Governance Through Justice: Crime and Punishment in the Ahom Era

The regulatory and administrative structure of the Ahom dynasty decisively shaped the socio-political landscape before British annexation. While existing scholarship has primarily examined their political achievement, military power, and administrative efficiency, the legal practices, punishments, and mechanisms of justice under the Ahoms remain comparatively under-researched. Questions about what constituted crime, how punishments were decided, and how justice was delivered remain largely unanswered. Although primary sources such as the Buranjis contain references to legal matters and punishments, the available information remains scattered and lacks a comprehensive analysis. This research seeks to collect, organise, and examine such sources to construct a clear and systematic understanding of the Ahom justice system. By doing so, it aims to highlight how laws and punishments reflected the social and political order of the time and to contribute new insights to the study of pre-British Assam.