The Moran are an ethnic group of northeastern India, found primarily in Assam and adjoining parts of Arunachal Pradesh. They are generally classified among the Bodo-Kachari peoples and historically spoke the Moran language, a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to Dimasa."I have recently been able to demonstrate that Gurdon’s dialect is a variety of Dimasa, since it retains all the features examined here: it has the same consonant clusters and diphthongs as Dimasa." The community is now predominantly Assamese-speaking, the Moran language having survived until the early twentieth century. Traditional Moran social and religious practices shared a number of features with other Bodo-Kachari communities, although many of these practices were subsequently modified following the spread of Vaishnavism.
Before the establishment of Ahom rule in Upper Assam, the Morans formed a politically organised community under their own chief. Their incorporation into the developing Ahom polity involved both diplomacy and coercion: while the Moran chief was won over by negotiation, sections that resisted Sukaphaa were forcibly subdued. At the time of Sukaphaa's arrival, the Morans inhabited Upper Assam alongside other indigenous communities, particularly the Barahis, Dimasas and Chutias, who occupied different adjoining tracts of the eastern Brahmaputra valley. Moran individuals and families were subsequently incorporated into the Ahom political and military system, some entering Ahom clans and administrative service, while Morans also became particularly associated with elephant-catching and training. Historically, however, many Moran communities were forest-dwelling shifting cultivators, and their settlements were comparatively mobile rather than permanently fixed in one locality.
In the early modern period, the Morans became closely associated with the Mayamara Satra and were among the earliest tribal communities to accept initiation into the Ekasarana Vaishnavite order. They were initiated under the Mayamara abbot Chaturbhujdeva. The Morans subsequently formed an important component of the wider Matak or Moamoria community and played a prominent role in the Moamoria rebellion against the Ahom monarchy in the eighteenth century.
Distribution
The Morans are concentrated principally in Upper Assam, with their largest present-day concentrations in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts. Tinsukia in particular forms the principal centre of the community, while smaller Moran populations are found in Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat, Majuli, Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts. Communities are also found across the Assam–Arunachal Pradesh border, particularly in Lohit, Namsai and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, including the Bordumsa area.
The historical distribution of the Morans was not static. Traditionally, many Moran communities lived in forested tracts and practised ahu or shifting cultivation, a pattern that continued into the British period. Colonial observers consequently described their settlements as dispersed and comparatively mobile, with cultivators moving to new sites in search of fresh land. The tracts associated with the Morans in sources from different periods should therefore not necessarily be understood as permanently fixed settlement boundaries.
Under the Ahom kingdom, the distribution of the Morans was further affected by their incorporation into the state, including the movement of particular families and occupational groups to different parts of Upper Assam. Guha notes that while a substantial forest-dwelling Moran population remained in the eastern tracts, particularly north of the Dibru, a portion of the Moran population was "shifted to the Ahom habitat", where they became increasingly integrated into Ahom society. Moran families also worked agricultural estates belonging to the Ahom nobility. A specific instance of such movement is preserved in the Ahom-Buranji, which records that a family descended from the Moran Maimai Khiarat was taken to Tingkhang as Hatimuria by the Bargohain.
Other Moran groups came to be associated with settlements considerably west of the community's principal eastern habitat. Sidney Endle noted that the Morans were also known as Kapahiyas (from kapah, "cotton"), because one of their traditional duties under the Ahoms was to cultivate cotton for the royal household at places including Kakatal, Mariani, Jhanji and Hoollongapar."They are sometimes known as (1) Moran Kacharis and (2) Kapahiyas (kapah—cotton), the latter name being due to the fact that in early days one of their chief duties was to grow cotton for the use of Ahom princesses, at Kakatal, Moriani, Jhanzi, Hologapar, etc." Other Moran groups were organised for the supply of forest products and elephants. The Hati-chungi Morans specialised in catching and supplying elephants to the Ahom state, while other Moran units supplied products such as honey, vegetable dyes and mats. Late eighteenth-century records also associate Moran groups with the eastern Dihing–Patkai frontier. In 1775, the Ahom Buranji records that Nungakham, a Nora chief living in Khamjang, with assistance from a group of Morans (mentioned as Tumisa)Athough the passage says Chutias in the English translation, the use of the term "Tumisa" indicate that these were actually Moran groups who were living in a tract remembered as part of the former Chutia kingdom, since the Ahom term Tumisa is associated with the Morans, while the territorial names Mung-Tiura and Doi-mung-Tiura refer to former Chutia territories. organised a rebellion against the Hatkhowa Gohain (Chao-Bo-klang) and declared himself king of the territories on the side of the Dibru river. Following their defeat, Nungakham and his followers withdrew into the hills near the Dihing, or Nam-jin, in a tract called Doi-mung-Tiura. The episode provides evidence for Moran groups living or operating along the Dihing–Patkai frontier in the late Ahom period.
