During the Ahom regime in Assam, every physically fit male was required to offer his services to the defence of the King.
These defence requirements were known as ‘paiks’. Generally, four ‘paiks’ constituted a ‘got’.
'Bora'Seven such ‘gots’ was headed by an officer, who was assigned the title of ‘Bora’.
'Saikia'Five ‘Boras’ came under the command of another officer of a higher rank, known as ‘Saikia’.
'Hazarika'Similarly, ten such ‘Saikias’, that constituted of a thousand ‘paiks’, were commanded by a ‘Hazarika’.
'Rajkhowa'Again, three thousand ‘paiks’ were commanded by a ‘Rajkhowa’.
'Phukon'However, a ‘Rajkhowa’ was junior to ‘Phukon’, who was assigned as a commander of six thousand such ‘paiks’.
The Ahom regime also constituted several council of ministers that had five great ministers known as the ‘Borgohain’, the ‘Burhagohain’, the ‘Barpatrogohain’, the ‘Barbarua’ and the ‘Barphukan’.
'Talukdar'However, under the Mughal regime, the surname ‘Talukdar’ was assigned to the officials who were responsible for tax collection.