{"id":14280,"date":"2021-03-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/09-03-2021\/what-are-sattras\/"},"modified":"2021-03-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T00:00:00","slug":"what-are-sattras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/09-03-2021\/what-are-sattras","title":{"rendered":"What are Sattras?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In Context: <\/strong>Recently,<strong> <\/strong>it was noticed that politicians started going to different Sattras to <strong>seek blessings or extolling <\/strong>the virtues of <strong>Sankardeva, <\/strong>especially in the run-up to <strong>Assam Assembly elections.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>About Sattras<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sattras are monastic institutions<\/strong> created as part of the <strong>16th-century Neo-Vaishnavite <\/strong>reformist movement started by <strong>Vaishnavite saint-reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>As the saint travelled across Assam, spreading his<strong> teachings and propagating <\/strong>an <strong>egalitarian society.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>These Sattras\/Thans <\/strong>were established as centres of <strong>religious, social and cultural<\/strong> reforms in the <strong>16th century. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sattras are spread across <strong>the state, promulgating Sankardeva\u2019s unique<\/strong> \u201cworship through art\u201d approach with music<strong> (borgeet), dance (sattriya) and theatre (bhauna)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Each Sattra has a <strong>naamghar (worship hall) <\/strong>as its <strong>nucleus <\/strong>and is headed by an influential \u201c<strong>Sattradhikar<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Monks, known as <strong>bhakats<\/strong>, are inducted into <strong>Sattras at a young age. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>They may or may not be<strong> celibate, depending on the kind of Sattra <\/strong>they are inducted into.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>There are about <strong>900 Sattras across Assam<\/strong>, but the main centres are <strong>Bordowa (Nagaon), Majuli and Barpeta.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>These institutions are of <strong>paramount importance and lie at the heart of Assamese culture.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The relationship between the Sattra and the State<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>During the <strong>Ahom reign, the Sattras<\/strong> received a <strong>lot of donations<\/strong> in the <strong>form of land or money from the kings.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Annual grants from the <strong>state and central government<\/strong> are doled out to Sattras, in the hope for<strong> political support.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Sattras Role in Election<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While Sattra votes may not decide the outcome of an election, it is undeniable that the <strong>Sattras and Sattradhikars <\/strong>have a lot of <strong>influence, especially in Sattra-based <\/strong>constituencies like<strong> Nagaon, Kaliabor, Majuli, Barpeta, Bartadadrva e<\/strong>tc. Assamese families usually <strong>have ties with one Sattra, or the other.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>That is why politicians \u2014 <strong>regardless of party, whether BJP or Congress \u2014 are often seen visiting Sattra. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fff2cc; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>About Sankardeva<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/33708305450624800_image.png\" style=\"height:226px; margin-left:20px; margin-right:20px; width:600px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sankaradeva was born in <strong>Nagaon district\u2019s Batadrava,<\/strong> also spelt Bordowa, in September 1449.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0He was a <strong>religious preceptor<\/strong> and also a<strong> social reformer<\/strong>, who had Sanskritized the ethnic groups of volatile<strong> North-East India <\/strong>and assimilated them with the <strong>national main-stream ( Bharata Varisha).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Philosophy and Contributions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sankardeva propagated a form of Bhakti called <strong>Eka-sharana-naam-dharma<\/strong> and espoused a society based on <strong>equality and fraternity, free from caste differences,<\/strong> orthodox <strong>Brahmanical rituals and sacrifices.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0His teaching focused on <strong>prayer and chanting (Naam)<\/strong> instead of <strong>idol worship.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0His dharma was based on the <strong>four components of deva (god), Naam (prayers), bhakats (devotees), and guru (teacher).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Scholars, however, argue that post the <strong>demise of Sankardeva<\/strong>, the nature of the <strong>Vaishnavite movement<\/strong> has changed significantly. \u201c<strong>After his demise<\/strong>, <strong>due to ideological<\/strong> differences <strong>among his disciples,<\/strong> the <strong>Sattras got divided into four independent sectarian divisions,<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>He translated most parts of the <strong>Bhagavata Mahapurana into the Assamese language<\/strong> and was the <strong>first-ever playwright in any Indian language<\/strong> other than Sanskrit.<\/li>\n<li>He had composed many lyrics\/songs including the Borgeets. All these justify to call him SARVAGUNA KARA by his most loyal disciple Madhabadeva.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-the-political-significance-of-assam-sattras-7217118\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source:IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Context: Recently, it was noticed that politicians started going to different Sattras to seek blessings or extolling the virtues of Sankardeva, especially in the run-up to Assam Assembly elections. About Sattras Sattras are monastic institutions created as part of the 16th-century Neo-Vaishnavite reformist movement started by Vaishnavite saint-reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva. As the saint travelled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-14280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs1"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/158738current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}