On Saturday, the rich Xatriya dance form of Assam completed a quarter of a century of getting recognised as a major classical dance form of India. It was on November 16, 2000, that the Sangit Natak Akademi formally declared this amazing dance form as a major Indian classical dance form. Since then, a lot of water has flowed down the Brahmaputra, and the popularity of Xatriya dance has increased manifold, both within the confines of Assam and outside. But it is very interesting to note that while the dance form has been in existence since Srimanta Sankaradeva had given shape to it in the 15th and 16th centuries, it had largely remained confined within the precincts of the Xatra institutions of Majuli. In the post-independence era, the first move was made in 1958 when Sangeet Natak Akademi had organized a workshop in the national capital on Indian classical dances. It was the renowned Sankaradeva scholar Prof. Maheswar Neog who had taken a troupe of Xatriya dancers and singers from the Kamalabari Xatra of Majuli to that workshop and made a detailed demonstration of the state’s most amazing cultural treasure. But in spite of the best efforts put in by Prof. Neog throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the much-needed official stamp continued to elude Xatriya. In between, demands for granting the classical status to the dance form have been occasionally raised, but there was little effect. Records say that when Bhupen Hazarika became Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1998, he discovered that though so-called demands were occasionally made in Assam, no formal proposal from any quarter, be it the state government, or the Xatra institutions, or any other cultural or academic body, was actually sent to the Akademi. It was finally at the initiative of Bhupen Hazarika that Xatriya dance was granted the much-awaited official stamp that it is indeed a rich Indian classical dance form. It was at the behest of Bhupen Hazarika that the Government of Assam placed a formal detailed proposal, and after several rounds of discussions and debates, Xatriya dance got the official seal on November 16, 2000.