River Brahmaputra
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Brahmaputra
('Son of Brahma ').— River of Tibet and North- eastern India, which for its size and utility to man ranks among the most important in the world. Its total estimated length is about 1,800 miles, and its drainage area about 361,200 square miles, while during the rains the flood discharge at Goalpara is said to be more than half a million cubic feet of water per second. An element of romance hangs over the river, as a certain portion of its course has never been actually explored, though there is little doubt that the Tsan-po, or great river of Tibet, pours its waters through the Dihang into the river which is known as the Brahmaputra in the Assam Valley.
The source of the Tsan-po is in 31° 30' N. and 82° E., near the upper waters of the Indus and the Sutlej, and a little to the east of the Manasarowar Lake. It has been traced almost continuously for a distance of 850 miles eastwards to Gya-la-Sindong, which is barely 150 miles from the Assam frontier, but no explorer has yet succeeded in following the river right down to its junction with the Brahmaputra.
It was at one time thought that the Tsan-po might be identical with the great river of Burma, the Irrawaddy, but explorations which termi- nated in 1882 proved that the course of the Tsan-po could not lie east of a place called Sama in the Zayul valley. It was then suggested that the river that flowed past Sama was not identical with the stream that runs westward from the Brahmakund to Sadiya, but was a tributary of the Tsan-po, which flowed to the west of Sama into the plains of Burma. This theory was completely disproved by the explorations of Mr. Needham, who in 1885-6 marched from Sadiya up the so- called Brahmaputra to Rima, a village east of Sama, and proved that the river at Rima and the river that flowed past Sadiya were the same.
The Tsan-po having no outlet towards Burma in any direction, there is little room for doubt with regard to its identity with the Brahmaputra. Granted this premise, it seems probable that the chan- nel by which it makes its way through the Himalayas is the Dihang, which is by far the largest river that falls into the Brahmaputra from the north, and at the point of junction considerably exceeds in volume the river flowing from Jhe east, which, as it follows the same direction as the united stream in its passage down the valley, has been wrongly styled the Brahmaputra by the Assamese. In 1886-7 the Tsan-po was visited by a native explorer, who stated that he followed its course for nearly 100 miles south of Gya-la-Sindong to a place called Onlet, which is only 8 miles from Miri Padam and 43 miles from the Assam frontier.
At first sight, it may seem strange that a geographical problem of such interest as the identity of the Tsan-po and the Dihang should still remain unsettled, and that such a small strip of territory should be allowed to remain unexplored. The hills through which the Dihang makes its way present, however, great difficulties to the explorer, and are inhabited by fierce and hostile tribes of whom little is known. Activity in that region is politically undesirable ; and even if no opposi- tion was offered to the expedition, it is possible that an advance and subsequent retirement would be construed into a sign of weakness, which might embolden the hill tribes to make incursions on the frontier of Assam.
The Dihang at Pobha joins a river flowing from the east, which is sometimes styled the Brahmaputra, sometimes the Luhit. This river rises to the north-east of the hills inhabited by the Mishmis, and is known at Rima as the Zayul Chu. Near Sadiya, shortly above its junction with the Dihang, it receives the Noa Dihing from the southern, and the Dibang and Sesseri from the northern bank. The most important tributaries that fall into the river west of the Dihang are : on the north bank, the SubansirI, Bhareli, Dhansiri, Bar- nadI, Manas, Sankosh, Dharla, and Tista ; and on the south bank the Burhi Diking, Disang, Dikho, Jhanzi, Dhansiri Kulsi, and JiNjiRAM.
Below Dibrugarh the Brnhmaputra at once assumes the character- istics by which it is generally known. It rolls along through the plain with a vast expanse of water, broken by innumerable islands, and exhibiting the operations of alluvion and diluvion on a gigantic scale. It is so heavily freighted with suspended matter that the least impedi- ment in its stream causes a deposit, and may give rise to a wide- spreading almond-shaped sand-bank. On either side, the great river throws out large branches, which rejoin the main channel after a divergence of many miles. One of these divergent channels takes off from the main stream, under the name of the Kherkutia Suti, opposite Burhi Dihingmukh. It receives the great volume of the SubansirI, and is then called the Luhit, and thus reinforced, rejoins the main stream nearly opposite Dhansirimukh. The great island or char of Majui.i, with an area of 485 square miles, is enclosed between it and the main stream. Another large divergent channel is the Kalang, which takes off from the south bank opposite Bish- nath in Darrang District, and traverses the whole of Nowgong District west of that point, rejoining the Brahmaputra a short distance above Gauhati.
