Srimanta Sankardev: Ekasarana Dharma, Namghars, Ankia Naat and Borgeet

Srimanta Sankardev, also spelled Sankaradeva, was an Assamese saint, poet, playwright and composer who, by the traditional dates of 1449 to 1568, founded the Vaishnava faith of Assam called Ekasarana Dharma, “the religion of shelter in one”. Sankardev taught devotion to a single God, Krishna, through singing and hearing his name, and he built the institutions that carried that faith into every Assamese village: the namghar or prayer hall, the Ankia Naat plays, the Borgeet songs and the dance that grew into Sattriya. He matters because few medieval saints shaped a region’s religion, language, theatre and music all at once.

Two confusions follow him around. The first is the name: Sankardev is not Adi Shankaracharya, the eighth-century Advaita philosopher, and his faith is Vaishnava, not Shaiva. The second is the sattra. The large Vaishnava monasteries of Majuli are his legacy, but most took their monastic form after his death; what he himself founded were congregations and prayer houses. This note separates what he built from what his followers built.

Who Was Srimanta Sankardev?

Sankardev was born into a landholding family of Bhuyan chiefs in central Assam, gave up that office for a religious life and spent his later decades moving between kingdoms as he gathered followers. The table gives the core facts; where sources disagree, the row says so.

Sankardev’s Life in Three Kingdoms

Sankardev’s life is known from devotional biographies, the earliest by Daityari Thakur, written after his death. They agree on the outline and disagree on dates, and the later ones add miracles. The outline follows three political worlds: the Bhuyan chiefdoms, the Ahom kingdom and the Koch kingdom.

The Bhuyan Years

Sankardev was raised by his grandmother after losing his parents young and studied under the teacher Mahendra Kandali, who is said to have given him the name Sankardev. After the death of his first wife he set out, by tradition in 1481, on a pilgrimage of about twelve years through Puri, Mathura, Vrindavan and other Vaishnava centers. The biographies place his first Borgeet at Badrinath on that journey.

The turning point came after his return. A Mithila scholar, Jagadisa Mishra, recited and explained the Bhagavata Purana to him with Sridhara Swami’s commentary, and Sankardev came to treat the Bhagavata as the scripture that settled everything: Krishna the only God, the Name the true practice. He staged his first dance-drama, the Chihna Yatra, for which the biographies say he painted the scenery of the seven heavens and played the instruments himself.

The Ahom Years

Conflict with neighboring Kachari chiefs and the expansion of the Koch ruler Biswa Singha pushed the Bhuyans out, and Sankardev moved north of the Brahmaputra into Ahom territory, finally to Dhuwahat near present-day Majuli. Two things happened there. He won over Madhavdev, a devotee of the goddess who argued with him and then became his most devoted disciple. And priests hostile to the new faith complained to the Ahom king Suhungmung, who summoned him to a debate and let him go. The hostility continued, and after his son-in-law Hari was executed by royal officers in the 1540s, Sankardev’s group left the Ahom kingdom.

The Koch Years

He settled at Patbausi near Barpeta in the Koch kingdom. When complaints reached the Koch king Naranarayan, the king’s brother and general Chilarai, married into Sankardev’s extended family, secured him a hearing instead of an arrest. Sankardev won the court debate and spent his last two decades under Koch protection, writing most of his plays there. He died at Bheladonga in 1568.

The biographies credit him with an age of about 120 at death, which is why Misra’s revised birth date has gained ground. The death year is fairly secure; the birth year is not.

What Did Sankardev Teach?

Sankardev taught eka sarana, exclusive surrender to one God, Krishna, and he made the Name, sung and heard in company, the whole of the practice. The faith asks the devotee to give up other deities, sacrifice and elaborate ritual and to approach God as a servant approaches a master.

Four ideas carry the doctrine:

• Nama, the Name. Singing (kirtana) and hearing (shravana) Krishna’s name and deeds is the central act of worship, done together in the namghar.
• Dasya bhava, the servant’s attitude. Unlike the Bengal Vaishnavism of Chaitanya, Radha is not worshipped beside Krishna, and erotic devotion has no place.
• Satsanga, the company of devotees. The congregation, not the priest, sustains the faith.
• Open initiation. Initiation, called sarana, was given across caste lines; the biographies name disciples from the Garo, Bhutia and Koch communities and a Muslim tailor of the Koch court, Chandsai.

NCERT’s Class 7 text compresses it well: Sankardev emphasized devotion to Vishnu, composed poems and plays in Assamese and began the practice of setting up namghars, houses of recitation and prayer, that continues to this day. The social edge matters too. A Kayastha preacher initiating Brahmins, tribal converts and a Muslim into one congregation challenged the ritual authority of the priests who complained against him in both kingdoms.

