Who Sankardev Was
Srimanta Sankardev was born at Bordowa, in present day Nagaon district of Assam, in the fifteenth century, and he lived into the sixteenth. He is the founder of Ekasarana Dharma, the Vaishnava tradition that shapes Assamese religious life to this day, and he is among the most consequential figures in the cultural history of eastern India.
What sets him apart from most founders of devotional movements is the range of what he built.
He was:
- A religious reformer, who established a tradition with its own doctrine, practice and institutions
- A poet and scholar, who wrote extensively in Assamese, Sanskrit and Brajavali
- A composer, who created the Borgeet, the devotional song form still sung across Assam
- A dramatist, who created the Ankiya Naat and staged the first performances of it
- An institution builder, who established the namghar and, through his tradition, the satras
- A painter and craftsman, associated with the visual and material culture of the tradition
He travelled widely across India on pilgrimage before establishing his tradition, and his closest disciple, Madhavdev, carried the work forward after him and composed the Naam Ghosha, which is read alongside Sankardev's own works.
Assam remembers him not as a saint whose life is recounted but as the person who made the state's devotional infrastructure, most of which is still standing.
Ekasarana Dharma
Ekasarana means the single refuge, and the doctrine is what the name says.
Its core positions:
- Refuge in Krishna alone, as the supreme, without the worship of other deities as separate ends
- Nam, the name, as the principal and sufficient practice, sung congregationally
- Rejection of elaborate ritual, image based complexity and priestly mediation as necessary for devotion
- Guru, Deva, Nam and Bhakat as the four foundations, meaning the teacher, the deity, the name and the community of devotees
- Devotion expressed in the Assamese language, and through literature, music and performance rather than through Sanskrit ritual
The social consequence was substantial. A tradition that requires only the name, sung in the local language, in a village prayer house, with no ritual qualification, is open in a way that temple worship of the period frequently was not.
Sankardev's disciples came from every community, including from communities excluded elsewhere, and this openness is a defining feature of the tradition as it established itself across Assam.
What is worth understanding is what this did not include. Ekasarana is a Vaishnava tradition, focused on Krishna, and it did not attempt to accommodate everything. Its emphasis is narrow and deliberate, and the discipline of that narrowness, one refuge, one practice, one community, is precisely what made it portable across a large and varied region.
What He Wrote and Composed
Sankardev's literary and musical output is the substance of the tradition, and Assamese households still use it daily.
- Kirtan Ghosha - his principal work, a collection of narrative verse in Assamese, recited and sung in namghars and homes across the state. For Ekasarana devotees it functions as the central text.
- Borgeet - devotional songs he composed, in Brajavali, with their own ragas and a distinctive style of rendering. Madhavdev composed borgeets as well, and the corpus is sung across Assam.
- Assamese renderings of the Bhagavata, which brought the text into the language of ordinary people
- Gunamala - a short work composed, in tradition, at the request of a ruler, condensing the essentials of the Bhagavata
- Ankiya Naat - the plays, of which Chihna Yatra is described as his first dramatic production
Madhavdev's Naam Ghosha is read alongside these, and the two bodies of work together form the tradition's textual foundation.
What is worth noticing about all of it is the language and the medium. Sankardev was a scholar who could write in Sanskrit and did. But the works that carried the tradition are in Assamese and Brajavali, sung and performed rather than recited by specialists, and that choice is the reason Ekasarana reached the villages rather than staying with the learned.
Ankiya Naat and Bhaona
Sankardev created a form of drama to carry his teaching, and it is still performed.
Ankiya Naat is the play form he devised, and Bhaona is its performance:
- Written in Brajavali, a literary language combining Assamese with Maithili and Brajbhasha elements, which made the plays accessible across a wide region
- Performed in the namghar, in the open space before the deity, with the community as audience
- Directed by a Sutradhar, the narrator figure who introduces, comments and links the scenes
- Using masks, the mukha, which are made by traditional craftsmen and are among the most distinctive material objects of Assamese culture
- Combining song, dance, dialogue and instrumental music, with the khol drum and taal cymbals
The subjects are Vaishnava, drawn from the Bhagavata and the Krishna narrative, and the performance can run through the night.
What Sankardev did here was solve a practical problem. A tradition addressed to ordinary villagers, many of whom could not read, needed a medium that would carry doctrine, story and emotion at once. Drama does that, and he wrote it, staged it and made it a permanent part of the tradition's institutional life.