By the colonial period, the apparent distribution of the community was also affected by assimilation and changing ethnic identification, particularly with the Ahoms. Despite this decline in separate census identification, Sidney Endle in the early twentieth century still described the principal Moran habitat as lying between the Buri Dihing and the Brahmaputra, with about half of the population in the contemporary Lakhimpur district and the remainder in adjoining Sibsagar; he also noted extensive intermarriage with the Ahoms.
History The Morans were among the indigenous communities inhabiting the eastern part of the Brahmaputra Valley before the establishment of Ahom rule. According to Buranji-based accounts cited by Sristidhar Dutta, at the time of Sukaphaa's arrival, they lived under a chief named Badaucha, occupying a tract bounded by the Buri Dihing in the north and the Disang in the south,"At the time of Sukapha's advent, the Morans were ruling the tract bounded by the rivers Buri Dihing in the north, Disang in the south, Suffry in the east and Brahmaputra in the west." which included parts of present-day Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, towards the frontiers of Myanmar. They were also known by the name Habungiya or Hasa where Ha means soil or Earth in Moran language and Sa means son and Habungiya or Hasa means Son of the soil, "By their Ahom conquerors the Morons were employed in various menial capacities, as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and were sometimes known as Habungiyas, earth-folk, or true autoch-thones, " sons of the soil" translated to Thangiri in Assamese.Bhuyan, S.K, Satsari Assam Buranji,p.5
Historically, the Morans were a forest-dwelling population whose agricultural economy was based substantially on ahu rice and shifting cultivation. This mobile pattern of cultivation persisted well into the British period. A. J. Moffatt Mills, writing in the mid-nineteenth century, described the Morans as largely migratory, their mobility being associated with the practice of jhum cultivation. Their settlements were consequently comparatively dispersed and mobile, as exhausted cultivation grounds were abandoned and new areas of forest were cleared for cultivation. This pattern continued into the colonial period, even as increasing state control over forests and the expansion of tea plantations progressively restricted shifting cultivation.
The incorporation of the Morans into the early Ahom polity appears to have involved both diplomacy and coercion. Dutta states that Sukaphaa first won over the Moran chief by diplomatic means, but that sections of the Morans who refused to surrender were compelled to do so by force. According to the chronicle account cited by him, the headmen of the resisting families were invited to a feast, made intoxicated and killed by Sukaphaa's men, following which the remaining Morans submitted to his authority. A parallel Assam Buranji account states that a few Morans continued to refuse to acknowledge Sukaphaa as king and that, after the people of those households were killed, "all became subject and acknowledged the king".
Following their subjugation, sections of the Moran population were gradually incorporated into the developing Ahom polity. Sukaphaa is said to have opened three khats or agricultural settlements—Gachikala, Barakhowa and Engera—and employed many Morans in clearing land for cultivation.
One Moran associated with this early process of incorporation was Lanmakhru. According to Dutta, while Sukaphaa was staying at Tipam on the Dihing, he was impressed by a Moran who supplied him with brinjals and gave him the name Lanmakhru. Lanmakhru subsequently assisted Sukaphaa in fighting the Nagas and was admitted into the Ahom fold; he became the progenitor of an Ahom phoid or clan bearing his name. Dutta identifies later officials, including Halahdi Thenga and Banda, as descendants of this clan. Another Moran from Tipam, Manimari Khowa, described as a weigher by profession, was similarly incorporated into the Ahom fold.
The integration of the Morans continued under later Ahom rulers. Dutta states that Moran families were gradually assimilated with the Ahoms and that, during the reign of Suhungmung (1497–1539), descendants of Moran and Barahi chiefs were appointed to responsible positions at places including Charagua, Paibela, Dihing, Janji, Bagh-chao and Langka. As Ahom power expanded westward, further officials were recruited from among the Morans. The Morans were particularly noted for their skill in catching and training elephants, and Dutta states that the Ahom elephant establishment was largely staffed by them.
Notable people Anup Chetia
See also Matak people Moamoria rebellion
References
Notes
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