Sonowal Kacharis

The Sonowal Kacharis (Assamese: সোনোৱাল কছাৰী Devnagari: सोनोवाल कछारी Latin: Sonowal Kachari) are one of the indigenous ethnic group of the North East part of India.

They are one of the Kacharis of the many other Kachari tribal community in Assam, and are also found in other states of Northeast India. They are predominantly inhabitants of the Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Tinisukia and Dibrugarh districts of Assam. They are also scattered in the districts of Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat and in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India, also.Their population is estimated at 2.5 lakh. This tribe is second in terms of literacy rate with an excellent 85.4% literacy just after the mizos.

The Sonowal Kacharis belong to the Mongoloid race of people. Although the origin of all Kacharis is the same, there are many clans of Kacharis, among them ‘Bodowsa’, ‘Dhyan or Dehan’, ‘Lathowsa’, ‘Thawthensa’, ‘Hafalongsa’ and ‘Hammusa’. The Sonowal Kacharis are descendants of the ‘Hammusa’ family.

A folklore of the Sonowal Kacharis relates that:

"Having being blessed by the ‘Khiring Raja’, the god worshipped by the Sonowal Kacharis, the wife of a Sonowal Kachari named Manik gave birth to a cat. The cat was kept in a ‘Hariyahar duli’ (mustard loaded bamboo basket), and the cat turned into a golden cat, surprisingly. On having this heavenly gift from ‘Khiring Raja’, Manik could become the king of Halali. Later he bequeathed his kingdom to his grandson Mukuta."

It may be that there were at least two migrations from north and northeast into the valley of the Brahmaputra. One entered into Bengal and Assam through the valley of Tista, Dharla and Sonkosh and the other taking its way through Suwansiri, Dibang and Dihong into upper Assam, and the Sonowal Kacharis are possibly from the second group.

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Wikipedia