Siba Singha

Sutanphaa (or Siva Singha) (Assamese: স্বৰ্গদেউ শিৱ সিংহ) (reign 1714–1744) was a King in Assam in the early 18th century.

As per wish of Swargadeo Rudra Singha from his deathbed, he was succeeded by his eldest son Siba Singha (reign 1714–1744). Siba Singha ascended the throne and assumed the Ahom name Sutanphaa. He gave up Rudra Singha's plan to organise a confederacy of the rajas of Hindustan and to invade Bengal, but obeyed his father's injunction to become a disciple of Krishnaram Bhattacharjya (Nyayavagish) the Shakta priest from near Nabadwip in West Bengal. He gave the management of the Kamakhya Temple to Krishnaram, who came to be known as Parbatiya Gosain, as his residence was on top of the Nilachal hill. Siba Singha accepted him as the royal priest and made large number of land grants to temples and the Brahmin priests.

His long 30 years reign was peaceful, only in January 1717 there was an expedition against the Daflas of the northern hills, who had again taken to raiding the plains people. After they had been reduced to submission, an embankment was constructed along the foot of the hills inhabited by them as protection against future raids.

Siba Singha was a staunch Shakta and was greatly influenced by the Brahmin priests and astrologers. In 1722 he was so alarmed by their prediction that his rule would shortly come to end, that he not only made many and lavish presents to various temples and the Brahmins, in hope of conciliating the gods and averting the calamitry, but also endeavoured to satisfy the alleged decree of fate by a subterfuge which greatly diminished his prestige in the eyes of his people. He declared his chief queen Phuleswari, who assumed the name Pramateswari Devi (one of the names of Durga), and the title "Bar Raja" or chief king.

Phuleswari minted coins in joint name of her and her husband where she used Persian legend, the first of its kind in Assam. Phuleswari was more under the influence of the Brahmins, particularly the Parvatiya Gosain, than the king had been. It is believed that instigated by this gosain and in her zeal for Sakta Hinduism she attempted to make Saktism the State religion. With this objective, she ordered the Vaishnava gosains to worship the goddess Durga. She then forbade the worship of other deities and personally supervised the act of desecration of the Sonarijan camp. Learning that the Sudra Mahantas were strong monotheists, she held a Durga puja in the capital Rangpur and forced Moamaria and several other gosains to offer oblations to the goddess and smeared sacrificial blood on their forehead. The Moamarias never forgave this insult to their spiritual leader, and half a century later, they broke out in open rebellion, which came to be known as Moamoria rebellion.

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