Sprinter Hima Das offers prayer at Batadrava Than, Plants Sapling Carried from Japan

Nagaon: 'Dhing Express', Sprinter Hima Das arrived at Batadrava Thaan today and offered prayers at Kirtan Ghar on the auspicious occasion of Srimanta Sankardeva's 450th death anniversary.

She also planted a Sapling near Tembuani water body of Batadrava which she carried from Japan. As she reached Batadrava Thaan in the afternoon today, She was given a grand welcome by the Batadrava Than reception Committee and thousands of local people. After that, She visited the holy kirtan ghar along with other devotees, offered prayers and sought blessings. Hima was warmly felicitated by the Batadrava Than reception committee with a religious garment, traditional xorai, and a citation and books.

While speaking to Media Persons, Hima Das said, "I hail from a culturally developed village called No. 3 Kandhulimari and I have been always inspired by Srimanta Sankardev's great powers of mind and body. I think we all should follow the ideologies showed by the great Vaishnabite Saint.”

Meanwhile, thousands of devotees thronged to Batadrava, the birthplace of the great Vaishnavite saint who brought about a cultural revolution in the region.

It may be mentioned that Srimanta Sankardeva was a 15th– 16th-century Assamese polymath: a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India. He is widely credited with building on past cultural relics and devising new forms of music (Borgeet), theatrical performance (Ankia Naat, Bhaona), dance (Sattriya), literary language (Brajavali). Besides, he has left an extensive literary oeuvre of trans-created scriptures (Bhagavat of Sankardev), poetry and theological works written in Sanskrit, Assamese, and Brajavali. The Bhagavatic religious movement he started, Ekasarana Dharma and also called Neo-Vaishnavite movement, influenced two medieval kingdoms---Koch and the Ahom kingdoms—and the assembly of devotees he initiated evolved into Sattras over time, which continue to be important socio-religious institutions in Assam and to a lesser extend in North Bengal.

Sankardev inspired the Bhakti movement in Assam just as Guru Nanak, Ramananda, Kabir, Basava and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inspired it elsewhere in the Indian subcontinent. His influence spread even to some kingdoms as the Matak Kingdom founded by Bharat Singha and consolidated by Sarbanda Singha in the latter 18th century endorsed his teachings.