Joymoti Konwari

Joymoti Konwari (, , ) was the wife of Ahom prince Gadapani (later Supatphaa). She died at the hands of the royalists under Sulikphaa Loraa Roja without disclosing her exiled husband Gadapani's whereabouts in the Naga Hills, thereby enabling her husband to rise in revolt and assume kingship.

Biography Joymoti was born in the middle of the 17th-century in Maduri to Laithepena Borgohain and Chandradaru. She was married to Langi Gadapani Konwar, later an Ahom king, Supatphaa, who established the Tungkhungia line of kings. Hypothesis theory given by multiple scorlar :- In Buranji, Deodhai carefully writes about Ahom politics. What happened in that situation was described, but the actions of the Ahom king, Lora Roja, and Ahom General of Laluk Borphukan, between 1679 and 1681. including the amputation of parts of the prince's body and the brutal punishment given to civilians, were not mentioned because of the reputation of the royal court and the impact it would have on the king's generation have the potential for civil war with the prince's clan in the ahom kingdom. https://www.academia.edu/62667477/History_Memory_and_Legend_Contextualizing_Joymoti_Utsav_in_Assam

A few buranjis mention her but not as Joymati but only as a nameless Gadapani's wife or they have different name in ahom language . Most people know about the sacrifices she made for her husband and folklore popular among the people of Upper Assam .

Legacy

Since the early 20th-century literary figures such as Padmanath Gohain Baruah and Lakshminath Bezbaruah transformed the "ordinary story" of Joymati into a "fictional tale" of a female hero's moral victory against the male military might and as a representation of the Ahom glory.

The story of Joymati attained a new fame when it was filmed in 1935 by Jyotiprasad Agarwala.

In the 21st century, a color film based on Joymoti was made in 2006, directed by Manju Bora. It was beautifully made with Tai Ahom culture and depicted what the Ahom people looked like.Joymoti (2006 film)

Memorials and monuments

Joysagar Tank

Joymoti and Gadadhar Singha's eldest son Rudra Singha (Sukhrungphaa, 1696–1714) succeeded his father. In honour of the memory of his mother Joymoti, Rudra Singha built the Joysagar Tank in 1697 at Sibsagar. It is believed to be the biggest man-made lake in India, comprising an area covering of land, including its four banks, out of which is filled with fresh water. A 2 km-long earthen water pipeline once ran from the tank to the Rangpur Palace (Kareng Ghar), supplying water to the royal palace.

Phakuwa Doul

Rudra Singha also built the Phakuwa Doul in 1703–04, a pyramid-shaped temple constructed before the Rangnath (Shiva) Temple on the banks of the Joysagar Tank. It is said that Rudra Singha, once again to perpetuate the memory of his mother Soti Joymoti, constructed the temple and placed a golden idol of her within it. The circumference of the Doul was about , and its height from base to top was . There were eight brick pillars around the temple.

Joymoti Day Sati Joymoti Divas, commemoration day of Joymoti, is held annually in Assam on 27 March.

Sati Joymoti Award A orthodox Brahmin publicist, Kumudeswar Barthakur (Bengali brahmin), first bestowed the tide of sati upon Joymati in his brief tract Jaymati Kahini (1918). The mythological Sati represented the embodiment of Hindu female chastity, the pure symbol of a life of self-abnegation, and devotion to husband and dharrna. This Hinduized attribution shifted the Jaymati story closer to India values at the same time as it retained its local roots. The use of this sati framework allowed the Jaymati theme and its author admittance into a pan-Indian Hindu universe.https://archive.org/details/dli.doa.052/page:227

Kumudeswar Barthakur acknowledged that readers might be surprised at his reverence for "a non-Hindu woman who is ritually impure." He sought to preempt such criticism when he asserted that although Jaymati was not a Hindu, she ex-emplified "all the virtues of Hindu goddesses such as Sita." The title sati became Jaymati's because of her virtues, despite her Ahom husband's famed (non-Hindu) ability to eat an entire calf in one sitting. This Brahmin narrator impressively placed his Assamese sati within an Indo-Aryan pantheon of female virtue which included Sita, Draupadi, and Savitri.https://archive.org/details/dli.doa.052/page:227

Film and theatre

Joymoti (1935 film) was the first Assamese language film, directed and produced by Jyoti Prasad Agarwala. In 2006, Manju Borah released another film by the same name. The 19th-century Assamese writer Lakshminath Bezbaruah depicted her life in the drama Joymoti Kuwori.

Joymoti Konwari

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