Ekasarana Dharma was a religious tradition formed by Srimanta Sankardev where Lord Krishna was the only deity. Devotion to Lord Krishna and singing in congregation was the main ritual followed. Madhavdev was the saint who took this Dharma to different places.
Profile
Madhavdevwasborn in the month of May in 1489 at Baligrama in Assam. His parents were Govindagiri Bhuyan and Manorama. Govindagiri was married to another lady and had a son in that marriage but she died quite young. He alongwith his son and went to Bardowa where he married Manorama and Madhavdev was born and after 10 years a girl was born who was named Urvashi. By this time they had moved to Habung. In another 10 years they moved back to Bardowa and his sister was married off to Gayapani. In few years’ time Madhavdev, his half-brother and father moved to Banduka leaving his mother with his sister and brother-in-law. In BandukaMadhavdev continued his education and he learnt Puranas, Tarka Shashtras, Tantra and literature associated with Shaktism. Shaktism is the propitiation of Goddess Shakti. After the death of his father he went back to his brother-in-law and helped him in his business. Again he moved to Banduka to look after his half-brother who had fallen ill. There he heard that his mother’s health was failing and he came back. He decided to sacrifice goats to please the Goddess to improve his mother’s health. Gayapani his brother-in-law had become a follower of Ekasarana Dharma and refused to accept the idea of goat sacrifice. Gayapanai who was now known as Ramadasa took him to his guru Sankardev and it is believed that both argued for eight hours and finally when a sloka of the Bhagavad Gita was chanted Madhavdev acknowledged his defeat and accepted Sankardev as his guru. Since then his life was complete devotion to his guru. Madhavdev died in 1596 due to kidney problems.
Philosophy Propounded
Ekasarana Dharma was the philosophy that Madhavdev preached. This dharma spoke about unstinted love for Lord Krishna. Rituals generally seen in Hinduism were rejected. Group singing of the lord’s name was the main form of expressing devotion.
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
Madhavdev was a prolific writer and he had written in different forms as well; he had written poems, plays and compiled the works of his guru. He wrote about Lord Krishna; the one –act plays were mostly on the childhood of Lord Krishna. The verses are on the Lord and about his guru. The most famous work is the Nama Ghosa. Madhavdev lived 28 years after the passing away of his guruand he moved around spreading the Ekasarana Dharma but it was not easy for him. There were false allegations against him and he had to move places. It was in Koch Behar that he was revered. There were some issues for a while but after that King Lakshminarayana and his family converted to Ekasarana Dharma. Later Vaishnavism was declared as state religion and animal sacrifice was banned even in royal worship. The songs of Madhavdev are sung to this day in Assam and some are even tuned in classical ragas. Madhavdev can be called a saint who was a literary giant as well.
