Practice of Hinduism in the ancient society of Assam

Abstract

The prime force which influences our behavior and shapes our identity is religion. It plays a vital role in the formation of a cultured society as religious beliefs facilitate social bonding.   Every religious system has its own code of conducts and ideologies which are inherited through tradition from generation to generation and shapes the individual and collective mind. Assam which is the frontier province of India is a land of religion and culture, where    religion plays a major role in the formation of a cohesive society from ancient period to contemporary period. Like other parts of India Assam also practicing Hinduism since pre-historic period. Most of the inhabitants of early Assam worship the Hindu Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara and believe that each God is in charge of one aspect of the creation like Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the preserver and Maheshwara as the destroyer. There are in addition to Trinity many sectarian gods major or minor emerged within Hindu religious system and accordingly worshipped by their followers. The practice of Hindu religious system shows that there are three major sects of Hinduism – Śaivism, Śaktism and Vaishnavism. In this paper an attempt has been made to explore the cohesive practice of Hindu sectarian religion prevalent in the ancient society of Assam with special reference to the inscriptions issued by the rulers of that period.