Hinduism in Assam

"A very influential work was the Assamese Ramayana by Madhava Kandali, a Brahmin also known as Kaviraja Kandali. It was composed in the fourteenth century at the behest of the Kachari king Shrimahamanikya. It was in five kandas and was an adaption and condensation of Valmiki’s work. It was completed in its present form of seven kandas by Shankaradeva, the great Assamese saint and poet, and his disciple Madhavadeva, who added the Bala and Uttara Kandas. Shankaradeva also wrote a play, the Rama Vijaya, on Rama's marriage and his humbling of Parashurama (Smith 1995: 27- Several other works were written in the following centuries like the Lava Kusara Yuddha, the Sitara Banabasa, the Katha Ramayana and the Nagaksa Yuddha (Smith 1995: 29-30)."

"The first Ramayana to be translated into a regional language from the main Sanskrit Ramayana, among the north Indian languages, is Madhav Kandali’s Saptakanda Ramayana in Assamese. This was carried out in the 14th century. Madhava Kandali created his work under the patronage of Raja Mahamanikya, the Kachari king whose kingdom was situated in the present-day district of Nagaon. Acknowledging Madhava Kandali’s literary prowess, Mahapurusha Sri Sankardeva later commented thus ‘Seeking Rama in the works of my unchal- lenged predecessor, I felt like the rabbit running away in fear seeing the elephant’s dung’."

"Assam’s sociocultural fabric is agog with stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Right from Sadiya, Manipur and Liqabali (near Silapathar) in Arunachal Pradesh to the land of Dimarajya (now known as the NC Hills), Tezpur or Sonitpur, many places in the entire region are associated with various ancient tales of Indic civilization and reli- gion. The Kamakhya temple and several other temples dedicated to Durga, Shiva, Vishnu and Krishna are scattered in the north-eastern region, and many festivals celebrated in their honour have been glorifying and sustaining those cultural memories for generations."