Administration of the Ahom People
The administrative composition of the Ahom Kingdom is as follows:
- Swagadeon: The kingdom was ruled by a king named Swargadeo. He must have been of the same lineage as the first king, Skyper. Succession was generally primogeniture, but depending on the circumstances, another descendant of Skypar could be elected to the throne of the great Gohain.
- Royal Officer: Under Pratapa Singha’s reign, his two royal families were added: Borbaru and Borphukan. Borabar was the head of the military and judiciary, and Borhukan was a military commander who acted like a governor of the western Swargadeo territory. The most famous of the latter was his Lachit Borphukan.
- Mantri of Patra: The Council of Ministers, also known as the Patra Mantris, consisted of five key positions. They advised the king on matters of national importance.
- Paik officials: The common theme of each was a pike, and four pikes formed Gut. In each season, one of the pike’s pike served the king directly, while the others tended his fields.
Ahom Kingdom
The Ahom or Tai-Ahom, are an ethnic group from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Members of this group are mixed descendants of the Tai people who arrived in Brahmaputra’s Assam Valley in 1228, and local indigenous peoples have joined them throughout history. Sukaphaa, leader of the Tai group, and his 9,000 followers founded the kingdom of Ahom (1228–1826 AD), which controlled much of the Brahmaputra valley in modern Assam until 1826.