He compiled a work in Vaishnavism in Sanskrit styled Bhakti Ratnakara and also composed many Sanskrit verses that were incorporated in his plays. His imaginative power and extraordinary intellect were well displayed even in his school days. , Just after learning his alphabet, Sankara composed an exquisite poem made up of consonantal wordings without the addition of any vowel sounds except the first. During this period he also composed a little Kavya Harischandra Upakhyana.

Sankara completed his study at the age of twenty-two (1470) and came out a finished scholar. Soon after his return from school, official responsibilities of managing the family estates fell upon his shoulders. Now, he also married Suryavati, a Kayastha girl. Suryavati died four years after her marriage leaving behind a girl named Haripriya. 

During this time Sankara lost his father. These two bereavements filled his youthful mind with overwhelming sorrow and he even contemplated of renouncing the world.After giving his daughter inmarriage to a Kayastha young man Hari and handing over the administrative responsibilities to Jayanta-Dalai and Madhava-Dalai, Sankara set out on a long and extensive pilgrimage (1481 A.D.).

About seventeen companions in accompanied him including his former Guru Mahendra Kandali. The detailed account of this pilgrimage has been recorded in the biographies of Sankara- deva, compiled by his disciples. He visited most of the sacred places and temples of northern and southern India.

Among the important places and temples that he saw were Gaya, Puri, Brindavana, Mathura, Dwaraka, Kasi, Prayaga, Sitakunda, Varahakunda, Ayodhya and Badarikasrama. At these places, he came into contact with Vaishnavite teachers of various schools, and entered with them into many learned and theological discussions.

The results of these discussions and the influences they exercised over his mind were reflected in the Vaishnavite movement which he subsequently started in Assam. After twelve years of such wandering through many sacred seminaries of Vaishnavite learning, Sankaradeva returned home a much - traveled man, acquiring first hand knowledge of Vaishnavite theology, texts, mode of worship, and management of institutions.

Soon after his return, Sankara married again and removed his residence from Alipukhuri to a nearby village, Bardowa. Now his mission of life took a definite shape; he started with fresh impetus and vigorous enthusiasm his religious movement for mass conversion. At Bardowa, he set up a Satra (monastery), erected a Namghar and held religious discourses. Around him, he collected a group of devout disciples, and held daily devotional recitations known as Namakirtana.

During this time, he received a complete text of the Bhagavata-Purana from Puri through Jagadish Mishra of Tirhhut. A miraculous story is told about his coming across with the Bhagavata-Purana. The Brahmana Pundit Jagadish Misra went to Puri to read out the Bhagavata in the temple of Jagannatha. In a dream, the Brahmana received a mandate from Jagannatha to the effect that he should proceed to Kamarupa and read out the Bhagavata to Sankaradeva.

agadish Misra searched out Sankaradeva at Bardowa and read out the book before him. The Brahmana survived only a year after the mission of reading out all the twelve books of the Bhagavata to Sankara was fulfilled. Sankaradeva then began to study deeply the Bhagavata with its commentary, and seriously took up
propounding and propagating the cult of Bhakti. He immediately set to translate the Purana into simple Assamese verse and started to compose many songs, narrative poems, and plays on the theme of the Purana.

At the age of sixty-seven (1516 A.D.) Sankaradeva had to leave his ancestral residence at Bardowa owing to the occasional disturbances created by the neighboring Kachari king and his subjects. He therefrom removed to Gangmau and then to Dhuwahata, a place in the Majuli islands on the Brahmaputra. For about fourteen years, he resided at Dhuwahata, and his stay here was marked by two important incidents.

The first was the conversion of the famous Sakta scholar Madhavadeva, who later on became the greatest apostle and the most formidable exponent of the tenets of Sankara. The second incident relates to Sankaradeva's encounter with the Ahom King Suhummung (1497-1539 A.D.). The Brahmana accused Sankara before the Ahom king of preaching a religion unorthodox and not envisaged by the Vedas. The Ahom king summoned Sankara to argue with the Brahmana of his court. Sankara defeated them and got off from the trial with credit.

In the meantime, another unhappy event took place, which forced him to leave Ahom territory forever. The Ahom king was engaged in the operations of elephant catching, and 'directed Sankara deva and his relatives in this work. The king made them erect a fence of wooden palisades and announced the penalty that those, in whose direction the elephant sholud break through, would be beheaded.Unfortunately the elephants broke loose through the phalanx of Sankaradeva and his men. 

The Ahom monarch, therefore, directed to capture these men. Sankaradeva and a few others, however, escaped. But Madhavadeva and Hari, Sankaradeva's son-in-law, were both made captives. Madhavadeva, was later on let off as he was a Sanyasi, but Hari was beheaded. For this unfortunate incident Sankaradeva left the Ahom kingdom for Kamarupa, then under the Hindu king of Cooch Behar. He journeyed to Barpeta (1546 A.D.), a place in the present district of Kamarupa, and at Patbausi, near Barpeta, Sankaradeva established a Satra with Namghar and dwelling huts for his followers.

For the rest of his life, he remained at the place in comparative peace. Here he used to hold regular religious discourses, recitations of the sacred texts, congrega- tional prayers and dramatic performances. lt should also be noted that, the major portion of his religious writings, namely the songs,dramas and Kavyas were composed here. Sankaradeva here converted three Brahmana disciples, Damodaradeva, Harideva and Ananta Kandali. Damodaradeva (1488-1598) and Harideva (1493-1568), both with equal zeal, spread the teachings of Sankara and converted the Brahmana to this new faith. On Sankaradeva's death they set up special sects after their own names.

After a few years of stay at Barpeta, Sankaradeva set out again on a pilgrimage near about 1550 A.D. One hundred and twenty devotees accompanied him. During this journey, he was said to have caught a glimpse of Chaitanya at Puri. Unfortunately his biographies testify that he had no opportunity to talk with the great saint of Bengal. The other notable Vaishnava personality he came into contact with in this journey was the granddaughter of Kabir.

On return, from second pilgrimage, Sankaradeva resumed his customary works of prayer, meditation and nam-kirtan, and gave religious instructions and initiation to a large number of people. But the Brahmana pundits of king Naranarayana's court did not like the growing popularity of Sankaradeva's activities, which they considered mleccha acaras or non-Vedic. King Naranarayana (1540-1584) summoned Sankaradeva to his court and the saint by his scholarship and erudition defeated the Brahmana pundits in a contest. Sankaradeva then expounded before the king the main principles of the Bhakti-dharma with relevant citations from the Bhagavata Purana and other Vaishnava texts.

The king was convinced about the superiority of Sankaradeva's creed and was deeply moved by his majestic personality. He honoured the saint with valuable presents and assured royal patronage towards propagation of the Bhakti movement in his kingdom. The king even expressed his desire to become his disciple but Sankaradeva declined to give him initiation, as he thought that it would not be possible for kings to observe the religious and ethical code of his religion. Sankaradeva came back to Barpeta, but both the king and his brother Cilarai invited him on several occasions to Cooch Behar for holding religious discussions.

Cilarai built for him a Satra, near the capital which was known as Bheladanga Satra. Here, the great saint who gave to Assam a new way of thinking about God and man passed away in 1569 A.D. Before his death, Sankaradeva nominated his devout disciple Madhavadeva to the apostolic seat, disregarding the claims of his son, who was also a devout Vaishnava. From Madhavadeva's time, theEkasaranadharma came to be known as Mahapurushiya as Madhava was looked upon by the disciples as the Mahapurusha, the great spiritual leader who led the way in devotion to the faith of Sankara.

Source - B K Barua & H.V. Sreenivasa Murthy