Majuli, July 19 -- In the heart of Majuli, the world's largest inhabited river island, Mridul Barua is leading a quiet yet powerful cultural revolution--by keeping alive the ancient art of manuscript painting, a 600-year-old tradition that traces its roots to the great saint and reformer, Srimanta Sankardeva.

Sankardeva introduced manuscript writing as a means to spread the Neo-Vaishnavite movement, using vivid illustrations and script to convey religious teachings. Around the same time, the Ahom kings also adopted this technique to document royal chronicles.

These manuscripts, painted on the bark of the Agarwood tree (locally known as Sanshi), used natural colors like hengul (vermillion) and haital (yellow arsenic), avoiding any synthe...