Satriya Culture: A Performance tradition or Genre?

 

Satriya Culture: A Performance tradition or Genre?

-By Dr. Palme Borthakur, Guwahati

    palme.borthakur@gmail.com

Satriya culture has indeed travelled a long way through the passage of time over space since its inception till date. It is an institution of knowledge that has assimilated into the deepest core of the people of Assam. The way it revolutionized and gave an identity to the society of Assam, Satriya culture opened up an enormous scope of study in the field of culture and philosophy. It is indeed a challenging task to state Satriya culture as a Performance tradition or Genre. 

A Performance tradition consists of two meaningful terms, i.e. performing is for taking action on some aspect such as a task, an art form may be, while tradition implies the movement of action from a particular point of time to another particular time over a space. “Performance traditions, like religious or literary ones, are best thought of as inherited collections of established ways of feeling, thinking, and doing that are passed down through generations and just as importantly, consist of the active and often contentious process of transmitting what has been received on inheritance” (Brosius et.al,2011). In simple words Performance tradition can be well understood as a movement of knowledge of actions consist of various performing arts, literature and aesthetic styles that defines the particular genre which is to be passed on to the next generation as a tradition of culture.

On the other hand, genre is a more conventional and popular type or form of mode of communication, i.e. written, spoken, digital or performing art etc. with social acceptance in a particular space over time. From this point of view Performing tradition definitely possess broader dimension than genre. The origin of the term genre lies in Latin word meaning kind or class. A traditional performance for a conventional sense can be understood as a genre enduring over space.

Origin of the term Satriya lies in the word Satra (Bhagawat Purana) meaning one kind of performance of duty offered with total devotion, without any personal motive and with firm belief in its rightness. Satra can be performed from a year to hundred or thousand years depending on the nature of the performance. In the Satra’s alongwith performing devotional rituals, literature, art, music, dance and physical education also started practicing to make a social revolution towards building a more cultured society. Satriya culture has its origin in Krishna centered Vaishnavism that attributed to the Bhakti Movement of 15th century by scholar, social reformer and saint Srimanta Shankar Deva. Srimanta Shankar Deva named Satriya culture after Krishna meaning culture. Sri Jyitiprasad Agarwala opined that Satriya Culture is the backbone and purest form of the culture of Assam, hence it is named separately as stated above. Agarwala categorized Satriya culture as high culture due to its esteemed cultural products like Borgeet, Satriya dance and Bhaona etc. According to him Shankar Deva always tried to make this high culture as people’s culture and he was highly successful in that regard that’s why culture of Assam was elevated to an esteemed level(Goswami,2012). Satriya culture consist of a set of large number of traditions which are practiced and preserved in Satras of Assam(monasteries) with active participation of Satra community and the neighbouring society. Such traditional practices are being performed in Satras(in earlier times) as well as on stage(now-a-days)from generation after generation. The genre is imparted to young ones every time to expand and enrich with additions thus the flow of high culture continues till date. Satriya culture is responsible for shaping up and stabilizing Assamese society since last five hundred years serving the spiritual as well as cultural needs of the people. Though the Satriya culture was started by Srimanta Shankar Deva it was carry forwarded to its next level by Sri Madhav Deva and Damodar Deva. The vital message of Satriya Culture by Shankar Deva was Ekasaranamdharma which was spread all over the Brahmaputra valley by twelve chief disciples of Shankar Deva. Later with expansion these institutions turned into cultural activity centers and named as Thans(Sanskrit origin Sthana meaning space). The Satras where main mentor lived are also called Thans. Barpeta Satra is regarded as the biggest Than. 

Satriya culture used performing art as its vital media to communicate with the mass to create spiritual and cultural inclination. In this regard drama, dance and songs played the most influential role. It is such a high culture that includes all the necessary elements of classical performance. These are-

• The Nritta: Abstract performance of dance in fast rhythm.

• The Nritya:Slower dance with expression and spiritual storeyline.

• The Natya: The play, generally played by group of people.

• The Mudras and Padas: Hand gestures and footworks in rhythm.

Satriya is a genre of dance, drama and songs that performs mythological and spiritual stories with facial expression, foot work and hand gestures. This way of explaining Vedic civilization and philosophy to the common people through traditional performances worked magnificently to make a stable society. It made Vedic philosophy easy to understand for common people. 

The cultural history of Assam provides evidences of fine atrs, performing arts, literature, education and learning since 15th century till the advent of British in various Satra institutions. Vaishnavite or Satriya culture in Assam is practiced not only as an institution only but also as a religion too. It has a great influence in the society of Assam till date.The impact of Satriya culture is so broad in the society of Assam that though it bears a particular style of literature or drama or music it will be not justified to categorise as a genre only. Rather the most reasonable and perfect term to be used for Satriya culture is a Performance tradition that started five hundred years ago and still continues and enriched by flavor of contemporary genre (crossing the boundaries of India) and will continue to flourish in future. 

 

References

Brosius, Christiane and Karin M. Polit, eds. Ritual, Theatre and Identity: The Politics of culture and Performance in a Globalised World. New Delhi: Routledge, 2011.

