Yakshagana art form breaking new ground, reaching wider audiences
Mangaluru (PTI): The recent state-level Yakshagana Sammelana established the fact that the rich folk art is thriving in coastal Karnataka and charting a new course for its future with more participation of women performers apart from reaching out to new audiences.
The two-day Sammelana held in Udupi on February 12 and 13 which had exhibitions, seminars and shows related to the traditional art form was successful in its intent.
The idea was to create a space for the art form in the entire state and spread the message of Yakshagana across the globe, with efforts made by the state department of Kannada and Culture and Sammelana president M Prabhakara Joshi.
Joshi, a Yakshagana scholar, said at the event that the government should pursue attempts to get UNESCO intangible cultural heritage recognition for the art form, and demanded that a task force be constituted to find a space for performances at national and international level cultural platforms.
On reconstructing Yakshagana in its entirety, he said the dance-drama art form should move from 'noise culture' towards 'voice culture'.
A matured theatre does not accept 'loud noise' and bright lighting system used during Yakshagana performances of late, which is not good for performers and the audience, Joshi added.
Tulu language and culture should be given due credit to the growth of Yakshagana. The performing troupes should think seriously on maintaining quality in performance and not push Yakshagana into deformity, he asserted during the event.
The traditional elements of Yakshagana, if lost, will be a 'permanent cultural loss', the scholar pointed out.
Yakshagana continues to be a popular art form in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru and parts of Shivamogga district of the state and Kasaragod in Kerala.
Around 40 Yakshagana Melas are being held this season also.
Yakshagana is said to have originated between the 11th and 16th centuries, remaining a predominantly male practice until recently. Many new influences from theatre, temple arts, folk and rural arts, cinema and the artists' own imaginations, have all been interwoven over a period of several hundred years.
Initially, the medium of narration was in Sanskrit, but Tulu and Kannada, the local languages of coastal Karnataka, are more popular now. The dance drama has evolved to become a year-round show performed by professional troupes, which means the audience now require tickets to watch them.
As it stands today, Yakshagana is progressively becoming more inclusive, not merely with regard to its content, form or audience but also in terms of who the performers are.
"The performances on stage are different in the southern regions of Karnataka from that of the northern regions of the state," veteran Yakshagana scholar and artiste Bellige Narayana Maniyani told PTI.
The southern form of Yakshagana had assimilated certain aspects of the classical art form of Kathakali in Kerala. Though voice is essential for the artiste's performance on the Yakshagana stage, the shows beyond Kundapur in Udupi in the north are different, he said.
The Yakshagana theatre style is mainly found in coastal regions of Karnataka in various forms. Towards the south from Dakshina Kannada to Kasaragod, the form of Yakshagana is called 'Thenku thittu' and towards the north from Kundapura up to Uttara Kannada it is called 'Badaga thittu', he said.
Both these forms are equally played all over the region. Yakshagana is traditionally presented from dusk to dawn. Its stories are drawn from puranas (ancient Hindu texts) like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavata and other epics of Hindu, Jain and other ancient traditions.
Maniyani also echoes Joshi's views on maintaining the traditional form of Yakshagana. "Kathakali was maintained in its traditional grandeur in Kerala. Though Yakshagana is still popular and attracts a good audience in Karnataka and Kerala's Kasaragod district, no meaningful effort was made to protect its traditional form," Maniyani said.
The art form of Yakshagana, which combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up, and stage techniques with a unique style and form, originated in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka and Kasaragod in Kerala.
Parthisubha, one of the pioneers of Yakshagana, hails from Kasaragod district, he said. Like all art forms in India, its themes are related to the worship of God.
A Yakshagana performance begins in the twilight hours with an initial beating of the drums of several fixed compositions. This may last for up to an hour before the actors finally arrive on the stage. The actors wear resplendent costumes, head-dresses and face paints.
A performance usually depicts a story from the Kavya, (epic poems) and the puranas. It consists of a story teller (bhagawatha) who narrates the story by singing (which includes prepared character dialogues) as the actors dance to the music, portraying elements of the story as it is being narrated.
Besides the need for protecting the traditional form, one of the topics that came up for discussion at the Yakshagana Sammelana in Udupi was the entry of young women to Yakshagana stages, which has drawn more audience to the performances in the last few years.
"The young women who enter the field are very enthusiastic and some of them have come up with very good performances," Maniyani, who still follows all the melas in the region, said.
Richa Bhavanam, a freelance photographer who toured the coastal district a few years back, had encountered women who were into Yakshagana.
She quotes in her photo essay a woman Yakshagana artiste Sai Suma as saying, "We don't remain ourselves, we completely drown in the character. The more we perform, the more Yakshagana changes our personalities. Our voice becomes louder, our walks more masculine and people say why you are walking like that."
The first all-women's troupe was put together in 1989 by Poornima Rai, one of the pioneers of 'Mahila Yakshagana'. "At that time, there was not much opportunity for growth in Yakshagana. The situation is a lot better now as parents today are much more supportive," says Poornima, who currently teaches around 200 students at her home in Surathkal on the outskirts of Mangaluru city.
At a session on women's contribution to Yakshagana in the Udupi Sammelana, Shobha Maravanthe, assistant professor at a college in Shivamogga, said: "To tell our history, we need to create a stage".
Maravathe, who comes from a family of Yakshagana artistes, said a different yardstick is necessary to recognise the work of women Yakshagana troupes.
Women bhagawata (singer and director of Yakshagana) have their own constraints and cannot sing in the tone that a male bhagawata sings. Though it is a sense of liberty for women artistes to discharge male roles, the women artistes face constraints in being in the male roles for a long time, she said.
