Sankardeva as a Religious Reformer and a Playwright with Special Reference to his nat Rukmini Haran

Abstract

Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva was the reformer saint of the Neo-Vaishnavite movement in Assam under whose aegis the diverse population of the land was united under a socio-cultural phenomenon that gave a new direction to life in Assam. A forerunner of the Bhakti Movement of India and its pioneer in the North East, Sankardeva rescued the Assamese people from the clutches of a decadent belief system that thrived on the exploitation of the ignorant masses. Inspite of life-threatening encounters with the rulers and the guileful schemes of the Brahminical priests, Sankardeva preached a way of life that propounded full faith in the devotion of the One God, Vishnu/Krishna as the route to salvation for all. The neo-Vaishnavism promulgated by Sri Sankardeva was egalitarian, democratic and free of whimsical and irrational religious practices that left the society divided and impoverished. Its ideal of bhakti assured every individual an equal opportunity to be closer to God with just a sense of true love for the One.

Preaching such a religion could not be possible without touching the hearts of all the people irrespective of their gender or caste. And the heart could only be reached through means that were comprehensible to the common people. So, Sankardeva took recourse to different forms of art and literature to influence the people and ignite in their souls the love of the one God. In this paper, I have attempted to study Sankardeva's nat Rukmini Haran as an example of his literary and religious work.