Life and Contributions of Srimanta Sankaradeva

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This book deals with the life and contributions of Saint Srimanta Sankaradeva. It seeks to highlight the pioneering role he played in various disciplines of art and literature. The Saint founded Eka Sarana Nama Dharma, an Order he dedicated exclusively to celebrating the glory and worship of Lord Krishna. As the first playwright in all of India's modern languages, he founded his own schools of art for painting, music and dance.He is also the world's first play director, dramatist, to use drop-scene or background scenery in a theatrical setting. He used Drama as a tool to convey his message to the people. As a great social reformer, he created a composite culture that went on to become mainstream Assamese culture. This work delves into the multi-dimensional contribution the polymath has made to the academia.

Hagiographer and academician, DR. SANJIB KUMAR BORKAKOTI is an internationally acclaimed author and biographer. With over 60 books to his credit, he is a prolific and versatile writer. He has edited three hagiographies, and also authored the renowned Purnanga Katha Gurucharita, one of his masterpieces in vernacular. He wrote a commentary to Madhavadeva's Namghosha. He has also translated Bargeet and Gunamala into English. His English novel, The Redeemer, is based on the life of Saint Srimanta Sankaradeva. His book, Majuli: Resources and Challenges, is one of the most important books published in India. In 2008, he was honoured with the Vaishnavite Literature Award and a Sankari Sahitya Sanskriti Bota Award in 2021 by the Asom Sahitya Sabha for his efforts to spread the legacy of Srimanta Sankaradeva globally. He is also a reviewer of UNESCO world heritage nomination dossier on behalf ofICOMOS.

Life and Contributions of Srimanta Sankaradeva is a compilation of several articles and research papers, which deal with the contributions of Srimanta Sankaradeva in different arena. It is an attempt to bring out the pioneering role played by the saint in different fields. The Eka Sarana Nāma Dharma, preached by Srimanta Sankaradeva is unique in many respects. There is total absence of worship of any female entity in this order, whereas such worship is found in some degree in all other Hindu religious orders. Similarly, the schools of art evolved by the saint in painting, dance and music have been recognized as unique. The same thing goes for his literary works too.

Srimanta Sankaradeva is accepted as the father of the Assamese people. It was he who gave the Assamese people a common language and culture, in addition to a pre-dominant bond of religious belief. The great mass of literary works left by him has become the bedrock of the Assamese literature. He founded a composite culture, which comprises Nāma-Kirtan (community prayer unto God), dance, music and Ankiya plays. This composite culture created by Srimanta Sankaradeva went on to become the mainstream Assamese culture. Over time it came to be known as Sankari culture. Some people also call it as Sattriya culture after the Sattra (also written as Satra) institution set up in the Eka Sarana Nāma Dharma.