The Sattriya dance that developed within this tradition, in the satras, is now recognised as one of India's classical dance forms, and mask making at satras such as Samaguri in Majuli continues as a living craft.
The Namghar and the Satra
Sankardev's most durable creation is institutional, and it is the reason his tradition did not fade after him.
The namghar:
- A prayer house present in almost every Assamese village and neighbourhood
- A simple hall, with the manikut at one end holding the sacred text or the deity
- Used for nam prasanga, the congregational singing that is the tradition's central practice
- Also functioning as the village meeting hall, where disputes are discussed, decisions taken and community matters settled
- Open to the community, and maintained by it
That dual function is the point. The namghar is where a village prays and where it governs itself, and the two were deliberately placed in the same room.
The satra:
- A monastic institution, of which the tradition established many, most famously on the river island of Majuli
- Home to bhakats, the resident devotees, under a satradhikar
- Centres of Sattriya dance, borgeet, manuscript painting, mask making and Bhaona
- Custodians of the tradition's texts, practices and artistic forms
Majuli's satras, including Auniati, Dakhinpat, Garamur, Kamalabari and Samaguri, remain active, and they are among the most significant cultural institutions in the northeast.
Between the namghar in every village and the satra as a centre, the tradition acquired a structure that has carried it for five centuries.
Where to See the Tradition
Sankardev's tradition is not something to be read about at a distance in Assam. It is the ordinary religious life of the state.
Where to go:
- Bordowa Than, in Nagaon district, his birthplace, and a principal centre of the tradition
- Majuli, the river island in the Brahmaputra, with its satras, where Sattriya dance, borgeet, manuscript work and mask making continue. Majuli is reached by ferry from Jorhat.
- Barpeta Satra, one of the most important institutions of the tradition, in lower Assam
- Namghars in any Assamese village or neighbourhood, which are the tradition at its ordinary daily scale
- Doul Govinda and other Vaishnava temples around Guwahati
When to go:
- Raas Mahotsav at Majuli, in Kartik, when the satras stage Raas performances over several days, is the most spectacular occasion
- Doul Utsav in Falgun
- Bhaona performances, staged at namghars and satras through the year, particularly around festivals
- Sankardev's tithi, observed across the state
Etiquette at satras and namghars: dress modestly, remove footwear, sit where devotees sit during nam prasanga, and ask before photographing performances or bhakats.
One suggestion. If you can only do one thing, sit through a nam prasanga at a namghar. It requires nothing of you, it is open, and it is the practice Sankardev placed at the centre of everything else he built.
Reader Questions Answered
Who was Srimanta Sankardev?+
A fifteenth and sixteenth century saint, poet, composer, dramatist and reformer of Assam, born at Bordowa in Nagaon district. He founded Ekasarana Dharma, created the Borgeet and the Ankiya Naat, and established the namghar and satra institutions.
What is Ekasarana Dharma?+
Ekasarana means single refuge. The tradition holds refuge in Krishna alone as the supreme, with nam, the congregational singing of the name, as the principal practice, expressed in Assamese through literature, music and performance rather than through elaborate ritual.
What are Sankardev's main works?+
The Kirtan Ghosha, his principal work in Assamese verse, the Borgeet devotional songs, Assamese renderings of the Bhagavata, the Gunamala, and the Ankiya Naat plays including Chihna Yatra. Madhavdev's Naam Ghosha is read alongside these.
What is a namghar?+
A prayer house present in almost every Assamese village and neighbourhood, with the manikut at one end holding the sacred text or deity. It is used for nam prasanga, the congregational singing, and also serves as the village meeting hall where community matters are settled.
What is Bhaona?+
Bhaona is the performance of the Ankiya Naat, the drama form Sankardev created. It is staged in the namghar, directed by a Sutradhar, uses masks called mukha, and combines song, dance, dialogue and instrumental music with the khol and taal.
Where can the tradition be seen today?+
At Bordowa Than in Nagaon, his birthplace, at the satras of Majuli reached by ferry from Jorhat, at Barpeta Satra in lower Assam, and at namghars in any Assamese village. Raas Mahotsav at Majuli in Kartik is the most spectacular occasion.
About the author
Anjali Mehta · Editor, M.A. Religious Studies
Anjali is the managing editor for Vandnaa and oversees the festival and vrat coverage. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and reviews every published article for accuracy, accessibility, and tradition-fidelity.
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