Namghar and Sattra

The namghar is the village prayer hall where the congregation sings and hears the Name, and it doubles as a community assembly; that institution is directly Sankardev’s. The sattra began, in IGNOU’s description, as a sitting at which people of all classes assembled for religious and social purposes, and only later grew into full monasteries with a head called the sattradhikar, resident devotees and a prayer hall at the center. Scholars disagree on how far that layout existed in his lifetime, and the large monastic sattras, especially on Majuli in the Brahmaputra river system, grew up under his successors. After Madhavdev, the order divided into sub-orders called sanghatis.

Sankardev’s Works: Kirtan Ghosha, Ankia Naat and Borgeet

Sankardev wrote scripture, poetry, drama and song, and the forms he devised are still performed. He used Assamese for most of his writing so that villagers could follow it, and Brajavali, a literary blend of Assamese with Maithili and Braj forms, for songs and plays where the effect mattered.

Kirtan Ghosha and the Bhagavata

The Kirtan Ghosha is a collection of narrative devotional songs for congregational singing, and it remains one of the texts most often recited in Assamese namghars. Alongside it, Sankardev rendered several books of the Bhagavata Purana into Assamese verse and wrote the Sanskrit doctrinal work Bhakti Ratnakar. Madhavdev’s Naam Ghosha became the companion volume to the Kirtan Ghosha.

Ankia Naat and Bhaona

The Ankia Naat are one-act plays in Brajavali on episodes from the lives of Krishna and Rama, and their performance is called Bhaona. A narrator-director, the sutradhar, stays on stage, sings, dances and explains the action, so the play works as a sermon the audience can watch. The Sangeet Natak Akademi describes the Ankiya Bhaona as a living traditional theatre of the sattra heritage introduced by Sankardev; six of his plays were staged at its 2010 festival. They are:

• Patni Prasad
• Kali Daman
• Keli Gopal
• Rukmini Haran
• Parijat Haran
• Ram Vijay, which acknowledges the Koch patronage under which it was written.

Read the note on traditional theatre forms of India to place Bhaona beside Yakshagana, Jatra and the others.

Borgeet

Borgeets, “great songs”, are devotional lyrics set to ragas and sung in prayer and before performances. Tradition says Sankardev composed about 240 and lent them to a singer whose house burned down; about 34 of his survive, and Madhavdev composed many more. The story of the fire is tradition, but the small surviving count is a fact every revision list carries.

How Did Sankardev Shape Sattriya Dance?

Sattriya grew out of the dance and movement of Sankardev’s Bhaona plays and was preserved for centuries inside the sattras, performed by resident male devotees as part of worship. The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognized it as one of India’s classical dances in 2000, and on 15 July 2008 it set up the Sattriya Kendra in Guwahati to support Sattriya dance, music and theatre.

Two corrections keep the history straight. Sankardev created the dramatic tradition from which the dance came; the codified classical form developed later, inside the sattras and then on the stage. And women began performing Sattriya only in the twentieth century, when it moved out of the monasteries. The full story is in the notes on Sattriya dance and the classical dance forms of India.

What Historians Dispute About Sankardev

Almost every famous detail of Sankardev’s life has a softer version in the sources. Three disputes matter for an answer.

His Birth Year

The traditional birth year of 1449 is not stated in the earliest biographies, which record only his death, and it gives him a lifespan of about 120 years. Baniprasanna Misra argues that the biographers double-counted phases of his life and proposes a birth between 1479 and 1484. Standard accounts still print 1449, so the honest short form is “1449 by tradition, possibly about 1483”.

The Meeting With Chaitanya

Daityari Thakur’s early biography claims that Sankardev met Chaitanya, the Bengal saint, at Puri. Modern scholars do not accept the meeting. The two movements differ in a way that makes the point: Chaitanya’s devotion centers on Radha and Krishna and ecstatic love, while Sankardev’s excludes Radha and stresses the servant’s attitude.

What He Founded

Followers often credit Sankardev with the whole sattra system as it exists today. The evidence supports prayer houses and congregations in his lifetime, with the monastic sattra developing under Madhavdev and later leaders. The same caution applies to miracle stories in the later biographies, such as swimming the Brahmaputra in flood.

Sankardev Today

Sankardev’s legacy is a living religious practice in Assam: namghars in villages across the state, sattras on Majuli and elsewhere, and Bhaona performances during festivals. The Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Sattriya Kendra funds selected sattras, including the Narua Bali Sattra at Bordowa, to train performers in Sattriya music, dance and Ankia Naat.

The most recent dated development is at his birthplace. On 29 December 2025, the Union Home Minister inaugurated the redeveloped Batadrava Than in Nagaon district, a Rs 227 crore project first proposed in the state’s 2021-22 budget. In Guwahati, the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, named after him, serves as a state cultural complex. The Ahom kingdom, whose king once summoned him to debate, is itself now commemorated through the Charaideo Moidams, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How to Study Sankardev for Exams

Sankardev sits in General Studies Paper I in two places: the Bhakti movement under medieval Indian culture, and art and culture, where Sattriya, Ankia Naat and Borgeet appear. Assamese literature optional candidates read him in depth; the Assamese literature optional guide covers those texts.

