LAKHIMPUR, or Luckimpoor, a British district in the extreme east of the province of Assam, extending from 26* 51' to 27° 54' N. lat., and from 93° 49' to 96° 4' E. long. It lies along both banks of the Brahmaputra, which belongs to the district for about 400 miles of its course; and it is bounded N. by the Daphla, Miri, Abar, and Mishmi hills, E. by the Mishmi and Singpho hills, S. by the watershed of the Patkai range and the Lohit branch of the Brahmaputra, and W. by the districts of Darrang and Sibsagar. To the north and north east the frontier is undefined. The Brahmaputra is navigable for steamers in all seasons as far as Dibrugarh, in the rainy season as far as Sadiya; its navigable tributaries within the district are the Subansiri, Dibru, and Buri Dihing. The greater part of the area (11,500 square miles) is sparsely occupied by independent hill tribes, and only 3200 square miles are directly under British administration. The elephant, rhinoceros, bear, buffalo, wild cattle, and deer are abundant; the capturing of elephants is a Government monopoly worth from £3000 to £4500 annually. Coal and petroleum (both worked for a short time about 1866), building stone, limestone, and ironclay exist in the district; and gold has been washed in the hill streams from time immemorial. Rice was grown on 39,460 acres in 1871. Tea is grown with European capital and under European supervision, and has in recent years made great progress, the plantations in 1874 covering 89,370 acres. Silk cloth is made from the cocoons of the mug a worm (Saturnia assamuηgis'), which feeds on the sum tree; but the manufacture has greatly fallen off. A thousand cocoons yield 6 or 8 oz. of thread, worth 10s. to Ils. per pound. The exports of Lakhimpur are tea, rnugâ silk, india-rubber, ...beeswax, ivory, and mustard seed; the imports rice, opium, tobacco, salt, oil, and cotton cloth. The annual fair established by the Government at Sadiya is less of commercial than of political importance.
The population of the settled district in 1871-72 was 121,267, residing in 125 villages, and including 28,388 aborigines, 68,388 semi-Hinduized aborigines, 19,748 caste Hindus, 3826 Mohammedans. The most numerous Hindu caste λvas the Kolitâ (3406), the former priests of the aboriginal kings of Assam; they have now taken to agriculture, and rank as pure Sùdras. Of the semi-Hinduized aborigines the most numerous tribe is the Aham, the former rulers of the country (43,942). The hill tribes of the unsettled district are broadly distinguished into a Shan group (Khamtis and Singphos) and an Indo-Chinese group (Mishmis, Abars, Miris, Daphlas, &c.). Most, if not all of them, have sent out little colonies who settle on the borders of the plains. There are no towns in the Lakhimpur district. Dibrugarh, on the Dibru, a few miles above its junction with the Brahmaputra, is the chief civil station, with a population of 3870 in 1872. Lakhimpur figures largely in the annals of Assam as the region where successive invaders from the east first reached the Brahmaputra. The Bara Bhuiyas, originally from the western provinces of India, were driven out by the Chutias (a Shan race), and these in their turn gave place to their more powerful brethren, the Ahams, in the 13th century. The Burmese, who had ruined the native kingdoms, were expelled by the British in 1825; but it was not till 1839 that the country was taken under direct British management.
