Atan Burhagohain installed him on the throne after removing Debera Borbarua from power and deposing the previous king, Gobar Roja.
But soon, acting on the advice of his wife and other advisors, the king began to defy the authority of the Burhagohain, which resulted in a head-on collision between both sides.
[1][2] After the deposition and execution of Udayaditya Singha in 1672, the Ahom kingdom entered into a period of weak kings, with de facto power wielded, successively, by three prominent ministers: Debera Barbarua, Atan Burhgohain and Laluk Sola Borphukan.
Meanwhile, the Saraighatias in Guwahati decided to put an end of Debera's atrocities and therefore led by Prime Minister Atan Burhagohain, they marched towards the capital Garhgaon.
In November 1675 CE, the coronation ceremony took place at Barnaosal at a newly constructed Singarighar, without which function no prince attained the status of a full-fledged sovereign.
[4] Sujinphaa and Atan Burhagohain immediately set upon them to reorganized the administration at the capital Garhgaon, which got destabilized during the period of Debera Borbarua's ministerial dictatorship.
He succeeded in arousing the maternal fears of the Borkunwari or Chief Queen by warning hers of the evil days that were in store for her four sons if the premier was allowed to wield unbounded power as he was doing at present.
The queen, in order to enlighten her husband on the dangers of the situation as pointed out to her by the Barchetia, said, - "The Burhagohain and the Phukans have sworn steadfast adherence to one another, and they therefore oppose your intentions and actions.
The four princes supported their mother, and gave vent to similar misgivings, adding,-"Our sovereignty is only in name as the Burhagohain monopolizes all power in himself."
He posted additional men to guard the entrances of the palace, and appointed spies to keep watch over movements of the Burhagohain and his adherents.
He at once grasped the position, rushed out of his room with a sword, attended by the armed guards of the palace, and killed whomsoever he met on the way.
[11][12][13] On the following morning the king assembled the leading nobles, and expatiated before them on the attack made by the Burhagohain which he characterized as unfriendly and unprovoked, as the premier himself had brought the prince from his ancestral home and seated him on the throne.
"I could have killed the Burhagohain," said the king, "but I refrained from taking his life as we are co-disciples and have thus jointly attained companionship under the spiritual teachings of the Guru.
"[14] During the course of the deliberation on Sunday morning the king asked the officers and nobles to reaffirm their allegiance to him by taking the necessary oaths, according to both the Hindu and Ahom forms.
The Hindu oaths were administered by Rama Misra and his son and other Brahmans in the presence of Lakshminarayan Salagram, Gita, Bhagavat, copper vessels and the basil plant.
[13][14] Soon after his flight from the capital, Atan Burhagohain sent Dilihial Gohain-Phukan and Ram Tamuli to Guwahati with a request to the Phukans and Rajkhowas stationed there that they should march up to his aid in fulfillment of their old promise to stand by one another in emergencies.
The King became greatly alarmed, and regarded the persistent refusal of the Burhagohain to meet the deputies as a clear indication of the premier's unfriendly disposition.
Atan Burhagohain tried to win over to his side the officers who had been sent to fetch him, and persuaded the Borgohain to desert the king's cause; he was unable to seduce Ramcharan Borpatrogohain from his allegiance, although he was his son-in-law, and so sent him under a guard to Koliabor.
The combined forces of Atan Burhagohain and Laluk Borphukan attacked the king's garrison at Chinatali, where a severe contest ensued in both on land and on water between both sides.
The king's forces suffered heavy casualties, at which the monarch expressed his regret that so many men had to perish only for the safety of his person.
Kirkiria Borbarua and Sujinphaa's son Kalia Gohain protected the gate till the last moment, but they were soon defeated.
The king was kept under watch and guard at his palace in charge of Bhatdhara Phukan, brother of Laluk Sola Borphukan, the Ahom Viceroy of Lower Assam.
The prince selected by Atan Burhagohain was now brought from his residence at Charaideo hill and the nobles and other officers paid their homage to the new monarch.
His continuance as an able-bodied person would provide a handy material for insurrection and trouble, and so it was decided to disable him by extracting his eyeballs, as a mutilated limb was considered to be a disqualification for holding the office of a monarch.
Having carried out his mission Bhatdhara battered the blinded prince, agonized with shock and pain, with the butt-end of a gun, and Sujinphaa died in consequence.
Atan Burhagohain disapproved of the excesses committed by Bhatdhara, and expelled him from the conference of the nobles held in the premier's residence next day.
[21] Another version states that fearing that the premier was going to kill him, at the approach of Bhatdhara Phukan and his henchmen, Sujinphaa committed suicide by swallowing poison, holding the sacred Ratnavali manuscript close to his chest.
[22] Sujinphaa was predominantly a man of peace; and he abhorred harshness and cruelty except when his impetuosity led him to actions which brought him to repentance with the revival of reason.
Passing his days in Dihing in the leisurely comforts of a gentleman-farmer he was suddenly called at the age of forty to assume the onerous responsibilities of a sovereign for which he had practically no training except the normal experiences of a prince's surroundings.
Sujinphaa lost his throne and his life as a retribution for his imbecility as a sovereign; however unsurpassed he might have been in the sphere of refinement and good breeding.