page_title: Chutia people
section_title: Gunpowder and Cannons
hierarchical_section_title: Chutia people / Chutia rule (1187-1673) / Gunpowder and Cannons
caption_attribution_description: English: This is one of the Mithaholong guns which the Ahoms procured after defeating the Chutias.
context_page_description: The Chutia people are an ethnic group originating in the Indian state of Assam. They are part of the Kachari group. The Chutia people, through the Chutia dynasty, formed their kingdom in the present Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and reigned from 1187 to 1673.
  The Chutiya people are one of the major and earliest section of the plain inhabitants of Assam who have migrated from present-day Southern China. The seat of the Chutias when they were in the ascendant, appears to have been about Lakhimpur and the back of the Subansiri River. They held the territories to the north of the Brahmaputra as far down as Sonitpur with the Dikarai and the Ghiladhari rivers as the western borders of their kingdom. On the south bank, they were spread till the Disang river. They spoke a language of Tibeto-Burman origin but over time, started speaking Assamese language and adopted Hinduism.
  The Chutia community are recognized as an Other Backward Class by the Government of India and are an ethnic Assamese-speaking group.During the colonial period, the Chutia community had the second largest population in Upper Assam.
context_section_description: The Chutias were the first people in Assam to use firearms. When the Ahoms annexed Sadiya, they recovered hand-cannons called Hiloi as well as large cannons called Bor-top, Mithahulang being one of them. Before that the Ahoms weapons included bows and arrows. As per History of Assam by Edward Gait, the first usage of gunpowder by Ahoms date back to their war against Turbak in 1532. Up to this time the Ahoms weapons consisted of swords, spears and bows and arrows. The Chutias were defeated in 1524 which shows that the Ahoms learned the use of gunpowder from the Chutias. This is further corroborated by the fact that all the Hiloidari (cannonmen) and majority of Hiloi-Khanikars (gunmakers) belonged to the Chutia community. It is believed that the gunpowder and firearms in this part of India was of a better quality than rest of India. It is known that when Mir Jumla went back from Assam he took with him 675 big guns and about 4750 maunds of gunpowder in boxes because they were in much better quality than what they used.
caption: This is one of the Mithaholong guns which the Ahoms procured after defeating the Chutias.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1215", "Image ImageLength": "657", "Image Software": "Google", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2019:04:07 19:30:52", "Image ExifOffset": "113"}