Documents

This site also hosts the original works of Sankaradeva and Mādhavadeva and over 120 documents and articles on the Sankaradeva Movement. More→

Preface

This site is an attempt to introduce to the world the multi-dimensional personality of Mahāpuruṣa Śrīmanta Śaṅkaradeva, one of the greatest spiritual and social reformers of India.

The propagator of the religion known as eka śaraṇa hari nāma in the 15th century in Assam, Sankaradeva (Sankardev, Sankardeva) (শঙ্কৰদেৱ) was ‘the glorious sun under whose warmth of mind Assam blossomed like a lotus of thousand petals (sahasradala kamala).’[2]

Krishna punishes Kaliya: Assamese manuscript painting.A versatile genius, Sankaradeva rendered the Bhagavata Purana into Assamese, wrote trendsetting popular plays, composed songs of the devotional genre set to classical ragas as well as numerous devotional poems (kīrttanas) for congregational singing and even got built prayer houses for the masses to pray together in a whole-souled manner, in front of the text of the Bhagavata.

Krishna, the Supreme RealitySankaradeva propagated a religion of pure devotion to Krsna (Krishna) known as Eka Śaraṇa Hari Nāma, also referred to as Mahāpuruṣism, which considers Krsna—God referred to in his immanent capacity—to be supremely conscious and the supreme truth. According to the philosophy of Mahāpuruṣism of Sankaradeva, the living beings are also, in truth, pure personalities (puruṣas) like Krsna. More→
Eka-Sarana means taking sole-refuge in Krsna. It is as said in the Bhagavad Gita:
sarvadharmān parityajya māmekam śaraṇam vraja More→

Sankaradeva’s philosophy is that of intrinsic equality in which the very doing of pure devotion is predicated on the existence of a transcendental society in which all members are essentially of one kind. His bhaktic philosophy envisages a kind of society which is modeled on Vaikuntha, the transcendental society, in which the governing ideal is one of equality. 

Sankaradeva’s humanism has an universal appeal. And the purpose of this website is also to provide a glimpse of this humanism. It is hoped that the readers find this site both academically useful and spiritually elevating.

[This site is a project in progress. Certain features may not be currently available. Please bear with us!]