Mula Gabharu: The Woman Who Fought to Avenge Her Love
This is the fifth in a 5-part weekly essay series – Veiled Valour: The Forgotten Women of Warfare. Mula Gabharu was born into the Ahom Dynasty of Assam, as the daughter of King Supimphaa. She was married to Phrasenmung Borgohain, the chief general of the Ahom army. Legend has it that Mula Gabharu loved Phrasenmung deeply, with a devotion that becomes central to her story and her legacy. Her strength was born from love, her love for her husband, for her motherland, and for the ideals she refused to surrender. Even in heartbreak, she found bravery.
There is always a motive behind a women’s fight, unlike the fight being the motive itself. Revenge is one such motive – a way to avenge what was stolen from her. This story is about the revenge of a woman, a martyr who fought for her place, her motherland, and most importantly, for the love she held for her husband.
Mula Gabharu was born into the Ahom Dynasty of Assam, as the daughter of King Supimphaa. The Ahom Dynasty, one of the most underrepresented royal dynasty in Indian history, ruled Assam for over 600 years. They successfully resisted the Mughal Empire more than a dozen times. Yet, the legends of the warriors from India’s Northeast who defended their land remain largely absent from mainstream media. The glory of their past is still confined to the region itself, waiting to be recognized on a larger stage.
The violent invasions of the Mughals through the northern sub-continent of India is what we have studied in history books omitting entirely the Northeastern part of the sub-continent. The story of Mula Gabharu unfolds during the Bengal Sultanate’s aggressive military campaigns against the Ahom Kingdom. Mula Gabharu was a woman of exceptional brilliance and fierce leadership. She was married to Phrasenmung Borgohain, the chief general of the Ahom army and the most trusted commander of the king (her father).
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Legend has it that Mula Gabharu loved Phrasenmung deeply, with a devotion that becomes central to her story and her legacy.
Her husband, Phrasenmung, led the Ahom forces into battle against the Bengal Sultanate commanded by Turbak Khan. On the day of the battle, Mula Gabharu fell ill and was unable to weave the Kavach, a sacred cloth believed to offer symbolic protection of her man’s life on the battlefield. Phrasenmung, who fought heroically in the battle against the invasion, was killed. News of his death shattered Mula Gabharu. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt, she blamed herself, believing that her failure to complete the Kavach had doomed the man she loved so dearly.
The Ahom Kingdom, like most empires of its time, was deeply patriarchal. Royal lineage passed through the king’s sons, and widowed women were often cast into the shadows of sorrow, treated almost as a curse. Only a woman of immense strength could rise from such stigmas. Mula Gabharu knew there was only one way to truly honour her love for her husband, for her people – that was, to fight, to avenge him. Though weighed down by grief, and by a society that questioned her very right to act, she rose above it all.
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Mula Gabharu trained a band of women warriors to protect what was theirs, and to fight for those they had lost. The image of these fierce women preparing for war inspired the rest of the army, breathing new energy into the Ahom forces. In the Battle of Kachua, Mula Gabharu and her warriors fought valiantly against Turbak Khan’s invading army, a sight never seen before, taking the enemy forces by surprise.
Mula Gabharu and her warriors laid down their lives on that battlefield, but not in vain. Their bravery inspired the Ahom soldiers to later defeat Turbak Khan’s invasion.
Mula Gabharu is the epitome of resistance. Her strength was born from love, her love for her husband, for her motherland, and for the ideals she refused to surrender. Even in heartbreak, she found bravery. She rose not only as a warrior but also as a revolutionary who inspired an entire army of soldiers to stand tall and resist foreign invaders.
This is the fifth in a 5-part weekly essay series – Veiled Valour: The Forgotten Women of Warfare.
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About the author
Dhanya D is a Research Scholar at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, University of Madras. Her research focuses on contemporary Maritime Security.
