Renowned theatre artiste Sukracharya Rabha, who gained nationwide recognition for his open air theatre festival, passed away on Friday night. He was 41.
According to family sources the actor cum director died at around 10.30 pm at his residence at Rampur village in Agia area of Western Assam’s Goalpara district due to cardiac arrest.
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Rabha was found unconscious by the members of his family in the bathroom and immediately rushed to a private hospital in Goalpara, where the doctor declared him ‘brought dead’.
Born on April 10, 1977 at Rampur village in Agia, Rabha worked hard to promote the Rabha culture and the language using theatre as a medium and connecting it to its root, along with using the medium to promote environmental awareness.
Rabha, who founded the Badungduppa Kala Kendra in 1998, used forests and bamboo groves as its stage. Rabha and the group of 27 artistes launched a project titled Under the Saal Tree and experimented with theatre presentation.
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He learnt the art of theatre initially in workshops on theatre direction and design at Guwahati. Rabha was further trained under Manipur‘s famous theatre personality H Kanhailal and H Sabitri at Kalakshetra in Imphal for two years. Later he assisted Kanhailal in the workshop productions and the project, Nature-Lore in 2005.
The untimely demise of Rabha has descended a pall of gloom over the State. Many of Rabh’s fans and well-wishers took to Facebook to condole his unexpected demise.
Sonowal mourns death of Sukracharjya Rabha
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also mourned the untimely death of eminent theatre personality Sukracharjya Rabha who died at the age of just 41 years.
In a statement on Saturday, Chief Minister Sonowal said, “I express my heartfelt condolences on the untimely demise of Sukracharjya Rabha who contributed immensely to the promotion of theatre in the state particularly in rural Assam. With his death, the state has lost a promising theatre exponent who worked untiringly to popularise theatre in the villages”. Sympathising with the bereaved family, Sonowal prayed to the Almighty for the eternal peace to the departed soul.
It may be noted that Sukracharjya Rabha was awarded with the Ustad Bismillah Khan YuvaPuraskar of Sangeet Natak Akademy for the year 2009. His last rites will be performed with full State Honour.
Chief Minister’s Media Advisor Hrishikesh Goswami also condoled the untimely demise of noted theatre personality Sukracharjya Rabha.