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Charaideo Maidams: Final Resting Place of Ahom Swargadeos
The Ahom kings or Swargadeos (meaning Lord of the Heaven in Tai-Ahom) patronized remarkable architectural activities during their six hundred-years long reign (1228 CE - 1826 CE). Charaideo (meaning “The Shining City on the Hills” in Tai-Ahom), the first capital of the Ahom Kingdom, cradles an incredible set of structures called the Maidams. These Maidams are the burial mounds of the Ahom Swargadeos and members of the royal family.
The word Maidam is derived from the Tai-Ahom word Phrangmai-dam. Phrangmai means “to put into the grave” and dam refers to “the spirit of the deceased person”. Chaolung Siu-ka-Pha, the founder of the Ahom kingdom who built his capital at Charaideo (situated 28 kilometers east of the town of Sivasagar) in 1253 CE, was buried here as per Tai-Ahom funerary rituals. Since then, Charaideo came to be a sacred place where the last rituals for the deceased members of the Ahom royal families were performed. Till the reign of Swargadeo Gadadhar Singha (1681 CE- 1696 CE) the Ahoms followed the practice of burying their dead. However, with the growing influence of Hinduism on the Ahom religion, culture and polity, there was a shift from the burial of the dead to the burial of the ashes of the dead (after cremation) in the Maidams.
A Maidam at Charaideo. Image source: Wikimedia Commons
A view of Charaideo Maidam site Image source: Wikimedia Common
On the exterior, the Maidams are hemispherical in shape with sizes varying from a small mound to a hillock of around twenty meters in height. The size of a Maidam was said to be determined by the power and status of the person buried. A Maidam consists of three major features: a vault or chamber, a hemispherical earthen mound covering the chamber, and an octagonal boundary wall around the base of the mound along with an arched gateway on its west. The vaults were initially made of solid wooden poles and beams. It is during the reign of Swargadeo Rudra Singha (1696 CE - 1712 CE) that the wooden vaults were replaced with stone and brick vaults.
The Ahom Swargadeos (Kings) appointed a special officer titled Changrung Phukan for the construction and maintenance of all the civil works including the royal Maidams. Again, special officers titled Maidam Phukans and groups of guards called Maidamiya were also appointed to protect and maintain the Maidams. The chronicles of the Changrung Phukan mention that the bricks and stones of the Maidams were put together using a unique mortar mix or cementing agent called karal. This cementing agent was prepared of various locally available materials such as lime, snail shell, pulses, resin, hemp, molasses, matimah (black gram), fish, etc.
A view of Charaideo Maidam site Image source: Wikimedia Common
In the Ahom kingdom, the news of the death of an Ahom Swargadeo was kept confidential till the enthronement of his successor. Once the news was made public, an order was passed to start the burial process. As soon as the order was passed, Paiks (every able-bodied male in the Ahom Kingdom between the age group 15-50 years who was not a noble, priest, a high caste or a slave) was expected to reach Charaideo. An area of land measuring between 2880-4320 square feet was selected for the Maidam. The Paiks were engaged in digging the trench, bringing various types of stones from distant locations, filling the vault with soil, making bricks and preparing the mortar mix, etc. It is said that only people from the Gharphaliya and Lukhurakhankhels (khel refers to a group of people who were assigned to do specific jobs) were allowed to bury the bodies of the Ahom kings and queens. There used to be a considerable gap between the death of a Swargadeo and the entombment of his body in the Maidam. During this period, the body was said to be kept in mercury or honey for its preservation. There used to be a specific road to carry the dead bodies, known as Sa-nia-Ali (Sa: dead body, nia: to carry, Ali: path or road), and a specific tank called Sa-Dhowa-Pukhuri (Sa: dead body, Dhowa: bath, Pukhuri: tank) for a ritualistic bath of the deceased. Rung-Dang, a coffin made of a specific type of timber was carried to the burial ground in a Kekora Dola (a kind of palanquin) by the people belonging to the Gharphaliya and Lukhurakhan khels. However, only the Lukhurakhans were allowed to enter the giant vault under the hemispherical earthen mound, known as Kareng-rung-dang. The coffin (Rung-Dang) was placed here in an east- west direction along with a huge quantity of resources including utensils made of gold and silver, carpets, clothes, edible items, etc. After placing the coffin, the door of the vault was sealed with boulders in clay mortar.
A view of the bricks prepared during the reign of the Ahom Kingdom Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The Charaideo Maidams, often referred to as the pyramids of Assam, consist of around 90 burial mounds. These timeless structures continue to stand as a testament to the glorious history of the Ahom Kingdom.
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