Reading the realm: Divination,warfare and political authority in the Ahom kingdom

Abstract

This article analyses the impact of divination on political decision-making and warfare in the Ahom kingdom of Northeastern India. It identifies two principal state-sponsored mantic specialists: Ahom priests who relied on osteomancy (bone-divination), a practice traceable to Chinese cultural traditions; and daivajnas, a caste group in the Ahom kingdom, who utilised astrological knowledge derived from northern India. The Brahmaputra Valley became a site of ritual contestation as these traditions vied for royal patronage. The article traces the brahmanisation of Ahom polity reflected in the ascendancy of the daivajnas at the Ahom court. The study contributes to the scholarship on ritual power and state formation in pre-modern South Asia. Drawing on mythological, historical and ethnographic data, the article argues that divinatory praxis held greater importance in the kingdom’s political and social processes than hitherto recognised. The study situates dreams and omens within their socio-religious milieu, while emphasising their centrality in political decision-making. In military contexts, diviners were integrated into the army hierarchy, advising on strategic appointments and battlefield tactics. Their pronouncements could induce shifts in political allegiance, compelling the state to regulate their activities. Given the weight attached to and high stakes associated with the divinations, mantic practitioners faced risks of punishment as well as the lure of rewards, intensifying the contestations between mantic and religious traditions.