Guwahati, May 7: Singers Angaraag (Papon) Mahanta and Joi Barua will be among those who will pay tribute to Xankardeb at Chowdiah Memorial Hall in Bangalore on June 1.

The event, being organised by Trend MMS, a cultural organisation, will be the second edition of Srimanta Sankaradeva Movement, aimed at popularising the Vaishnavite saint across the country and abroad.

The first edition was held in association with the government of Assam and the DoNER ministry in New Delhi in September last year.

The Telegraph had earlier reported that sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan would pay a special tribute to the saint during the event in Bangalore.

Talking to reporters here today, the organisers said an audiovisual documentary on the saint and a dance drama, Xordhora Jhumura, will also be presented.

Writer and social worker U.R. Ananthamurthy will be the chief guest at the event, in which Union petroleum minister Veerappa Moily, chief minister Tarun Gogoi and DoNER minister Paban Singh Ghatowar are also expected to be present.

The event’s brand ambassador, Victor Banerjee, said, “He (Xankardeb) is an eminent world citizen. We hope to popularise him first in India and gradually in the world. Xankardeb was not only a wonderful thinker and visionary but also a dancer, musician and poet. We are going to tell the people that such a personality was born in the subcontinent.”

Shyamkanu Mahanta, the chief organiser of the event, said the Assamese community in Bangalore had formed the city chapter of the movement to organise the event.

Olee Borah, president of the Bangalore chapter, said the event would be attended by leading cultural personalities of the city, IT entrepreneurs and senior media personalities.

Yugantar Saikia, coordinator of the event, said they had approached Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, a college of fine arts, to include a chapter on Xankardeb in their curriculum and hold workshops on him.

During the New Delhi edition, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal had declared that a chapter on Xankardeb would be introduced in the NCERT syllabus.

Saikia said they had also approached Rangayana, a theatre institute, to stage the plays of the saint and organise discussions on these.

Mahanta said the next edition of the movement would be held in Mumbai and the background work was already under way.