Batadrava Than (Bordowa)

01Where it began

Sankardev was born in 1449 at Alipukhuri, close to Bordowa, in a family of Bhuyan landholders. Here, after his first studies and his first play, the Chihna Yatra, he built a prayer hall where the people of the village could gather to hear the Bhagavata read and to sing the Name of Hari together. That hall, the kirtanghar, became the model for every namghar in Assam. The than’s own tradition and the Nagaon district records date its founding to 1494; some accounts place it earlier, in Sankardev’s youth. He later left Bordowa because of floods and pressure from the Ahom court, but the place was never forgotten.

02The than today

In the 18th century the than was revived by Sankardev’s descendants and later divided between two satras, Narowa and Salaguri, after a long dispute; the two were reunited as the Bordowa Than in 1958, when the present kirtanghar was built. Inside, the guru asana holds the scriptures and lamps, with no murti. The campus has the manikut, a sacred tank, and a cultural centre where the sattriya dance and the bhaona plays Sankardev wrote are taught. On his birth anniversary in Aswin and at his tithi the than fills with pilgrims from across Assam.

The life of this place