Guwahati, March 1671: the Mughal fleet was breaking through on the Brahmaputra, the Ahom boats were falling back, and their commander was too ill to stand. So he had himself carried to a boat
In the middle of March 1671, Lachit Borphukan, commander of the Ahom army, was lying sick in the gatehouse of the Itakhuli fort, on the south bank of the Brahmaputra at Guwahati. From there he could see the river.
What he saw was the war slipping away. The Mughal war-boats, big and heavy, some carrying as many as sixteen cannon, were pressing upstream towards the Ahom lines at Andharubali. The Ahom boats were giving way. His own admiral was ill too. Some of his boats had already started to fall back.
If the Mughals landed at Andharubali, Guwahati was lost, and behind Guwahati lay the heart of the Ahom kingdom.
If the Mughals landed, Guwahati was lost, and behind Guwahati lay the heart of the kingdom.
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The army on the river had been sent by the Emperor Aurangzeb. Its commander was Raja Ram Singh of Amber, son of the famous general Mirza Raja Jai Singh. He had left Delhi at the end of 1667 with his own troopers, and along the way the emperor had given him thirty thousand more infantry, eighteen thousand cavalry, twenty-one Rajput chiefs with their own contingents, and archers from Koch Bihar.
The Ahoms had nothing like it. Only a few years earlier, the Mughal general Mir Jumla had marched through their kingdom, occupied their capital, and imposed a treaty that emptied their treasury and handed Guwahati to the Mughals. The dying Ahom king had begged his successor to pull out the spear of humiliation from the nation’s chest. Guwahati had been retaken, but everyone knew the empire would come back for it.
When Lachit Borphukan surveyed the size of Ram Singh’s force, the chronicles say, he wept. How will my king be saved, he asked. How will my people be saved?
When he surveyed the size of the Mughal army, the chronicles say, he wept.
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Then he did what the weaker side must do. He chose the ground.
The Mughals were at their best in open country, with cavalry. So Lachit would not give them any. Guwahati was hilly and broken, the only way through it was the Brahmaputra, and at Saraighat the river narrows to about a kilometre. He threw up a network of earthen embankments around the city, so that the Mughals could not take it by land and would be forced onto the water. Their navy was the weakest part of their army. The Ahom navy, built in their own dockyards by boatmen’s guilds, was one of the strongest parts of theirs.
Tradition says that when one section of embankment at Amingaon was not finished on time, Lachit beheaded the officer in charge, his own maternal uncle, saying that his uncle was not greater than his country. No historical document actually records it. What the records do show is that he ordered death as the punishment for dereliction of duty, and that the embankments were finished.
For two years the two armies fought around Guwahati. Ahom raiders struck and melted away, and Ram Singh complained that this kind of fighting lowered the dignity of war. At Alaboi, in 1669, the Mughal horsemen caught the Ahoms in the open and killed ten thousand of them. Ram Singh offered bribes and settlements. The Ahom commanders, persuaded by the old minister Atan Burhagohain, refused them all.
Seven boats
Now, in March 1671, it had come down to the river.
Lachit sent runners to every land and naval unit with a single order: attack. He called for war-boats for himself. A man named Nadai of Kharangi picked him up and carried him down to the water.
According to the chronicles, as some of his men hung back, Lachit shouted at them. The king had put the whole country into his hands to fight this war, he said: should he now go home to his wife and children? He pushed a few of the waverers into the river. Then, with seven boats, the sick commander headed straight into the battle.
The effect was immediate. The retreating Ahom boats turned around. From all sides, war-boats came to join his little flotilla, until it smashed into the Mughal fleet opposite the Kamakhya hills. The stretch of river between Itakhuli, Kamakhya and Ashwakranta filled with boats and men. The Ahoms lashed boats together into a bridge across the river and struck the Mughals from front and rear at once.
