DEVOTIONAL THEATRICAL ELEMENTS OF ASSAM

The Neo-Vaiṣṇavite Sattras of Assam grew and developed in 15th-19th centuries can be
regarded as a local variant of the modern museum and archive because of the way they fostered,
preserved and archived traditional artefacts and accessories of various types. These holy Sattras
of Assam have always been zealous repositories of a traditional distinctive culture with an
emphasis on the arts, both performing and the visual. Under the four walls of these scores of
Neo-Vaiṣṇavite Sattras developed and cultivated performing art and various forms of minor art
and crafts which were based on spiritual ideologies that moved beyond the borders of Assam
bringing in its wake not only a flow of ideas but also a circulation of painters, artiste and
materials goods. It has evolved a wide range of different practices including preparation of
colours, dyes, brushes, clay pots and different types of traditional and locally developed
accessories. In devotional Assamese theatre or plays popularly called bhāonā where devotees
does not distinguish between art and religion, but, rather, fails to find one without the other