Sonāri, India

History

It is claimed that the original name of Sonari was Sonapur. It is also believed that Sutamla rested for days in Sonari before proceeding to Namrup during the invasion of Assam and Ahom capital by Aurangzeb's general Mir Jumlah during 1663. One of the first two tea estates set up by Maniram Dewan has now been discovered by Dr Pradip Baruah of the Tocklai Experimental Station of the Tea Research Association. Dewan established the Cinnamara TE at Jorhat and Senglung TE near Suffry, Sonari, around 169 years back, in 1845. Maniram Dewan was the first Indian commercial tea planter. In the middle of the town there is a park around a historic Ahom Kingdom's tank called Bor Pukhuri. This park near the post office is now called Lachit Nagar park, since a full size statue of Assam's great general from Ahom period is erected here. Similarly a statue of Koch General Chilarai has been erected near Tawkak river bridge while entering the town. In 2004 during the birth centenary of Geetikavi Parvati Prasad Baruva a bust size white statue of this lyrical poet was inaugurated at Sonari.

From the History section of Sonari on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.