In the chaos, the Mughal admiral, Munnawar Khan, was shot dead from behind, while, the story goes, he was smoking his hookah. With him fell three high-ranking Mughal commanders and about four thousand men. In the narrow water, the light Ahom boats could turn where the heavy Mughal ones could not.
In the narrow water, the light Ahom boats could turn where the heavy Mughal ones could not.
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After
The Mughals withdrew all the way to the Manas river, with the Ahoms following. Lachit ordered his men not to attack them as they went; he remembered Alaboi. On 7 April 1671, Ram Singh left Kamrup.
Lachit Borphukan died about a year later, in April 1672, at Kaliabor. Guwahati changed hands once more before the Ahoms took it back for good in 1682. But the Battle of Saraighat was the end of the empire’s last great attempt to conquer Assam.
It was won by the smaller army because its commander understood where the giant was weak, and made the giant fight there. And on the day it was decided, it was won because a man too sick to stand had himself carried to the water, and seven boats became a fleet.
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If you think you have remembered everything about this topic take this QUIZ
Results
#1. In which year did the Battle of Saraighat take place?
#2. Who was the Mughal commander sent by Emperor Aurangzeb to lead the campaign against the Ahom Kingdom?
#3. What was the name of the golden-handled sword given to Lachit Borphukan as a symbol of his authority?
#4. Why did Lachit Borphukan choose Saraighat as the primary battlefield?
#5. Which 1663 treaty had previously humiliated the Ahom Kingdom, leading to the loss of territory and treasure?
#6. What action did Lachit Borphukan take against his own maternal uncle during the preparation for the battle?
#7. How is Lachit Borphukan’s legacy specifically honored at the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune?
#8. On which date is “Lachit Divas” celebrated annually in Assam?
What was the Battle of Saraighat?
The Battle of Saraighat was a decisive naval battle fought in 1671 on the Brahmaputra River in present-day Guwahati, Assam. The Ahom Kingdom, led by Lachit Borphukan, defeated the Mughal Empire’s forces led by Raja Ram Singh I.
Why is the Battle of Saraighat so important in Indian history?
It was the last major attempt by the Mughal Empire to conquer Assam. The Ahom victory halted Mughal expansion into Northeast India and showcased one of the most brilliant uses of riverine warfare strategy in medieval Indian military history.
How did Lachit Borphukan use psychological warfare at Saraighat?
When Ahom boats began retreating, the gravely ill Lachit had himself carried to the front of battle on a boat and publicly declared he would fight alone if needed. This act of personal courage instantly reversed the morale of his troops and terrified the Mughals.
What happened to Lachit Borphukan after the battle?
Lachit Borphukan passed away in April 1672, just about a year after his victory at Saraighat. He is buried at the Lachit Maidam in Holongapar, Jorhat, Assam, which remains a revered memorial to this day.
How is Lachit Borphukan remembered today?
Assam celebrates Lachit Divas every year on 24th November. The best graduating cadet at India’s National Defence Academy in Pune receives the Lachit Borphukan Gold Medal. His statue also stands at the NDA campus, cementing his place as one of India’s greatest military heroes.
Sources & References
J.N. Sarkar, “Assam-Mughal Relations”, in H.K. Barpujari (ed.), The Comprehensive History of Assam, vol. 2 (Assam Publication Board, 1992) — the size of Ram Singh’s force, Lachit’s preparations, Alaboi, the final battle and its aftermath.
Padmeshwar Gogoi, The Tai and the Tai Kingdoms (Gauhati University, 1968) — the Mughal boats at Sualkuchi, the pursuit to the Manas and Ram Singh’s departure.
Surya Kumar Bhuyan, Lachit Barphukan and His Times (1947) — the Ahom accounts of Lachit and the war.
Suryya Kumar Bhuyan, Lachit Barphukan and His Times (Government of Assam, Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, 1947), together with Government of Assam documentation on the Battle of Saraighat — the 1671 battle, Lachit Borphukan’s command and the naval fighting on the Brahmaputra.
