerogatives of the brahmanas attached to the Ahom court. |
 | | The Ahom came to sponsor an extensive network of Vaishnavite monasteries, whose monks played an important role in the reclamation of wastelands for wet-rice cultivation throughout the Brahmaputra Valley. |
| web.ics.purdue.edu /~smdas/history.htm (1412 words) |
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