THE SYSTEMS OF DIGGING PONDS BY THE AHOMS, THE GREATER TAI TRIBE IN THE NORTH-EAST INDIA

The meaning of the word ‘Ahom' in local language of Assam is “Tai People'. The Ahoms are the biggest Tai tribe of North-East India. They reined Assam for six hundred years in the medieval era. They are the descents of Prince Chaolong Su-Ka-Pha who was hailing from the area of Chipchong Panna Dehang of Yunnan Province of China. The course of time they came to be known as the Ahom. They started the process of writing History for the first time in this part of the sub-continent. The period of their rule (1228 AD to 1826 AD) is named as Ahom Yug (Ahom Era). They were very advance in science and technology. The artistic construction and architectural technology of Ahom dynasty was unparalleled and bewildering. The creative and aesthetic designs built hundreds of year ago with unbelievable scientific analysis create inquisitiveness even today. Out of many such creations, one that has long been talked about is the systems of digging voluminous ponds. The most spectacular characteristic of those ponds is that, both during summer and winter season, the water level remains unchanged. How these ponds were built by a class of people without any institutional education or training of engineering nearly eight hundred years back is the subject of this research paper.