Unlike many rivers that flow through flat low-lying plains, instead of creeping along in a sluggish channel, the Brahmaputra in the Assam Valley has a comparatively swift current, and possesses no high permanent banks. At certain points in its course it passes between or by rocky eminences, which give a temporary fixity to its channel, as at Bishnath, Silghat, Tezpur, Singriparbat, Gauhati, Hathimura, Goalpara, and Dhubri. Where not so controlled, it sends its shifting channels over a vast extent of country, without forming any single continuous river trough.
After a course of 450 miles south-west down the Assam Valley, the Brahmaputra sweeps southward round the spurs of the Garo Hills, which form the outwork of the watershed separating it from the river system of the Surma in Sylhet. It enters Rangpur District in 25° 47' N. and 89° 49' E., and its southerly course continues thence for about 148 miles, under the name of the Jamuna, through the open plains of Eastern Bengal, as far as its confluence with the Padma, or main stream of the Ganges, at Goalundo in 23° 51' N. and 89° 46' E. The united rivers subsequently join the Meghna estuary opposite Chandpur, in 23° 13 N. and 90° 2>2>' E.
The main stream of the Brahmaputra formerly flowed south-east across the centre of Mymensingh District, and, after discharging its silt into the Sylhet swamps and receiving the Surma, united directly with the Meghna. This is the course shown on the maps of Rennell's survey of 1785; and it was not till the beginning of the nineteenth century that, having raised its bed and lost its velocity, the river was no longer able to hold its own against the Meghna, and, being forced to find another outlet for its banked-up waters, suddenly broke westwards and joined the Ganges near Goalundo. The old bed still retains its name, but has been steadily silting up, a process which was expedited by the great earthquake of 1897. The entire lower portion of the Brahmaputra may be described as an elaborate network of interlacing channels, many of which run dry in the cold season, but are filled to overflowing during the annual period of inundation. Numerous islands are formed by the river during its course, most of which are mere sandbanks deposited during one rainy season to be swept away by the inundation of the following year. The principal tributaries after leaving the Assam \^alley are the Dharla and TiSTA on its right bank ; the latter joins it a few miles to the south-west of ChilmarT in Rangpur District.
In agricultural and commercial utility, the Brahmaputra ranks next after the Ganges, and with the Indus, among the rivers of India. Unlike those two rivers, however, its waters are not largely utilized for artificial irrigation, nor are they confined within embankments. The natural overflow of the periodic inundation is sufficient to supply a soil which receives, in addition, a heavy rainfall ; and this natural overflow is allowed to find its own lines of drainage. The plains of Eastern Bengal, watered by the Brahmaputra, yield abundant crops of rice, jute, and mustard, year after year, without undergoing any visible exhaustion.
The Brahmaputra is navigable by steamers as high up as Dibrugarh, about 800 miles from the sea; and in its lower reaches its broad surface is covered with country craft of all sizes and rigs, down to dug-out canoes and timber-rafts. It is remarkable that there is comparatively little boat traffic in the Assam Valley itself. Goalpara is the great emporium of the boat trade, and Gauhati is ordinarily the extreme point reached by boats of large burthen. Nearly all the boats which resort to Goalpara and Gauhati come from Bengal or the United Provinces. Large cargo steamers with their attendant flats and a daily service of smaller and speedier passenger vessels ply on the Brahma- putra between Goalundo and Dibrugarh. The upward journey takes four and a half days to complete, the downward three. The principal places passed in the upward journey are, on the right bank, Sirajganj, a great emporium for jute and other agricultural produce, Dhubri, Tezpur, and Bishnath ; and on the left bank, Goalpara, Gauhati, vSil- ghat, and Dibrugarh. There are, however, eighteen other ghats at which steamers call, the most important being Shikarighat for Golaghat, Kakilamukh for Jorhat, and Disangmukh for Sibsagar. The down- ward trafific chiefly consists of tea, coal, oilseeds, timber, hides, lac, and raw cotton from Assam ; and jute, oilseeds, tobacco, rice, and other food-grains from Eastern Bengal.
