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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}

{{Infobox former country
| conventional_long_name = Kamata Kingdom
| common_name = Kamata
| capital = Kamatapur
| common_languages = [[Early Assamese]] (eastern part), [[KRNB lects#Proto Kamta|Proto Kamta]] (western part)
| religion = [[Hinduism]]
| era = [[Middle kingdoms of India|Medieval India]]
| status =
| p1 = Kamarupa
| s1 = Koch Bihar
| flag_s1 =
| s2 = Koch Hajo
| s3 =
| s4 =
| s5 =
| image_map =
| image_map_caption =
| year_start = c1257
| year_end = 1587
| today = [[India]] ([[North Bengal]], [[Lower Assam]]), [[Bangladesh]]
| demonym =
| area_km2 =
| area_rank =
| GDP_PPP =
| GDP_PPP_year =
| HDI =
| HDI_year =
| flag_s4 =
| flag_s2 =
}}

{{Assam History}}
{{Culture of Assam}}

The '''Kamata Kingdom''' (pron: ˈkʌmətɑ) emerged in western [[Kamarupa]] probably when Sandhya, a ruler of Kamarupanagara, moved his capital west to Kamatapur sometime after 1257 CE.<ref>"[[Kamarupa]] was reorganized as a new state. 'Kamata' by name with Kamatapur as capital. The exact time when the change was made is uncertain. But possibly it had been made by Sandhya (c1250-1270) as a safeguard against mounting dangers from the east and the west. Its control on the eastern regions beyond the Manah (Manas river) was lax." {{harv|Sarkar|1992|pp=40–41}}</ref> Since it originated in the old seat of the Kamarupa kingdom, and since it covered most of the western parts of it, the kingdom is also sometimes called as Kamarupa-Kamata.

It covered a region corresponding to present-day undivided districts of [[Undivided Kamrup district|Kamrup]], [[Undivided Goalpara district|Goalpara]], Jalpaiguri, and [[Cooch Behar district]] in [[India]] and [[Rangpur Division|Rangpur]] and northern parts of [[Mymensingh Division|Mymensingh]] in [[Bangladesh]].<ref>"Broadly speaking it included the districts of Kamrup, Goalpara, Koch Bihar, Rangpur, and some portions of Mymensing." {{harv|Sarkar|1992|p=39}}</ref> The rise of the Kamata kingdom marked the end of the ancient period in the [[history of Assam]] and the beginning of the medieval period. The last rulers were the Khens, who were later displaced in 1498 by [[Alauddin Hussain Shah]], the Turko-Afghan ruler of [[Gauḍa (region)|Gauda]]. Though Hussain Shah developed extensive administrative structures, he lost political control to a confederation of [[Baro-Bhuyan]] within a few years.<ref name="baruah-daniel"/>

[[Biswa Singha]] removed Baro-Bhuyan confederacy and established the [[Koch dynasty]] soon, in 1515.<ref name="baruah-bhuyans">"The kingdom again passed on to the rule of the Bhuyans till the rise of the Koches in about 1515 AD." {{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=181}}</ref> The Koches were the last to call themselves ''Kamateshwars'' (the rulers of Kamata), but their influence and expansions were so extensive and far-reaching that their kingdom is sometimes called the Koch Kingdom. In the same century the kingdom split in two: [[Cooch Behar State|Koch Bihar]] and [[Koch Hajo]]. The eastern kingdom, Koch Hajo, was soon absorbed into the [[Ahom kingdom]] in the 17th century. The western portion of the Kamata kingdom, Koch Bihar] continued to be ruled by a branch of the [[Koch dynasty]] and later merged with the Indian territory after the independence of India from the British domain.<ref>http://coochbehar.nic.in/htmfiles/royal_history2.html</ref> The boundary between Koch Bihar and Koch Hajo is approximately the boundary between West Bengal and Assam today.

