Srimanta Sankardeva - Biography

Biography

Srimanta Shankaradeva was born into the Shiromani (chief) Baro-Bhuyans family near Bordowa in present-day Nagaon district in c1449. The Baro-Bhuyans were independent landlords in Assam, and belonged to the Kayastha Hindu caste. His family-members, including parents Kusumvara Bhuyan and Satyasandhya Devi, were Saktas. The Saint lost both his father and his mother at a very tender age and was raised by his grandmother Khersuti. He began attending the tol or chatrasaal (school) of the renowned scholar Mahendra Kandali at the age of 12 and soon wrote his first verses:

karatala kamala kamaladala nayana |
bhavadava dahana gahana vana xayana ||
..

The complete poem was written before he was taught the vowels except, of course, the first one, and is often cited as an example of the early flowering of his poetic genius.

He was physically very able, and according to legend, he could swim across the Brahmaputra while it was in spate.

He left the tol in his late teens (c1469) to attend to his responsibilities as the Shiromani Bhuyan. He moved from Alipukhuri to Bordowa, and wrote his first work, Harishchandra upakhyan. Sankardeva produced a dance-drama called Cihna yatra, for which he painted the Sapta vaikuntha (seven heavens), guided the making of musical instruments and played the instruments himself.

At Bordowa, he constructed a dharmagrha or a Hari-grha (house of the Lord) in which he installed an image of Vishnu that was constructed out of a huge piece of wood which he found floating in a river, after he got a divine vision of it during the construction of the grha. But it was not meant for worshipping; it was just a "showpiece of art work". In fact, he was absolutely against any kind of worshipping of Idols or Images of gods. He married his first wife Suryavati when he was in his early 20s. His wife died soon after his daughter Manu was born.