Bengaluru: Yakshagana artiste, former MLA Kumble Sundar Rao (90) passed away due to age-related illness. Iconic Yaksharang artist, former MLA Kumble Sundar Rao (90) passed away due to age-related illness. Sundar Rao (Kumble Sundar Rao), who was also a yakshagana and tala-maddale artist, also served as an MLA from the then Suratkal Constituency of Mangalore. Yakshagana artist, former MLA Kumble Sundar Rao is no more.
Kumble Sundar Rao, born on March 20, 1934 in Kumble, Kerala state to Kayarkadi Kunhakanna and Kalyani, served as BJP MLA from Suratkal Constituency from 1994 to 1999. He has worked as an artist in Suratkal, Dharmasthala and Ira Yakshagana Mela. He also served as the President of Karnataka State Yakshagana Academy. Also, a Yakshagana artist has the distinction of being the first MLA to be directly elected by the voters.
Sundar Rao has received many awards including Yakshamangala Award 2018-2019 from the P. Dayananda Pai and P. Satish Pai Center for Yakshagana Studies, Mangalore University. He is survived by two sons and three daughters. His last rites will be performed on Thursday. Public viewing is allowed at his house near Mangalore Pumpwell.
He came to Karnataka from Kumble in Kerala for Yakshagana. He used to make anyone nod with the charm of his words. Kumble’s pro-BJP speeches were popular when senior BJP leader Lalakrishna Advani conducted a Rath Yatra. Noticing this, the BJP gave Kumble a ticket to contest the 1994 assembly elections from Suratkal constituency. In the first election, Kumble won against Vijayakumar Shetty of Congress by a margin of 4 thousand votes. But in the 1999 election, Kumble lost against the same Shetty. Later he did not get a chance to become an MLA.
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Kumble Sundar Rao was prominent among those who fought that the Ravindra Kalakshetra theater in Bangalore should be provided for Yakshagana performances. His life story has been published under the name ‘Sundara Kanda’. Yakshagana was his life. “Yakshagana should not be viewed from the economic point of view but from the point of view of mental balance, everyone should consider it as ours. We all have a responsibility to continue the Yakshagana legacy. The feeling that Yakshagana is not theirs, not mine is not good. He often used to say that we should continue with the feeling that Yakshagana belongs to all of us.
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