Moamoria

The sattra was established by Aniruddhadev, whose mother was a cousin to Sankardev,^[7] sometime after 1601. Aniruddhadev was the disciple of Gopaldev (Gopal Ata of Bhawanipur) who had initiated the Kala sanghati sect of the Ekasarana dharma. He established the sattra near the Moamari lake in Majuli.^[8] He quickly gathered a large following, and the followers developed such rigid principles that they would not bow to anyone or anything except their guru, the sattradhikar (abbot) of the sattra (monastery). Aniruddhadev was followed by his son, Krishnanandadev, as the abbot during whose time the Ahom king Prataap Singha subjugated the Baro-Bhuyans in the north bank of Brahmaputra and moved them to the south bank. Krishnanandadev, being a Bhuyan, too moved and established his seat at Khutiapota, near present-day Jorhat. Here he was able to convert even more, including many Ahom nobles.

The Moamoarias were also called mataks. One theory suggests that this name was given by the Ahom king, Prataap Singha, on account of their strict adherence to the monotheism of Ekasarana dharma (in Assamese: mat: opinion, ek: single). In an incident narrated in some Buranjis, Prataap Singha tested the fanaticism of his own high nobles and officers, who were disciples of the Moamara Sattra, by making them ride their horses against naked swords held at the level of their necks. A noble, the Guimela Sola Borgohain and an officer, the Neog-Phukan, lost their lives since they refused to bow down and ride under the sword, at which point the test was stopped.^[9] Another possible explanation is that the Maran people acquired that name because of their valour (in Ahom language: ma: courage, tak tested) which then transferred to the Moamorias in general; the cognate Tai-language speaking Singpho and Khamti people described the people of the Barsenapati too as matak (strong) against the weaker mulungs (the weak royalists).^[10]