Bhaskar Varman: The Great Assamese Emperor

While we know of many great kings and emperors who ruled India, very few know of Bhaskar Varman, one of the greatest emperors of Assam. Although absent from most Indian history books, the fame of this great Assamese emperor is mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts like Harshacharita by Banabhatta, the Allahabad Inscriptions and even the writings of Hiuen Tsang (Xuangxang), the noted Chinese pilgrim.

There is very little known of the early history or the dynasties that ruled Assam. Hindu religious epics and texts such as the Mahabharata, Kalika Purana and Yogini Tantra refer to the Danava dynasty and Naraka dynasty but how much is fact and how much is fiction is not known. The earliest known dynasty to rule Assam was the Varman dynasty of Kamarupa, which ruled for over 300 years, from the mid-4th century CE.