Janya

Sattriya was created in the 15th century by Srimanta Sankardeva — a polymath who was simultaneously a saint, poet, playwright, musician, and social reformer. His goal was not to create an art form but to propagate his Ek Saran Naam Dharma — a neo-Vaishnavite philosophy that embraced people regardless of caste — through the universal language of performance. Dance, drama, and devotional music were a single integrated act of worship. The form takes its name from the Sattras — the Vaishnavite monasteries Sankardeva founded, where it was practiced exclusively by male monks (bhokots) as part of their daily spiritual life.

Sankardeva developed everything simultaneously: the Ankiya Naat (one-act dance-dramas), the Borgeet (devotional songs based on classical ragas), the Mati-Akhora (foundational movement exercises), and the instrument traditions — including the khol drum, which he introduced, and the taal (cymbals). His disciple Madhavdeva further developed and systematized the form. Uniquely among Indian classical traditions, Sattriya performances are traditionally not staged before any deity's idol but before a copy of the Bhagavata Purana placed in the sacred eastern corner of the namghar (community prayer hall).

For over five centuries the form performed exclusively within the Sattras — the monastic institutions that Sankardeva founded — by male monks as part of their spiritual practice. It was Jatin Goswami who, from the 1960s onward, began bringing the form to public stages, and whose sustained efforts over four decades eventually led to its recognition by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as India's eighth classical dance form on November 15, 2000. The recognition brought it to concert stages, while its monastic tradition continues in the Sattras of Majuli island in the Brahmaputra river.