==Rulers of Kamata kingdom==
===Early rulers===
Sandhya, was a ruler of Kamarupanagara, the capital of the erstwhile [[Kamarupa]].<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=175}}</ref> After withstanding an attack from [[Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak]], in which Iuzbak was killed (in 1257), Sandhya moved his capital to Kamatapur, near present-day Cooch Behar town. Sandhya styled himself ''Kamateswara'' and the kingdom came to be known as Kamata.<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=176}}</ref>
* Sandhya (1228–1260)
* Sindhu Rai (1260–1285)
* Rup Narayan (1285–1300)
* Singhadhwaj (1300–1305)

===Middle rulers===
Pratapdhvaj was a minister of Singhadhvaj when he usurped power. At his death, his cousin Dharmanarayan seized power. He was challenged by Pratapdhvaj's son Durlabhnarayan and they decided to settle. Durlabhnarayan assumed power Kamrup, Goalpara, Jalpaiguri, Koch Bihar, along with the capital Kamatapur, while Dharmanarayan retained Rangpur and Mymensingh.<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=177}}</ref><ref>{{harvcol|Sarkar|1992|p=41f}}</ref> As part of the settlement in about 1330, Durlabhnarayan received from Dharmanarayan the custody of fourteen families of Brahmans and Kayasthas, one among whom was Candivara, the great-great-grandfather of [[Sankardev]].<ref>{{harvcol|Neog|1980|p=50}}</ref> The court poets of Durlabhnarayan ([[Hema Saraswati]] and [[Harivara Vipra]]) and Indranarayan produced literary works that are considered to be the first examples of [[Early Assamese]].<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=178}}</ref>
* Pratapdhvaj (1305–1325)
* Dharma Narayan (1325–1330)
* Durlabh Narayan (1330–1350)
* Indra Narayan (1350–1365)

===Baro-Bhuyan rule===
{{main|Baro-Bhuyan}}
The invasion of Assam by [[Sikandar Shah]] (1357–1390) weakened Indranarayan. Though Shah had to retreat from central Assam because of an attack on Bengal by [[Firuz Shah Tughlaq]], Indranarayana was sufficiently damaged that a Bhuyan from [[Darrang]], Arimatta, was able to usurp power.<ref>"Indranarayan's inability to resist the Muslims paved the way for the rise of the Bhuyans. Indeed, one of them, Arimatta or Sasanka became so ambitious that he killed Indranarayan and usurped the throne of Kamata." {{harvcol|Baruah|1986|pp=178–179}}</ref>
* Sasanka (Arimatta) (1365–1385)
* Gajanka (1385–1400)
* Sukranka (1400–1415)
* Mriganka (1415–1440)

===Khen dynasty===
{{see|Khen dynasty}}
The Khen dynasty<ref>{{Harvcol|Sarkar|1992|p=44}}</ref> replaced the weak rulers of [[Kamata kingdom]] following Arimatta in the middle of the 15th century. Niladhvaj Khen, the first king, united several Baro-Bhuyan chieftains of the area and removed the last of Arimatta's successors—Mriganka.There were only three Khen rulers.
* [[Niladhwaj of Kamata|Niladhwaj]] (1440–1460)
* [[Chakradhwaj of Kamata|Chakradhwaj]] (1460–1480)
* [[Nilambar of Kamata|Nilambar]] (1480–1498)
The last king, Nilambar expanded the kingdom to include the present Koch Bihar districts of West Bengal and the undivided Kamrup and Darrang districts of Assam and northern Mymensing in Bangladesh as well as eastern parts of Dinajpur district,[2] though he was removed by Alauddin Husain Shah in 1498.

===Bengal Sultanate rule===
[[Alauddin Hussain Shah]] (c1494-1519), an Afghan ruler of [[Gauḍa (region)|Gauda]], removed the last Khen ruler in 1498.<ref>The dates and duration of this invasion are not well established. See {{Harvcol|Sarkar|1992|pp=46–47}}.</ref> According to tradition, this involved an instigation by a minister of Kamatapur whose son had a liaison with the Kamatapur queen, and Hussein Shah invaded the Kamata kingdom with 24,000 infantry, cavalry and a war flotilla.<ref>{{Harvcol|Sarkar|1992|p=46}}</ref> After a long seize of the Kamatapur fort and a treacherous win, Hussein Shah finally destroyed the city and annexed the region up to [[Hajo]], thereby regaining much of the land Bengal had lost earlier to Kamatapur, and some more. Hussein Shah's son was made the viceroy of the region.
Hussein Shah removed the local chieftains and established military control over the region.<ref>"Kamrup came to be used as a colony of the Afhans. They drove away the Hindu chieftains and assumed the civil and military administration of the area." {{harvcol|Sarkar|1992|p=47}}</ref> He issued coins in his name "Conqueror of Kamru and Kamata ..."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sircar|first=D. C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1JYwP5tVQUC&pg=PA21|title=Studies in Indian Coins|date=2008|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishe|isbn=978-81-208-2973-2|language=en}}</ref>. His conquest expanded the kingdom to central Assam. Hussein Shah finally lost military and political control to revolts by local chieftains including the [[Bhuyan chieftains|Bara Bhuyans]] first and later to the Ahom king, Suhungmung, and the region lapsed into local control and rise of the [[Koch dynasty]].<ref name="baruah-daniel">"But the rule of the Muslims was short. The Bhuyans made a united attack on Daniel's garrison and destroyed it to the last man."{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=181}}</ref>

