aided by fresh reinforcements from Gauhati but was driven back to GauriSagar and closely invested there, he had terrible time, provisions running short, troops subsisting on flesh of horses and elephants and many dying of starvation and dysentery!”. The Burha Gohain retreated to Taratali and then to the Desoi where he erected a fort and left it under the command of Japara Gohain who took the opportunity of declaring himself independent but was imprisoned and blinded. In April, 1790 the Burha Gohain constructed a fortified position at Jorhat and vlaced an outpost at Meleng, with the ‘aid of four hundred Bengal mercenaries sent up by Gaurinath, the Burha Gohain made a fort at Teok. On the approach of the rains he again fell back behind the Desoi river!. The Moamarias were repelled with heavy loss in an attack on a fort near the Bar Ali on the right bank of the Desoi and disheart- tened, they now started guerilla tactics, harassing the inhabitants of the tract held by the Burha Gohain by constant night raids and plunder. The people lost heart and would have accepted the Moamaria supremacy but for the untiring efforts of the Burha Gohain who gave them food and clothing and punished them severely for disobedience or disloyalty. The sufferings of the people living in the territory held by the Moamarias were greater—there burning of villages, looting of supplies and wanton destruction of crops, led to a terrible famine, rice was unobtainable, many abandoned their own children ,even the high castes were reduced to eating the flesh of cows, buffaloes, dogs and jackals some wandered in the jungle, subsisting on wild fruits and roots, others fled to the Burha Gohain’s tract or the neighbouring hills or to Bengal. Numerous petty Raja appeared on the scene on the north bank of the Lohit, at Japaribhita, a weaver set up by the Moamarias, east of Dihing at Bengmara, one Sarbananda, acknowledged by the Morans at Sadiya a Raja and Deka Raja of the Khamtis, and in the Majuli one Howha, exercising authority. The Moamarias placed Bharat Singh on the throne at Rangpur. Bharat Singh and Sarbanand opened mints. Gaurinath Singha Appeal Gaurinath appealed for help to the kings of neighbouring States. The Kachari and Jaintia Rajas refused assistance to their once dreaded neighbour, now in difficulties. The Manipuri Raja, grateful for the services rendered him by Rajeswar Singha a