India. The first band of Aryans who Invaded Kamrupa came under the leadership of some Naraka King. They were Non-Vedic and styled themselves 'Asuras'.[১] They subjugated and intermarried with the indigenous people some of whom in order to escape extinction retired either to Nepal or the Khasi Hills where up to this day their descendants (the Khasia) speak the old language of the race.
The tradition that a great King called 'Naraka' once ruled in Kamrupa was so strong in ancient times that every king from Bhaskarvarma to Dharmapal claimed descent from him. The tradition was prevalent even at the time when the Mahabharata was written. But there we find Prigjyotisha instead of Kamrupa as the name of the country. On the other hand, the Ramayana points to Pragjyotisha with its King Naraka as a country or city situated in the western part of India (Vide Ramayana Kishkindhya kanda chap 42 Bombay Edtn.) N. N. Bas the author of the Biswakosha states in his Social History of Kamarupa, that the tradition of Naraka having once ruled in Sindh and Cutch is strongly prevalent in those countries. This supports the author of the Ramayana who was evidently a man of Western India and did not know that the same tradition prevailed also in the East. While the author of the Mahabharata who was
- ↑ "Asura was the Assamese as well as early Vedic way of pronouncing the word 'Sura'. Both meant 'god' in the old days.