Nevertheless, the Afghan rule had lasting effects. Hussein Shah's coins continued to be used till 1518, when the Koch dynasty began consolidating their rule. Ghiasuddin Aulia, a Muslim divine figure from [[Mecca]], established a colony at Hajo. His tomb, which is said to contain a little soil from Mecca, now called "Poa Mecca" ("a quarter Mecca"), is frequented by Hindus and Muslims alike.<ref>{{Harvcol|Sarkar|1992|p=48}}</ref>

===Interregnum===
Alauddin Hussain Shah's representative in Kamata, his son Danial and his officers, was seized and killed by the [[Bhuyan chieftains|Bara Bhuyans]] of the region and the region lapsed into their confederated style of governance till the Koches took over.<ref name="baruah-bhuyans"/>

===Koch kingdom===
{{See|Koch dynasty}}

* [[Vishwa Singha]] (1515–1540)
* [[Nara Narayan]] (1540–1587)

The Kamata kingdom then passed into the hands of the [[Koch people]], with Vishwa Singha consolidating his control over the Bara-Bhuyans one after another and establishing the [[Koch dynasty]] with its dominion from the Karatoya river in the west to the Barnadi river in the east.<ref>"[Bisu, the son of Haria Mandal,] organised the strength of his tribe and defeated all the neighboring Bhuyans one after another and at last made himself the master of the dominion extending from the Karatoya in the west to the Barnadi in the east." {{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=204}}</ref> In the 1581 Raghudev, the son of [[Chilarai]] and the nephew of [[Nara Narayan]], affected a split in the kingdom<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=214}}</ref>—[[Koch Hajo]] and [[Cooch Behar State|Koch Bihar]].<ref>"The Persian writers called the eastern part of the kingdom Koch Hajo and the western part Koch Behar. Assamese chronicles referred to them as Kamrup and Behar respectively." {{harvcol|Baruah|1986|pp=214-215}}</ref> Though Raghudev had accepted the suzerainty of his uncle,<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=214}}</ref> the two parts of the original Kamata kingdom split for good in 1587 when Naranarayan died,<ref>{{harvcol|Baruah|1986|p=2015}}</ref> the boundary between them forming roughly the administrative boundary between the present-day [[Assam]] and [[West Bengal]].

[[Koch Hajo]], the eastern kingdom, soon came under attack from the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]], and the region went back and forth for between the Mughal and the [[Ahom kingdom|Ahoms]], finally settling with the Ahoms. Koch Bihar, the western kingdom, first befriended the Mughals and then the British, and the rulers maintained the princely state till the end of the British rule.

==See also==
* [[Koch–Ahom conflicts]]
* [[Koch Rajbongshi people]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last=Baruah |first=S L |title=A Comprehensive History of Assam |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.|place=New Delhi |year=1986}}
* {{Cite journal| last = Boruah| first=Nirode| title = Kamarupa to Kamata: The political Transition and the New Geopolitical Trends and Spaces | journal= Proceedings of the Indian History Congress| volume=72 |number= | year=2011| pages= 78–86| jstor=44146698}}
* {{cite book
| last = Neog
| first = Maheshwar
| authorlink =Maheshwar Neog
| title = Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Assam
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DcReZM-rI0MC
| publisher = [[Motilal Banarsidass]]
| year = 1980
| location = Delhi
| isbn = 9788120800076}}
* {{Citation |last=Sarkar |first=J. N. |contribution=Chapter II The Turko-Afghan Invasions |editor-last=Barpujari |editor-first=H. K. |title=The Comprehensive History of Assam |volume=2 |pages=35–48 |publisher=Assam Publication Board |place=Guwahati |year=1992}}
{{refend}}

{{Assam}}
{{History of Assam}}
{{Cooch Behar topics}}

[[Category:Kingdoms of Assam]]
[[Category:History of Cooch Behar]]

Kamata Kingdom - Revision history

Raymondbig: improved article

>Chaipau: Reverted 1 edit by HistoriographerPro (talk) to last revision by AManWithNoPlan