Who preached the Ekasarana Dharma and founded the satra and namghar institutions of Assam?
- A.Srimanta Sankardeva
- B.Madhavdeva
- C.Damodardeva
- D.Bhaskaravarman
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Srimanta Sankardeva. Sankardeva, who lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, preached the Ekasarana Dharma, devotion to a single god without caste barriers or elaborate ritual, composed the Kirtan Ghosa and the Borgeets, created the one-act Ankiya Naat plays, and established the satra monasteries and the namghar prayer halls that still organise village religious life in Assam. Option B is wrong because Madhavdeva was his foremost disciple and the author of the Naam Ghosa, who carried the movement forward rather than beginning it. Option C is wrong because Damodardeva led a later branch of the same tradition. Option D is wrong because Bhaskaravarman was the seventh-century Varman king of Kamarupa, the ally of Harshavardhana and the host of the Chinese traveller Xuanzang.
Read the full article: Ahom Kingdom and Medieval North-East India: Exam Notes
Practice Questions
View allWho founded the Ahom kingdom in the Brahmaputra valley in 1228 CE?
- A.Sukaphaa
- B.Suhungmung
- C.Pratap Singha
- D.Rudra Singha
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Sukaphaa was a Tai prince from the upper Irrawaddy region who crossed the Patkai hills with a small following and founded the Ahom kingdom in 1228, settling at Charaideo near present-day Sivasagar; Assam keeps his memory as Asom Divas on 2 December.
Read the full explanation →Which place served as the first capital and the royal burial ground of the Ahom kings?
- A.Garhgaon
- B.Charaideo
- C.Rangpur
- D.Jorhat
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Sukaphaa settled at Charaideo near modern Sivasagar in 1228, and even after the administrative capital shifted the site remained the ritual centre of the dynasty, where the kings and queens were buried under earthen mounds called moidams; the Charaideo moidams were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2024.
Read the full explanation →In the Ahom paik system, how many paiks were placed under an officer called a Hazarika?
- A.Twenty
- B.One hundred
- C.One thousand
- D.Three thousand
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The Ahom administration graded its officers by the number of paiks, the men liable to compulsory service, placed under them, and the Hazarika commanded a thousand, the name itself coming from the word for a thousand.
Read the full explanation →Which Ahom ruler annexed the Chutiya kingdom and was the first to assume the Hindu title Swarganarayan?
- A.Sukaphaa
- B.Suhungmung
- C.Jayadhwaj Singha
- D.Gadadhar Singha
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Suhungmung, better known as the Dihingia Raja, ruled from 1497 to 1539, annexed the Chutiya kingdom of the upper valley in 1523, broke Kachari power, and was the first Ahom king to take a Hindu title, Swarganarayan, which marks the dynasty's entry into the wider Indian religious world; the Bengal…
Read the full explanation →The offices of Borphukan and Borbarua in the Ahom administration were created by which ruler?
- A.Sukaphaa
- B.Suhungmung
- C.Pratap Singha
- D.Lachit Borphukan
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Pratap Singha, also called Susenghphaa, who ruled in the first half of the seventeenth century, created the Borphukan as viceroy of the lower Brahmaputra valley with his seat at Gauhati, and the Borbarua as the chief executive and judicial officer of the upper valley.
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