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
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