This was a first of its kind in Guwahati. For a long time now, Assam and its culturally-conscious people have been witnessing the Raas festival either in Majuli or in lower Assam places like Nalbari, Barpeta, Howly, etc.

However, Raas as such has been alluding the citizens of Guwahati. But this year, it was made possible for the people of this bustling city to enjoy and watch the various nuances of this great Satriya heritage, thanks to Basanta-Bobby of BB Entertainment Pvt Ltd that organised the Raas festival at the Assam Engineering Institute playground, Chandmari. Concluded last week, the three-day extravaganza was a highly successful venture.

Titled Sri Krishna Purnanga Raasleela, the presentation of the programmes has turned out to be of immense attraction for the people, especially the members of the new generation. This is more praiseworthy because the new generation has to get a glimpse of our cultural heritage, and Raas has been one of the finest parts of the socio-religious factors unifying our culture and people.

Thousands of people everyday were mesmerised as elephant, rhino, tiger, ‘Bokasur’, ‘Putana Rakshasi’, ‘Aghasur’, ‘Krishna’, ‘Kangsa’, etc —all characters of the fascinating Krishna Leela — came alive at the Chandmari field. The organisers had worked hard to prepare all the masks and the sets, following the age-old tradition of mask use in Satriya plays to depict situations.

More than that, the participation of Assamese film and television actors like Pranjal Saikia, Purnima Saikia, Nishita Goswami, Chabin Rajkhowa, Moitri Goswami, Manmath Baruah, Rajib Kro, Bijit Devchoudhury, Bhagawat Pritom, Kamal Singh, Garima Majumdar, Dr Jayanta Das, among others, has enriched the overall presentation. The plays were directed by Jagat Bhuyan.

Held for the first time, the Krishna Raaslila has been able to create a place for the age-old festival in Guwahati. Basanta-Bobby duo deserves kudos for their tireless effort to bring the beautiful and finer sides of this great culture as established decades back by Sankardev. At a time when Assam and its denizens are going through some traumatic time in the face of terror and other menaces, this indeed was a truly laudable effort. The people of Guwahati will eagerly wait the Sri Krishna Purnanga Raasleela next year too.

Partha Pratim Hazarika