royalist who came over the side of the Moamoriayas were frustrated to find that the Moamoriays rule was the same old one only with new set of officers. They, therefore, looked to the deposed Ahom King as their real ruler and started making plans to reinstate him. Restoration of Lakshmi Singha The Mataks did not have any superior military strength. Their strongest weapon was their unity. Now that dissension took place between the King Ramakanta and Ragha Borbarua, who was his premier, the subject-people were confused. Meanwhile many Matak leaders returned to their natural occupation of agriculture, they could not afford to remain absent from the fields for too long. The weaknesses on the part of the rebels were properly utilized by the royalist, they appointed one Ramakrishnai, son of Jadhav Tamuli to secretly contact Kuranganayani, who soon organised a strong counter offensive. The royalist leaders planned to utilise the Rangali Bihu Samkranti day (Chaitra-Samkranti of the year 1770) as their day of action and decided to enter the residence of Ragha on that night in guise of a Huchary party, each secretly armed with a sword. They managed to get support of Kuranganayani, the Manipuri queen of Rajeswar Singha and later of his brother Lakshmi Singha, who was forcibly taken as wife by Ragha on the deposition of Lakshmi Singha. On the Assamese New Year's Day in 1770 (14 April), through the machination of Kuranganayani, Ragha was killed by a Huchary party. Ramakanta escaped but was shortly afterwards captured and put to death. Lakshmi Singha was then brought back from his place of confinement and reinstated on the throne. The restored Ahom monarchy ordered a general massacre of the Morans, who were the most prominent among the rebels. Nahar and Radha were captured and were brutally put to death. Ramakanata was also seized in his father-in-law's place was killed in a similar brutal way. Persons were sent to seize the moran officers at Guwahati. Many of them including Rukmini were captured and killed.Soon after the restoration, Lakshmi Singha awarded his officers by appointing them in high offices. He then convened a council of ministers regarding the steps that should be taken against the rebels. One such, Ghanashyam Buragohain, who was the most influential and the premier, advocated a policy of ruthless suppression. He states thus- The eloquency of Ghanashyam Buragohain prevailed upon the opinions of the rest and the