Goalpara

Goalpara lies in the lower Brahmaputra valley, where wooded hills and river plains meet in western Assam. The wider country passed through the kingdoms of Kamarupa, Kamata and Koch Hajo before becoming a Mughal frontier district in the seventeenth century. Its place between Bengal and the upper valley brought it into the contests of the Koch, Mughal and Ahom powers as each sought influence along the river.

During the wars between the Ahoms and Mughals, the region briefly came under Ahom control in the mid-seventeenth century before returning to Mughal authority. The Brahmaputra remained the great waterway through this borderland. Nearby Sri Surya Pahar preserves remains associated with Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions, a reminder of the region’s older religious diversity.