Raja Prithu

Not to be confused with Prithu, named in the Vedic scriptures of ancient India.

Raja Prithu
Religion	Hinduism

Raja Prithu (also known as Jalpeswara) is believed to be a king of Kamarupa kingdom in north-eastern India in the present-day state of Assam, India. Archeological remains of a Shiva temple and extensive fortifications in present-day Jalpaiguri in India and present day Rangpur District of Bangladesh are also attributed to him.

Controversy over the existence of king Prithu

Rai K.L. Barua Bahadur in his book Early History of Kamrupa claims that the throne of Kamrupa was occupied by a king named Prithu after the end of the Vaidyadeva line. He credits this Prithu with the achievement of having defeated Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar. However, the historian N.K.Bhattasali in his article published in the journal The Indian Historical Quarterly proved that the Prithu mentioned in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri was in fact some other king from Awadh which K.L.Barua mistook to be a king of Kamrupa. He writes,"I am afraid, a mistake of Sir Wolsey Haig in the IIIrd volume of the Cambridge History of India misled the Rai Bahadur(Barua) into taking Prithu to be a king of Kamrupa. It is, therefore, necessary here to discuss again the proofs on which the existence of this Prithu rests. The only authority for the existence of this Prithu is the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri,...I hope it is clear now, that Prithu must have been a man of Audh and not of Kamrupa, and Sir Wolsey Haig's erroneous conjecture led Rai Bahadur Barua into error."

Death

Raja Prithu is believed to be killed in battle with Nasir-ud-din Mahmud in 1228 AD. Some accounts say that Raja Prithu jumped into a tank and killed himself to save dishonour. No reference to this expedition can be had from the Muslim chronicle Tabaquat-i-Nasiri except the following: "The accursed Bartu(Britu), beneath whose sword above a hundred and twenty thousand Musalmans had attained martyrdom, he(Nasiruddin) overthrew and sent to hell.". However, as per the account of Tabaquat-i-Nasiri, this reference has been used for a king of Awadh, not Kamrupa.

Khalji's encounter with the Rai of Kamrup

In 1206, Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji planned to invade Tibet, in order to plunder the treasures of the Buddhist monasteries and gain control of Bengal's traditional trade route with South East Asia for which he had to pass through the kingdom of Kamarupa and Sikkim. By this time Khalji had massacred 10,000 monks of Nalanda, and had burned it down. Then he came to Bengal which was won without a fight as the king of Bengal Laksman Sena took flight and never to be heard of again. But he had heard of the valour of the Rai of Kamrud (as mentioned by Islamic chronicler Sirajuddin Minhajuddin in his Tabaqat i Nasiri) and how he led an army that would fight with almost demonic ferocity he thought it better to befriend him as he had to pass through the Rai's realm. So, he sent emmissaries for forming an alliance. The Kamrupa king told him that he too wanted to attack Southern Tibet as it was the way to control the Silk Route. So he proposed the idea of attacking Southern Tibet jointly. But then he informed Khalji's emmissaries that the time was not right. As rainy season was about to start, leading to great hardship, and perilous ascent to the mountains it was advisable to start the campaign after one season. But Khalji by that time had already come and camping right in present day Siliguri in Northern Bengal.

So he found a local guide by the name of Mech who could show him a route through Bhutan, that could bypass Kamrud as the Islamic forces use to pronounce Kamrup. But at first Mech was converted to Islam and hence he was the first convert in the region, Ali Mech. So the latter took Khalji's army through the mountainous passes and defiles of Bhutan. At first after reaching Southern Tibet they had some degree of success as they looted the riches of the Buddhist gomphas or monastries. But then the Monpas described as Mongols, came and attacked them from all sides. Their return journey was cut off. And in the meantime the rainy season started and many died due to pestilence and diseases. Their rations were diminishing. A time came when they used to kill and eat their horses. Khalji then thought that since they cannot go back the way they had come they have to find a way to Kamrup and proceeded towards it. But when they were noticed by the spies of King Prithu they thought that Khalji had attacked their realm. So when Prithu was informed he made plans to lure them to the point where the Barnadi tributary fall into the Brahmaputra.

The Rai of Kamrupa allowed Bakhtiyar Khalji's army to advance unchecked into his kingdom, in order to draw him away from his base of operations. He followed a scorched earth strategy, denying his enemy the opportunity to replenish their supplies and destroyed a bridge across a deep river that Bakhtiyar Khalji's army had already crossed, thus cutting off their retreat. The invading force encountered stiff resistance upon entering the rough mountainous terrain of Tibet and decided to retreat. However, the retreat and the attempt to cross the river was disastrous as his forces were short on supplies and were attacked from all sides by Prithu's forces. He made stockades of phanjis or spiked bamboos and drew the whole surviving army of thirty thousand into a gully and attacked them and mercilessly cut them down Practically his whole army of 12,000 horsemen and twenty thousand infantry were totally anhilated.