Mains questions test him through comparison. Mains 2018 GS Paper I asked candidates to discuss this: “The Bhakti movement received a remarkable re-orientation with the advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.” Sankardev is the natural counterpoint in that answer, an eastern Vaishnava reformer of the same generation whose faith took a very different shape. In Prelims, Art and Culture accounts for 94 of the 1,403 questions in the Prelims question bank from 2013 to 2026, and dance-to-state or saint-to-form pairings are the usual shape.

The revision facts worth fixing:

• Traditional dates 1449 to 1568; born near Bordowa (Batadrava), Nagaon; died at Bheladonga, Cooch Behar.
• Ekasarana Dharma: surrender to one God, Krishna, through nama; dasya bhava; Radha not worshipped.
• Kirtan Ghosha is his central text; Madhavdev wrote the Naam Ghosha.
• Ankia Naat in Brajavali, performed as Bhaona, with the sutradhar on stage.
• About 240 Borgeets composed by tradition, about 34 surviving.
• Namghar is his institution; the monastic sattra developed after him.
• Sattriya recognized as classical in 2000; Sattriya Kendra, Guwahati, set up on 15 July 2008.

Four confusions cost marks:

• Sankardev and Shankaracharya. Sankardev is a fifteenth-sixteenth century Assamese Vaishnava; Adi Shankaracharya is the eighth-century teacher of Advaita.
• Sankardev and Chaitanya. Contemporaries with separate movements; the meeting is unproven and the theology differs on Radha.
• Sankardev and Madhavdev. Guru and disciple; Kirtan Ghosha is Sankardev’s, Naam Ghosha is Madhavdev’s.
• Ankia Naat and Sattriya. The plays and their staging (Bhaona) are his; Sattriya is the dance form that developed from them.

Set him beside the other Vaishnava saints of his age:

For the wider frame, read this with the overview of the Bhakti movement in India.

Sankardev rewards the candidate who refuses to treat Bhakti as a single story. He shows devotion becoming a regional culture, with its own scripture, theatre, music and village assembly, and an answer that can name the namghar, the Bhaona and the Borgeet in one paragraph shows the examiner that understanding in a way no generic line on social reform can.

Frequently Asked Questions

Practice Questions

Prelims

1. Consider the following statements about Srimanta Sankardev: 1. He founded Ekasarana Dharma, centered on devotion to Krishna. 2. Radha is worshipped alongside Krishna in his tradition. 3. He composed the Kirtan Ghosha. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

• (a) 1 and 2 only
• (b) 1 and 3 only
• (c) 2 and 3 only
• (d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (b) Ekasarana Dharma follows the servant’s attitude and does not worship Radha beside Krishna.

2. Consider the following statements: 1. Ankia Naat plays were written in Brajavali. 2. The performance of an Ankia Naat is called Bhaona. 3. Sattriya was recognized as a classical dance by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1958. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

• (a) 1 and 2 only
• (b) 2 and 3 only
• (c) 1 and 3 only
• (d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (a) Sattriya was recognized in 2000, not 1958.

3. The Naam Ghosha, a central text of Assamese Vaishnavism, was composed by:

• (a) Sankardev
• (b) Madhavdev
• (c) Damodardev
• (d) Chaitanya

Answer: (b) Madhavdev wrote the Naam Ghosha; Sankardev’s text is the Kirtan Ghosha.

4. In a Bhaona performance, the character who remains on stage to narrate, sing and dance through the play is the:

• (a) Sattradhikar
• (b) Bhakat
• (c) Sutradhar
• (d) Gayan

Answer: (c) The sutradhar narrates and directs on stage; the sattradhikar is the head of a sattra.

5. Under whose patronage did Sankardev spend the last part of his life?

• (a) The Ahom king Suhungmung
• (b) The Koch king Naranarayan and his brother Chilarai
• (c) The Mughal governor of Bengal
• (d) The Bhuyan chiefs of Bordowa

Answer: (b) Chilarai secured him a hearing at Naranarayan’s court, and he lived his last years under Koch protection, dying at Bheladonga in 1568.

Mains

1. Evaluate the nature of the Bhakti literature and its contribution to Indian culture. (10 marks, 150 words) Previous year: Mains 2021, GS Paper I.
2. “Sankardev turned a devotional doctrine into a regional culture.” Discuss with reference to the namghar, Ankia Naat and Borgeet. (15 marks, 250 words)
3. Compare the Neo-Vaishnavism of Sankardev in Assam with the Vaishnavism of Chaitanya in Bengal. (15 marks, 250 words)
4. How did the sattra institution help preserve Assam’s performing arts? Examine the challenges it faces today. (10 marks, 150 words)
5. Examine the social significance of Sankardev’s practice of initiating people across caste and community lines in medieval Assam. (10 marks, 150 words)