(THE GIST OF PIB) Lachit Borphukan

(NOVEMBER-2023)

Recently, the Prime Minister of India paid tribute to Lachit Borphukan on Lachit Diwas.

He has been revered in Assam as the warrior who defeated Mughal armies in the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.
He was commander of the Ahom armies during the battle of Saraighat and fought on the banks of the Brahmaputra in Guwahati.
He was a brilliant military commander.
He was chosen as one of the five Borphukans of the Ahom kingdom by King Charadhwaj Singha and given administrative, judicial, and military responsibilities.
Borphukan preferred guerrilla tactics, which provided an edge to his smaller but fast-moving and capable forces.
He died a year after the Battle of Saraighat from a long-festering illness.

The Ahom kings ruled large parts of what is now known as Assam for nearly 600 years, from the early 13th century to the early 19th century.
This was a prosperous, multi-ethnic kingdom that spread across the upper and lower reaches of the Brahmaputra valley, surviving on rice cultivation in its fertile lands.
The Ahoms engaged in a series of conflicts with the Mughals from 1615-1682, starting from the reign of Jahangir until the reign of Aurangzeb.