Goswami, B. Satriya Sanakriti.Sanskriti Kristi Janakristi aru Anyano.Guwahati.Chandra Prakash,2012,15-17.

Deka, S. Satriya Dance of Assam- An Over View.Retrieved from tharjournal.com on 24th November,2018.

www.shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

Little known facts about music in Assam- An article by Dr. Palme Borthakur

 Music:

Music is a cultural aspect that influences human functions over space. Sound is a key facilitator of ideas and spreading culture. During 1980’s a rise in music market was a result of the diffusion of music styles through globalisaion and popular music and it became a multi-billion-dollar industry. In this process musical cultures are commodified, but music never leaves the sphere of the “culture” (Connel,2002). 

Modern Music:

Defining features of modern music leads to breaking down of all traditional framework of music. Basically modern music is not composed binding in a particular raga. Thereby composing music out of all aesthetic characteristics, including melody, rhythm and chord progression can be defined as modern music. Another significant aspect of modern music is it is highly commodified and providing great source of livelihood to the people engaged in the field of music. In that way the idea of music is being redefined through modern music. The components of modern music are composition, singing, lyrics, instruments, recording system (both audio and visual), publishing, market and audience.

Music in Assam - A historical perspective:

The history of music in Assam claims that it is a conglomeration of one thousand years old folk music tradition, about five hundred years old tradition of written drama-songs, nearly three hundred years old tradition of Indian classical music which started since Swargadeo Rudra Singha’s rule (1696-1714), about one thousand years old history of composing charjyapod’s and nearly two thousand years old raga-based classical music ojapali. Borgeet which is another form of classical music in Assam composed by Mahapurush Srimanta Shankardeva and Madhabdeva gave a new dimension to the area. Bengali songs and music (khemta songs, songs of Shyamlal and Dwijendralal, Atul Prasad, Shyama sangeet, Bengali kirtans, and jatras et.al) ruled over the domain of music scenario in Assam until 1883. When we look back to the gradual development of modern music in Assam, it is evident that it’s quite a recent development. The base for this was provided by the agglomeration of various styles of folk music, ragas and raginis, fusion of foreign styles of music with local styles in Assam from time to time. In Assam the trend of modern music actually started in 1883, when Satyanath Bora published Geetabali, the very first book on Assamese songs in then Bengali tunes. So Satyanath Bora can be considered as the first composer of Assamese modern songs. Other contributors of that time were Bhaktaram Dutta (Pranay-gaan, 1901) and Benudhar Rajkhowa (Banhi,1906). They offered their contribution towards modern Assamese music with a strong sense of nationalism.

Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbarua, is considered as the founder of modern culture of Assam. The legend paved the way for modern music in Assam. Real modern music in Assam started with the immense contribution and unconditional efforts by Jyotiprasad Agarwala(1903-1951), Parvati Prasad Baruah(1904-1964) and Bishnu Prasad Rabha(1909-1969).  Media corporations distribute popular sounds across the world beyond their original place and globalisation made this mobility of sounds possible. Different reactions to globalisation can be observed, some musicians are fascinated by new sounds while some others returned to roots. In case of Assam also the impact of globalization on music was the same. Towards the later part of 20th century a new and fresh trend started in Assamese music scenario which brought modern hi-technology and digitized music in the region. Noted singer, composer Jitul Sonowal was the pioneer of this trend in Assam. Later Zubeen Garg with his album named 'Anamika’ created a new sensation in the Assamese music industry. Since 1992 till date he is being recognized as a trend setter who not only experimented with the fusion of western and regional music but also contributed in reviving the traditional songs and styles of Assamese music. With his efforts modern Assamese music got an extended platform at global scale. Some of his contemporaries are singer, composer Tarali Sharma and Angarag Mahanta (Papon) also introduced a new style on experimental basis called ‘folkotronica’, a combination of folk music and electronic music. This phase of Assamese music is the reflection of globalization. It is global ‘Mediascapes’ (Appadurai, 1990). As a result, sub-cultures developed- a new corporate culture emerged due to production and marketing of music (based on commercial logic of media) on the other hand audience culture developed which is based on listeners, fans and critics. This is the new trend of modern music based industry in Assam in the 21^st century which is a mosaic of its various indigenous traditional styles of music with a variety of popular sounds and styles travelled from the west.

References:

Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and Difference in the Global cultural economy. Public Culture, 1(11).15-24.

Bhuyan, K. (2014). Akashbani Guwahatir Adhunik Geet Aru Geetikar. Jorhat: Asam Sahitya Sabha.

Connell, J. (2002). Suondtracks Popular Music, Identity and Place. London: Routledge.

(This article is prepared from the writings of unpublished thesis ' Modern Music in Guwahati Metropolitan Area(GMA), Assam: A Study of Cultural Fusion and Diffusion’ by Dr. Palme Borthakur from University of Science & Technology, Meghalaya and author's published book chapter 'MODERN MUSIC IN ASSAM: A MOSAIC OF CULTURAL FUSION & DIFFUSION' in the book Musical History of North East India,2019 )