Guwahati: Sankardeva musical drama's English debut on foreign soil

GUWAHATI: Vaishnavite saint and reformer Srimanta Sankardeva's colourful presentation of musical drama in Brajavali language, created almost 500 years back, made its English debut on foreign soil. Assam's socio-cultural organisation 'Prajanmya Unmesh', which endeavours to popularise the Vaishnavite theatrical performance for global art connoisseurs, and familiarise them with Assamese culture and traditions, presented Sankardeva's creation before Dubai residents and tourists on November 1.

The need to connect with an audience not conversant with Assamese, not to speak of Brajavali, was the reason why three siblings from Sonitpur district 's Jamugurihat - Arup Saikia, Girimallika and Gitimallika Baidya - conceived the English Bhāonā a couple of years ago. The experiment has taken them to Dubai, where they have staged two Bhāonā - Keli Gopala ('Playful Krishna') and Ravana Badha ('Slaying Ravana').

Arup Saikia, as the director, led a 27-member team, including one from Islamic faith, that performed the Bhāonā at the BRS Auditorium in Dubai. "Assam's department of culture and the Assamese community of UAE have supported the initiative to take Bhaona to the world. Noted industrialist of UAE, Padmashri Dr BR Shetty, had inaugurated the show in presence of MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and MLA from Nagaon, Rupak Sarma," she said.

Bhāonā is a classical drama form of Assam, initiated by legendary polymath of 15th century Assam and now it is for the first time that Bhāonā has been presented in English for an international audience.

Coordinator Girimallika Saikia said, "Almost 500 years after saint-reformer Sankardeva experimented with his newly created language of Brajavali, Assam's Bhāonā has now reached foreign shores in an English incarnation. But it has preserved all its ritualistic and traditional forms."

"Entertainment played a major role in the neo-Vaishnavite movement that Sankardeva started in Assam. He wrote his prose in Sanskrit but used Assamese and Brajavali to develop Borgeet, a new form of spiritual music, and Bhaona, a mythology-based theatrical performance, and monastic dances that evolved into the classical Sattriya ," Girimallika said.