its raja Chourjit Singh fled into Cachar. However, Marjit Singh revolted after Bodawpaya died in June 1819. The new king Bagyidaw sent an expedition force of 25,000 (3,000 horses) in October 1819. Gen. Maha Bandula reconquered Manipur but the raja escaped to neighbouring Cachar. In November 1820, the fallen raja's forces laid siege to the Burmese garrison at Imphal, and withdrew only when Burmese reinforcements were approaching. Nonetheless, the raja continued to raid Manipur with British support using his bases from Cachar and Jaintia, which had been declared as British protectorates, to the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824. Assam (1816–1822) The kingdom of Assam was the last conquest of Bodawpaya. In December 1816, he sent a 16,000-strong force to Assam to install his nominee, Chandra Kanta Singh, to the Assamese throne. From their northernmost forts in Hukawng Valley in present-day northern Kachin State, the Burmese army crossed the 9,000-foot high Himalayan Patkai range, and finally entered Assam in early 1817. The army decisively defeated the Assamese army at the battle of Kathalguri, near the Assamese capital Jorhat. A pro-Burmese minister Badan Chandra was installed, with Singh as the nominal king. The army left in April 1817 but instabilities resumed soon after, and Singh had to flee Jorhat. The army had to return in February 1819, and reinstated Singh. A large portion of the army remained in Assam to hunt down the rebels in Upper Assam. The authority rested with the Burmese commanders, not the nominal king. Unhappy with the arrangement, Singh switched his allegiance to the British in April 1821, and tried to drive out the Burmese. His first attack on the Burmese garrison at Gauhati in September 1821 failed. But reinforced by British arms and personnel, Singh took Gauhati in January 1822, and marched to Jorhat. But the capital had been reinforced by a 20,000-strong army led by Bandula, who had just arrived. Bandula defeated Singh on 17 April 1822 at Mahgarh near Jorhat. Singh fell back to Gauhati but was defeated by Gen. Maha Thilawa on 3 June 1822. The fallen king fled to the British territory, and continued to make raids in the years leading to the First Anglo-Burmese War. Fall of Burmese monarchy First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) By 1822, the conquests of Manipur and Assam had brought a long border between British India and Burma. The British at Calcutta had their own designs on the region,