Senior Yakshagana artiste Vidya Kolyur said women artistes should come out of the inferiority complex and work towards enriching the art form.
The women artistes outperform their male artistes while donning female roles like Damayanti and Shakuntala. "In certain scenes, the womanhood in us brings out the right expression which our male counterparts cannot do," she asserted.
Yakshagana performances, which had suffered a setback due to the pandemic in the last two years, have restarted their Melas afresh. The district administrations of the coastal region have also relaxed restrictions for performances during night.
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Congress not just removed clothes at AI Summit but exposed its intellectual bankruptcy: PM Modi
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday came down heavily on the Congress for the shirtless protest by its youth wing members at the AI Impact Summit recently, saying the opposition party can tear as many clothes as it wants, but his government will continue to work for the country's progress.
Addressing the News18 Rising Bharat Summit, Modi also said that the Congress did not just remove its clothes in front of foreign guests but also exposed its intellectual bankruptcy, asserting that the millennials have already taught the country's oldest party a lesson, and now Gen-Z is ready to do the same.
In an apparent jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Modi said the opposition was unhappy seeing the statue of "Babbar Shers" (lions) installed atop the new Parliament building, but their own “Babbar Shers" were running away after facing the "shoes" of the general public.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had said on February 24 that he was proud of the "Babbar Shers" of the Indian Youth Congress, who "fearlessly" raised their voice at the AI Summit.
"Congress ke Babbar Sher logon ki jute kha ke bhaag gaye (The 'lions' of Congress ran away after being hit by shoes by the public)," Modi said.
The prime minister was apparently referring to the protesting Youth Congress workers being heckled by some people at the AI Summit.
On February 20, a group of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers staged a dramatic protest inside Hall No. 5 of the summit venue in Delhi by removing their shirts to reveal T-shirts printed with anti-government slogans, triggering a political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress.
“Congress can tear as many clothes as it wants, but we will continue to work for India's development. Congress not just shed clothes at the AI Summit, it also exposed its incapabilities in front of foreign guests,” Modi said in his nearly 45-minute speech.
He said the AI Summit was a moment of pride for the entire nation, but unfortunately, Congress attempted to tarnish this national celebration.
"When the frustration and despair of failure weigh on the mind, and arrogance makes one's head spin, such a mindset emerges to defame the country," he said.
The prime minister also alleged that the Congress always takes refuge in Mahatma Gandhi to hide its failures, but tries to give credit to one family for anything good.
"People of our country welcomed every good step taken by our government, but the Congress only knows how to oppose everything. The votes of Congress are not stolen; rather, people do not consider Congress worthy of their votes. Millennials first taught a lesson to Congress, now Gen-Z is ready to do the same," he said.
Modi also said that in a democracy, the role of the opposition is not just about blindly opposing every move of the government, but presenting an alternative vision, and that is why the "enlightened public" of the country is "teaching a lesson" to Congress now.
In 1984, the Congress got 39 per cent of the votes and more than 400 seats. But its votes declined consistently in the subsequent elections, Modi said.
"Today, the condition of the Congress is such that it has more than 50 MLAs in just four states. Over the past 40 years, the number of young voters in the country has increased, but the Congress has clearly diminished," Modi said.
On the recent trade deals that India signed with foreign countries, Modi said the country has discovered its inherent strength and strengthened its institutions, which prompted developed nations to come forward and sign deals with India.
He also said that even after Independence, some people ensured that the colonial mindset remained for their own benefits.
"No country would have done trade deals with us had we not discovered our inherent strength and strengthened our institutions. Because of this, developed nations have come forward to sign trade deals (with India)," he said.
Modi also said that even after Independence, India was unable to break free from the mentality of slavery, for which the country is still paying the price.
"The latest example of this can be seen in the ongoing discussions on trade deals. Some people are shocked – ‘what has happened, how did this happen? Why are developed countries so eager to do trade deals with India?’ The answer is – a confident India is emerging from despair and frustration," he said.
Over the long span of history, centuries of slavery had instilled a feeling of inferiority, while the ideology imported from other countries deeply ingrained in society the notion that Indians were uneducated and subservient, the prime minister said.
"If the country was still mired in the despair of the pre-2014 era, counted among the 'Fragile Five', and gripped by policy paralysis, who would strike a trade deal with us?
"Over the past 11 years, a new surge of energy has flowed into the nation's consciousness. India is now striving to reclaim its lost potential," Modi said.
The prime minister also said that due to the recent series of reforms initiated by his government, the world's most powerful nations are now coming forward to sign trade deals with India.
"There was a time when India was only a consumer of new technology. But now we are not just developing them, but also setting standards," he said.
The prime minister also said that India's digital public infrastructure has become a subject of global discussion today, and every move India makes is closely watched and analysed across the world.
"The AI Summit was a clear example of this," he said.
The government's 'Viksit Bharat by 2047' is not a political slogan but an effort to correct the mistakes of the previous Congress governments by making India self-reliant, he said.
“So far, in every industrial revolution, India and the Global South largely remained followers, but in this age of artificial intelligence (AI), India is not only participating but is also shaping it. India now has its own AI startup ecosystem,” Modi said.
He also said the world is astonished that India, where around 30 million families lived in darkness until 2014, has now risen to become one of the top countries in solar power capacity.
India, where many cities had no hope of improving their public transport system, has now become the country with the world's third-largest Metro network, Modi said.
“The Indian Railways was known only for chronic delays and sluggish speeds, yet semi-high-speed connectivity like Vande Bharat and Namo Bharat has now become possible,” he said.
Nation-building never happens through short-term thinking; it is shaped by a long-term vision, patience and timely decisions, the prime minister added.
