Ep 07: Pyramids of The Ahoms. Sivasagar, Charaideo Maidam - Part 2. Full Tour With English Subtitles

No other funerary structures found in other parts of India can be compared with the Maidam .
There are four Maidams under the Archeological Survey of India at Charaideo. These are Maidam No. 1 (265m diameter), No. 2 (300m diameter), No. 3 (150 diameter) and no. 4 (150 diameter). Besides these four, there are number of smaller Maidams with Archaeological Survey of India. A large number of Maidams are protected by the Government of Assam while many are unprotected.

Traditionally, the Ahoms buried their dead. The Maidams are the burial mounds of the Ahom kings, queens and nobles. The word Maidam is derived from the Tai word Phrang mai-dam or mai-tam. Phrangm mai means to put into the grave or to bury and dam means the spirit of the dead.

Though Maidams are found in all the districts of Upper Assam, Charaideo, the first capital of The Ahoms was the necropolis of almost all the Ahoms Royals. Charaideo is situated 28, east of Sivasagar. The first king of The Ahoms, Choa-pha Siu-ka-pha was buried at Charaideo after his death observing all the Tai-Ahom religious rites and rituals. Since then, it turned into a norm to bury Tai-Ahom kings, queens, princes and princesses at Charaideo. During their six hundred years of rule, this place became a venerated and sacred place.

The exterior of the Maidams is hemispherical in shape, and their sizes vary from a modest mound to a hillock of twenty metres or so in height, depending upon the power, status and resources of the person buried. A Maidam consists of three najor features; a vault or chamber, a hemispherical earthen mound covering the chamber with a brick structure (Chow-chali) for annual offering over it and an octagonal boundary wall around the base of the mound having an arched gateway on its west. However, the smaller Maidams did not have all the above features.

Earlier the vaults were made of solid wooden poles and beams. Probably from the time of King Rudra Singha (CE 1696-1714) and his successors, wooden vaults were replaced with stone and brick vaults. According to the chronicles of Chang-rung Phukan (Chang-rung Phukanar Buranji), the bricks and stones of the Maidam were joined with a mortar mix consisting of lime (lime stone and snail shell), pulses, resin (Canarium resiniferum), hemp, molasses, fish, etc. Inside the vault, the mortal remains of the dead were kept, after observing the rituals which extended from 6 months to 2 years. The Ahom kings used to be buried along with their treasures including articles of their day to day use i.e., clothes, ornaments, weapons etc. The Ahom chronicles refer that a huge quantity of valuables and attendants living or dead were buried with the royalty and the dignitaries. The practice of burying alive was banned by King Rudra Singha (CE 1696-1714).

In the Ahom Buranjis (chronicles), it is mentioned that a coffin was made of a specific type of timber called Urium (Bescoffia javanica). The coffin was known as Rung-Dang. Rung-Dang was carried to the burial ground in kekora Dola (a kind of Assamese litter) only by the people from Gharphaliya and Lukhurakhan Khel. The massive vault under the hemispherical earthen moundis knownas Kareng-rung-dang, where Rung-Dang (coffin) was placed in east-west direction. Only the Lukhurakhans were allowed to enter Kareng-rung-dang and after placing the body they sealed the door of the vault with boulders in clay mortar.

Being famous treasure troves, the Maidans attracted many plunderers from Mughal to the British and even the locals, who plundered the Maidams many a times. The earliest sketch of the ground plan of a Maidam was published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1848, drawn by Serjent C. Clayton, who superintended excavation of Maidam during 1840, at the request of Captain T. Bordie, the then Principal Assistant Commissioner of Assam. Clayton and his team found rings, silver toothpick case, ear ornaments, goblets, platters and a small gold lime container, which were later purchased by some Mr. Bedford. The archival reports show that in 1905, under the surveillance of many Ahom princes, one Maidam was excavated, but nothing is known thereafter.

In 2000-02, Archaeological Survey of India, Guwahati Circle excavated the Maidam No. 2. It retains all three major characteristics features of a full-fledged Maidam. It has a hemispherical earthen mound enclosing a vault within and the whole structure is encircled by an octagonal boundary wall. The earthen mound was covered with three courses of bricks laid over stone pebbles. At the top of the mound, there is a circular brick-paved platform (3.60m). The structural features of the Maidam No. 2 are massive in dimension. It was made of burnt bricks and plastered with lime-surkhi mortar.


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