Abstract

“Where ardent devotees perform duties pleasing to God, where nine-fold Bhakti prevails, that supreme place adored by Gods and Vaishnavas is called a Sattra” - Bhatta Deva.(Quoted in ‘Shankardeva and His Times: Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Assam’ - Dr. Maheswar Neog.) In Sanskrit literature, the term Sattra implies a sacrifice performed by an assembly of sages lasting for a year or more. Likewise, the Sattra institution of Assam resembles to a certain extent, the Buddhist Matha institution of the medieval period. In the early stages of the Neo-Vaishnavite Movement in Assam, the word Sattra was used to denote a religious sitting or association where the Bhagavata was read. In their works on Vaishnava Movements in Assam, two eminent Assamese scholars and researchers, Dr. Maheswar Neog and Dr. Satyendra Nath Sarmah respectively, also opine that the term Sattra seems to have been adopted from the Bhagavata Purana.