Tuesday 26 November 2013

Discover Jorhat - the knowledge city of Assam


The name 'JORHAT' means two 'haats' or 'mandis', namely Macharhat and Chowkihat.

This city was the last capital of the great Ahom kingdom. It was in the year 1794 that the Ahom king, Gaurinath Singha shifted his capital from Sibsagar to Jorhat. It was a flourishing town until the Burmese invasions since 1817, which left much of the establishment destroyed. The arrival of  British forces in 1824, stemmed the marauding advances of the Burmese invaders.

Under the British rule, this historical town saw the re-emergence of development, though not free from rebellions and revolutions, the British system of administration was established in 1839.

The famous 'Sepoy Mutiny' during the Indian freedom struggle, witnessed its ripple effects in this remote part of the Indian sub-continent. Maniram Dewan and Piyali Barua, Assamese stalwarts of the  Indian freedom struggle, were hanged in the year 1858 in this very place, when their anti-British plots were foiled.

Through numerous turmoils and upheavals, this historic town continued its steadfast progress to development. The establishment of a narrow gauge train service - Jorhat Provincial Railways, by the British,  in 1885, was a boon to the fledgling tea industry and served as a catalyst to its rapid growth.

In 1911, the British established Jorhat as the administrative headquarters of undivided Sibsagar district and appointed Major A. Playfair as the first Deputy Commissioner.

The modern day Jorhat district came into being in 1983, after it was carved out of the present day Sibsagar district.



























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