About twenty-five kilometers from the town of Silchar in southern Assam, lie the ruins of one of the most powerful kingdoms of their times, the Kachari kingdom, also known as the Dimasa kingdom.

Not much is known about the origin of the Kachari kingdom which was established in the thirteenth century and was finally annexed by the British in 1854 but legend has it that they were the off-springs of Ghatotkacha, the son of Bhima.

The Kachari (kochari) Kingdom in Udharbond

During the start of their rule, Dimapur (capital of present-day Nagaland) used to be the capital of the kingdom which was later moved to Maibang in Assam before finally being moved to Khaspur (locally known as Rajbari, meaning the King’s palace).

Khaspur, where the ruins lie scattered inside the Pathemara Tea Estate is easily accessible by narrow but good enough roads.

The area is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (I don’t know if maintain is the right word here).

Of whatever is left of the ruins, some of it is either in shambles and waiting to be lost forever because of non-maintenance or the rest of them have been repaired so much that they have lost their original feel and now, don’t look much different from present-day monuments.

The ruins are spread across the tea-garden area and to find all of them, you need to take a walk in and around the village and the market areas of the tea-estate.

After you are done walking and seeing all the ruins, try looking for this amazing Church from the last century.

While roaming around in the village of Thalighram, looking for the ‘ruins’, I was pleasantly surprised and excited to suddenly come across this century-old Church from the 1800s. Finding something I have never heard about before from anyone made it even more exciting.

*Try finding this little gem whenever you visit Khaspur.