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In 1662, the Mughals under Mir Jumla attacked the Ahom kingdom and despite their brave defence, the Ahoms were defeated. The Ahom state depended upon forced labour and those forced to work for the state were called ‘Paiks’. Each village had to send a number of paiks by rotation and people from heavily populated areas were shifted to less populated places, thus breaking up the Ahom clan. During the first half of the seventeenth century, the administration became quite centralised and almost all adult males served in the army during war. They were engaged in building dams, irrigation systems and other public works and also introduced new methods of rice cultivation. The Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. A Khel often controlled several villages. The peasant was given land by his village community and even the king could not take it away without the community’s consent.