Majuli মাজুলী

Majuli, the largest riverine island in
the world, nestles in the lap of the
mightly Brahmaputra. This is where
the 15th century saint and fountain
head of Assamese culture,
Sankardeva, first established a Satra or
neo-Vaishnavite monastery, born of
insightful discourses with his spiritual
successor, Madhabdeva.
Today, Majuli is the principal seat of
Vaishnavite faith, culture and practice.
The treasures of Majuli are
undoubtedly it's Satras. The first satra,
set up by Sankardeva and Madhabdeva
together, was Manikanchan Sanjog,
now no longer extant. Subsequently,
Majuli became the centre of 65 such
satras. Of these, there are only 22
satras in Majuli today. Due to the
annual floods and constant land
erosion, Majuli today is only a fraction
of it's original size of 1256 sq. km.
recorded by the Imperial Gazetteer in
1901. This has forced many of the
sattras to shift base to Assam's
mainland.
Among those the main existing satras
are Dakhinpat Satra, Garamurh Satra,
Auniati Satra, Kamalabari Satra,
Benegenaati Satra and Samaguri Satra.
These Satras are the treasure houses
of the songs and dances initiated by
Shri. Sankardeva like "Bongeet"
Matiakhara, Jumora dance, Chali dance,
Motua dance, Nande Bringee,
Sutradhar, Ozapali, Apsara dance,
Satria Krishna dance, Dasavater dance