Namghosha The Oriental Gem (English Rendering of Mahapurusha Madhavadeva's Namghosha)

Madhavadeva (1489-1596 AD) was an associate as well as disciple of Srimanta Sankaradeva. He was an erudite scholar. Born at Narayanpur in Assam, Madhavadeva dedicated his whole life to serving his preceptor. He helped Srimanta Sankaradeva to propagate the newly launched Vaishnavite order Eka Sarana Nama Dharma. This order preached devotion to a single God, Lord Krishna. Srimanta Sankaradeva asked Madhavadeva to author a book elucidating the theories of Eka Sarana Nama Dharma, which would also serve as a book of prayer hymns for the devotees. So Madhavadeva authored Namghosha. His Namghosha and Bhakti-ratnawali occupy important place in the Eka Sarana Nama Dharma literature along with the Kirtana-ghosha and the Assamese rendering of the tenth canto of Bhagavata by Srimanta Sankaradeva. Devotees sing verses from Namghosha in their daily prayers. Vinoba Bhave was so impressed that he authored a book Namghoshā Sār (Essence of Namghosha). In the present book, Dr Sanjib Kumar Borkakoti has offered prose transcreation of this beautiful scripture Namghoshā.

DR SANJIB KUMAR BORKAKOTI has authored biography of Srimanta Sankaradeva in both English and Assamese. He has translated lyrics of Bargeet and Gunamala authored by Srimanta Sankaradeva and Namghosha authored by Madhavadeva to English. He has written an English novel named The Redeemer based on the life of Srimanta Sankaradeva. He has authored more than sixty books on education, culture, development issues, literary criticism, philosophy etc. He has analysed Srimanta Sankaradeva's philosophy too. Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Chicago, California, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Boston, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Emory, North Carolina, Texas, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington, Illinois, Yale, Michigan, Toronto, Heidelberg etc have preserved Dr Borkakoti's books in their libraries. He has also delivered lectures in different universities. Dr Borkakoti has used online platforms widely for wide discussions of Sri manta Sankaradeva's contributions. He is founder President of Society for Srimanta Sankaradeva, an organization engaged in promotion of Srimanta Sankaradeva's legacy. He is an expert member of International Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage; he has been promoting cultural heritages of Assam like Bihu, Bargeet etc in this platform.

Mahapurusha Madhavadeva was a great stalwart of Assamese literature. He was born in 1489 AD at Narayanpur in upper Assam. He was converted to the Eka Sarana Nama Dharma founded by Srimanta Sankaradeva when he met the saint in 1522 AD at Dhuwahata. Thereafter Madhavadeva started to serve his preceptor earnestly. He continued to serve Srimanta Sankaradeva throughout his life and fulfilled all duties entrusted upon him by the saint. Srimanta Sankaradeva asked Madhavadeva in 1568 AD to compose a scripture which would be saturated with philosophy and would also taste very fine with devotional fervour at the same time. Namghosha was the result of that exhortion by the saint. It can therefore be called a homage by Madhavadeva to his preceptor. One can find ample evidence of that attitude in this scripture. Madhavadeva declared in one verse, "Know Srimanta Sankaradeva to be the wish-tree for the devotees of lord Hari. There is no, I repeat, no other supreme preceptor for us except him."(Namghosha/375) Namghosha means verse meant for community prayer. Community prayer was a distinctive characteristic of the Eka Sarana Nama Dharma founded by Srimanta Sankaradeva. The saint advised his disciples to sing and listen to the name and attributes of God. Invariably these singing had to be done in verse, not prose. Namghosha by Madhavadeva fulfilled the requirement of the devotees for such verses. But it was at the same time a treatise on the Eka Sarana Nama Dharma. It is really marvellous how aggressively the author preached the ideology of his preceptor in this scripture. But that did not come in the way of its poetic beauty. He said in one verse, "O the good people, listen to the ideology of Srimanta Sankaradeva, which is also the philosophy of soul, and then practise it. You can achieve pure devotion and also get rid of bondage happily by singing the name and attributes of lord Hari."(Namghosha 133) These verses have not diluted the beauty of the scripture by any means. Namghosha achieved its purpose of preaching Eka Sarana Nama Dharma aesthatically. Both Srimanta Sankaradeva and Madhavadeva stressed on the easiness of chanting and listening to God's name, while comparing it with other modes of worship. So Madhavadeva said in one verse, "All other means to escape death are full of hurdles. One can get rid of bondage happily by singing the name and attributes of lord Madhava, which is the only means free from any type of hurdle." (Namghosha/31) Madhavadeva repeats his main thrust of emphasising the sole importance of lord Krishna in innumerable verses. He asked the readers in one verse, "Of what use are severe penance, knowledge, attributes, sacrifices, yoga, and merits for those who do not have devotion for the feet of donations lord Krishna, the preceptor of the universe and the personal deity who confers the bliss of salvation (Namghosha/629) Similarly he termed Ganga as the washings of God in more than one verse. In verse 24, he talked about "Vishnu padodake Ganga" and in verse 589, he talked about "Zara padodake devi Ganga parama karana Narayana". So it is obvious that Madhavadeva was not much worried about repetitions in his book. Rather the anxiousness to drive home his message made him repeat many ideas here. Especially the glory of God's name has been emphasized time and again in different verses. In verses 25 and 652, the author describes how the demerits are repelled, when the name of God is chanted. The demerits are described as sentient beings, who are afraid of the name of God. Madhavadeva not only utilised his Namghosha to launch a frontal attack on the adversaries of Eka Sarana Nama Dharma, but also criticised those people who had deviated from the order and formed a separate cult. He said in one verse, "Srimanta Sankaradeva preached devotion to lord Krishna by getting into the heart of the scriptures and by dispelling doubts of people. Why is it that some foolish people however accept somebody else as preceptor (Namghosha 154) We can guess that Madhavadeva was greatly offended with those devotees, who had formed the Brahma- Samhati and projected Damodardeva and Harideva, two ardent followers of Srimanta Sankaradeva as their cult leaders. I therefore think that there is enormous scope for research on Namghosha for historical analysis too. It deals with not only philosophy, but also history. The meaning of the verses in Namghosha is not very simple. For instance, Madhavadeva said in one verse, "I do not know how to invite you nor I know about how to bid adieu to you. I do not know any incantation or the ritual of worship. O Lord, I have therefore become a servant of your feet. Please do unto me as I deserve."(Namghosha /139) The ignorance about incantation or the ritual of worship (Mantra and Puja) in this verse has not conveyed a literal meaning here, because Madhavadeva was a great scholar of the Agam discipline too. In fact he had been a Shakti worshipper before he had embraced Eka Sarana Nama Dharma. So he has conveyed a sense of undermining the Mantra and Puja by the above verse, not conveyed his ignorance about these things. However I have given the literal meaning in this book. A detailed interpretation would need a lot more space and that is not the purpose of the present book.

**Contents and Sample Pages**