Assam artists

Assam's artists have given India some of its best-loved songs, its first films in a regional language and one of its eight classical dances. Their work grows out of the Vaishnava traditions of the sattras, the Bihu songs of the villages and the music of the tea gardens.

Music

Bhupen Hazarika, born in Sadiya, wrote and sang hundreds of songs in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi; he was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019. Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Bishnu Prasad Rabha are honoured as the fathers of modern Assamese culture, and singers such as Zubeen Garg and Papon carried Assamese songs to audiences all over India.

Sattriya and Bihu

Sattriya, created by the saint Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th and 16th centuries and performed for centuries by monks in the sattras of Majuli, was recognised as a classical dance by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2000. Bihu dances and songs, with the dhol, pepa (buffalo-horn pipe) and gogona, fill the villages every April.

Cinema and crafts

Agarwala's Joymati (1935) was the first Assamese film. Assam's crafts include muga and eri silk weaving, the masks of Majuli, bell-metal work from Sarthebari and the cane and bamboo work found across the state.

Sources

• Assam Tourism: Government of Assam
• North East Zone Cultural Centre: Dimapur (Ministry of Culture)
• Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre: Kolkata (Ministry of Culture)
• Sangeet Natak Akademi: India's national academy of music, dance and drama (Ministry of Culture)