Sankaradeva
preached the ideology of Eka Sarana and pure devotion to Krsna in a variety of literary
genres—renderings, songs, dramatic compositions, etc. As a writer, he was as
versatile as he was prolific. His primary oeuvre undoubtedly is the rendering
of the Bhagavata Purana into Assamese
verse which also represents, in the history of Assamese literature, the beginning
of a new literary movement.
The literary output of
Sankaradeva is considerable with modern printed editions of his works running
into thousands of pages.The works of Sankaradeva and Madhavadeva were preserved over centuries by institutions and personalities and the text of the manuscripts was copied intergenerationally from scribe to scribe till the advent of the modern period when attempts were made by some personalities to bring out printed editions of these works. In the 20th century, there have been attempts to bring out critical editions after comparing manuscripts and recensions preserved at several traditional institutions and research institutions.
