In memoriam : Sanakhya Ebotombi Haorokcham
- Part 1 -

Dr Lokendra Arambam *

Sanakhya Ebotombi Haorokcham - top Icon of Manipuri arts, culture and literature :: Pix Courtesy - Imphal Times

The Aryan Theatre Imphal deeply mourns the loss of Sanakhya Ebotombi Haorokcham, one of the most creative new generation artists of the Manipuri Theatre from amidst his associates as well as his family members and friends. Born in a simple but culturally active Haorokcham family in Thokchom Leikai, he had imbibed in him a serious thirst for creativity, and independence of thought and action in an environment of the culture collective of the traditional citizenry slowly transforming into the post war urbanity of the Imphal town.

His grandfather late Haorokcham Tompok Singh who was a government servant during the British Imperial days was the first Moirang Parba littérateur who put into writing the Chanamba Pena Khongba tales of the Khamba Thoibi legends and his contribution to the environmental production of the Loikum-Loika play in the early 20th century created a serious controversy in the social scene in the Imperial days.

His late father Haorokcham Angouba was a simple traditional scholar interested in depth studies of the Puya and the traditional knowledge systems of the pre-colonial state. Thus the family was active but silent members of the cultural community of the Khwai Pana of Manipur. The family thus had given decent contributions to the growth of cultural activism and creative pursuits in the personality formation of Sanakhya Ebotombi.

As a young student of DM College (Science stream before the bifurcation) Ebotombi became a darling of the student community in their boisterous, delightful world of student theatres in the sixties, celebrating the Freshers Social and Saraswati Puja revelries.

Ebotombi in his non-chalant, enigmatic exterior, seemingly hiding an inborn humanism, but without any form of external excitement for recognition and applause, rendered the humorous characters of the inimitable dramatist GC Tongbra, that the new generation of young, aspiring youths and teachers of the college were simply mesmerized through his superb acting talents. He was indeed a new folk hero of the fresh, innocent but eager generation of Manipur, fond of theatrical pursuits and creative expression in whatever they undertake.

When he entered the community of thespians and scholar practitioners of the Aryan Theatre, with his close friend and colleague RK Naba of his Leikai in the late sixties, they immediately became part of the regular cast of the Aryan theatre productions. RK Naba was fondly elevated through his creative talents into the heroic mould of the plays, because of his very handsome features and a forceful presence on stage, but junior to the pedigree of the likes of Oinam Biramangol and Gurumayum Rabindra Sharma, etc, the veteran heroes of the Aryan Theatre.

Ebotombi was inducted into the category of the funny clowns, or the side-kicks of the villains, for which Aryan specialized with a tradition set by the late Kalachand Shashtri whose seriousness of their stage activity, contrary to the expectations of the higher social classes, signalled the common warmth of humanity suppressed by the weight and power of the nobility. The Aryan Theatre had produced excellent prototypes of these sub-altern humanity featured in the antics of veterans like Tongbram Khoimu, Thokchom Lala, Ningthoujam Ekendra, Sijagurumayum Lala Sharma, Hanjabam Angouba etc and Sanakhya was a young contributor to this genre of performances in the Aryan repertoire.

Ebotombi, side by side with his acting credentials in the supporting actor's roles in the heavy environment of the thespians was also helping in a very creative aspect of our theatre life, namely the discipline of stage craft and theatrical devices, innovations and experimentation in the communicative art, other than the verbal dispositions of the theatre.

Ebotombi's thirst for sheer display was possibly heightened by his early apprenticeship in the traditional magician's tricks which he often performed on the Aryan stage. Though the magician's trade was not yet taken into high esteem by the conservative Manipur society in the seventies, Ebotombi's magic was sheer delight, by his shock gestures, surprise tactics in ordinary humdrum existence, and out-of the box contraptions that enraptured the audience.

To cite one of the most historic novelties in the Aryan Theatre's historical plays was the production of Ching-oo Khongnangthaba in the late sixties, where intense rivalry between Ching-oo Khongnangthaba and Shantidas Goswami were staged amidst popular excitement and reception. One of the scenes was the display of the conflict of legitimacy and power of the magical practices of tantricism of Shantidas and that of the Meitei Maichou Moirang Lalhanba as disciple of the Ching-oo. In order to show the superiority of the Indie practices, Shantidas (played by Aribam Shyam Sharma) was asked to recite the magic mantra in order to produce fire before the royal audience. He tried hard but failed.

Now it was the turn of the Meitei Maichou Moirang Lalhanba (played by Irengbam Kanhai) to show his acumen. Deeply concentrated in his ardous belief in the creator Lainingthou Sanamahee, Lalhanba uttered the sonorous mantra in the archaic Meitei dialect and lo! A fire ball was noticed flying in from the rear balcony, passing above the heads of the sitting darkened audiences, and flew to the tray in front of the kneeling Lalhanba on the stage. It struck the tray from where a sudden burst of flames erupted! The entire audience was spellbound in awe and wonder, amidst thunderous applause and claps!

That was the magic of Sanakhya Ebotombi. He used sulphur dust on the tray, and a fire cracker (Meikappi) that was suspended on a wire, strung from the edge of the balcony at the rear to the tray of sulphur dust on the stage. When the chant of Lalhanba was taking place, someone from the balcony lighted the Meikappi and it flew down into the sulphur tray. It was a beautiful sight, the burst of flames on the stage reflected an outstanding signal of the superiority of local belief and magic over those of the Indians!

To be continued....

(This article is a tribute to Sanakhya Ebotombi Haorokcham from Aryan Theatre. The writer is the president of Aryan Theatre)