Kamarupa (/ˈkɑːməˌruːpə/; also called Pragjyotisha or Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa), an early state[6] during the Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, was (along with Davaka) the first historical kingdom of Assam.

[9][10] Ruled by three dynasties from their capitals in present-day Guwahati, North Guwahati and Tezpur, Kamarupa at its height covered the entire Brahmaputra Valley, parts of North Bengal,[11] Bhutan and northern part of Bangladesh, and at times portions of what is now West Bengal, Bihar and Sylhet.

[23] The 3rd-2nd century BCE Baudhayana Dharmasutra mentions Anga (eastern Bihar), Magadha (southern Bihar), Pundra (northern Bengal) and Vanga (southern Bengal), and that a Brahmin required purification after visiting these places[24]—but it does not mention Kamarupa, thereby indicating it was beyond the ambit and recognition of the Brahminical culture in the second half of the first millennium BCE.

[26] Arthashastra (early centuries of the Christian era[27]) mentions "Lauhitya", which is identified with Brahmaputra valley by a later commentator.

[29] The earliest mention of a kingdom comes from the 4th-century Allahabad inscription of Samudragupta that calls the kings of Kamarupa and Davaka frontier rulers (pratyanta nripati).

[31] The fragmentary Nagajari-Khanikargaon rock inscription, written in Sanskrit and probably a land grant, is dated to approximately the 5th century.

One cannot completely "rule out the possibility of several simultaneous political powers in different sub-regional levels of north-eastern India around or even before the fourth century."

Indeed, archaeological discoveries in the Doiyang Dhansiri Valley suggests that early state formation in the region may have begun before the second century.

[35] Nevertheless, the traditional boundary of Kamarupa is held by scholars to be—Karatoya river in the west,[36] Sadiya in the east,[37][38][39][40] between the Dhaka and Mymensingh districts in Bangladesh in the south,[41] and Kanchenjanga in the north.

[45] Thus based on these references Kamarupa is considered to span the entire Brahmaputra valley and Northeast India and at various times thought to include parts of present-day Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Kamarupa, which was probably one among many such state structures, grew territorially to encompass the entire Brahmaputra valley and beyond.

[53] Under the rule of Bhaskaravarman Kamarupa reached its political zenith and the lineage of the Varmans from Narakasura, a demon, became a fixed tradition.

[55] Pushyavarman (350–374) established the Varman Dynasty, by fighting many enemies from within and without his kingdom; but his son Samudravarman (374–398), named after Samudragupta, was accepted as an overlord by many local rulers.

[9] Narayanavarma (494–518) and his son Bhutivarman (518–542) offered the ashwamedha (horse sacrifice);[60] and as the Nidhanpur inscription of Bhaskarvarman avers, these expansions included the region of Chandrapuri visaya, identified with present-day Sylhet division.

After the initial expansion till the beginning of Bhutivarman's reign, the kingdom came under attack from Yasodharman (525–535) of Malwa, the first major assault from the west.

Nevertheless, Bhaskarvarman did issue the Nidhanpur copper-plate inscription from his victory camp in the Gaur capital Karnasuvarna (present-day Murshidabad, West Bengal) to replace a grant issued earlier by Bhutivarman for a settlement in the Sylhet region of present-day Bangladesh.

The kingdom took on feudal characteristics[71] with political power shared between the king and second and third tier rulers called mahasamanta and samanta who enjoyed considerable autonomy.

The original capital of this dynasty was Hadapeshvara, and was shifted to Durjaya built by Ratna Pala (920–960), near modern Guwahati.

[82] Subsequent to this attack, Sandhya moved his capital from Kamarupanagara to Kamatapur (North Bengal) and established a new kingdom, that came to be called Kamata.

Duties (sulka) were collected by toll collectors (Kaibarta) from merchants who plied keeled boats.