MAHAPURUSH SANKARDEVA
(1449-1568)
The great poet
saint of Assm, Srimanta Sankardeva , was
born in the year 1449 at a
small village called Alipukhuri near
Bordowa in Nagaon district. He was
the son of Shri Kusumbar
Shiromoni Bhuyan and Smt. Satya Sandhya. This
multi- faceted genius remodeled the Assamese
society by removing inequalities and
untouchability among people and gave
the society a new religion ,literatyre ,
poetry music, drama ,etc. On the whole ,
Sankardeva gave a new concept and
culture to the Assmese society. This
multi- dimensional personality of Assam left
for heavenly abode in the year 1568.
Sankardeva was the first religious
reformer of Assam .He led the Bhakti movement and was also the founder of
the Vaishnava religion in Assam. Sankardeva did not believe in multiplicity
of Gods and so, he preached to worship only one God. The religion propagated
by Sankardeva was called “Ek Sharaniya Naam Dharma”. “Satra institutions ” (
a religious monastery) and the “Naamghars ” are the chief features of the
Bhakti cult of Sankardeva. Special mention is to be made of Madhabdeva, who
was the most favourite disciple of Sankardeva . and who propagated and
followed Sankardeva’s religion after his death.
Sankardeva was not only a religious reformer ,but was also
asocial reformer of Assam who changed the entire set up of the Assamese
society with his new concept and outlook. The greatest contribution of
Sankardeva to the Assamese society is the Social recognition of man,
irrespective of caste, creed and status through his Neo-Vaishnavite faith
and due to his endeavours, the lower the two religious institutions founded
by him, namely the Naamghars and Satras, need special mention because, apart
from being religious institutions, they also serve as important
socio-cultural institutions, where all the social activities are discussed.
‘A great Vaishnava revival under Sankardeva, in the
sixteenth century, has made the Assamese people kindly tolerant and humane.
There is no sign anywhere of that form of untouchability which is found in
other parts of India. Assam ,indeed, is fortunate for Sankardeva has, some
five centuries back, given to the Assamese people an ideal which is also my
ideal of Ram Rajya.’
Sankardeva is called the ‘Father of Assamese literature’ .He not
only introduced stage-drama in Assam but also was the first person to write
full-plays in Assamese. He also wrote the first prose in Assamese. His
poetic excellence is reflected through ‘Kirtan’ which is regarded as a
milestone of Assamese literature. He was a pioneer musician who composed
music for devotional lyrics and he was also the creator of the unique
dramatic form known as the “Ankiya Naat” which were written in “Brajawalli ”
language . His drama “Chihnayatra ” was the first Assamese drama.Since dance
played an important role in his dramas, so he was also regarded as the
innovator of this art form. The noted literary works of this great man of
Assam can be broadly classified into six categories: 1.Kavya : Blichalan,
Amrit Manthan, Harishchandra Upakhyan , etc. 2.Ankiya Naat :Chihnayatra
parijat Haran, Ram Vijay, Patni Prasad , Kaliya Daman , etc. 3.Devotional
Songs: Bhatima , Borgeet , etc.4.Bhaktitatva : Bhakti Pradip , Bhakti
Ratnakar ,etc. 5.Naam Prasang : Gunamala ,Kirtan ,Etc. 6. Translation :
Uttarakanda Ramayana, Bhagawat (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 10th episode) .
