An Introduction to Yakshagana

You are going to witness this evening a performance of Yakshagana, a popular form of theatre comparable to all the national forms of dramatic art. The vernacular name for Yakshagana is ‘Bayalata’ or field play or simply ‘Ata’(play). Bayalata or Yakshagana originated as a rustic art which chose episodes from the three major Indian epics: the Ramayana, the Mahabharatha and the Bhagawatha. Considered as a part of devotional service to God, it was meant to present the glory of God whose chief mission is to punish the evil forces in the world and reward merit which mainly manifests in unquestioning devotion and surrender to God. Hence the episodes chosen for the Rangasthala (the technical word for Yakshagana stage) were either Kalagas or battles where the hero would ultimately defeat the enemies with the grace of God or Parinayas or a wedding where again the grace of God would smoothen the path across various hurdles.

Though rustic in nature the Yakshagana theatre form is full-fledged with a variety of elements which have evolved into maturity and perfection in the course of centuries, particularly in the last century with the entry of educated and enlightened people as artistes on the stage. The theatre encompasses music in the recital of songs of the Prasanga’(the poetic text narrating the story) by the Bhagawath to the accompaniment of drums Maddale and Chande, the background artistes present traditionally at the back of the stage there today they are seated on the right side of the stage. The characters mostly, royal and often supernatural, appear in gorgeous costumes designed by the sophisticated artistes of yore. The artistes enact the story with appropriate dance and miming in tune with the song and their dance is punctuated with dialogue spoken extempore in explication of the songs rendered by the Bhagawath.

The Yakshagana art passed on from generation to generation on the stage itself without formal training as is common in any folk art form. This led to a gradual dilution of the traditional features in singing and dance and the scholar-artistes who appeared in the more recent period of the history of this art turned it into a sort of intellectual debate in delineating and interpreting the action of epic characters in tune with the modern critical temper. While this appealed to a certain section of the audience it led to an imbalance in the action on the stage, costumes and dance suffering the greatest damage. It was at this stage that enlightened art critics like Dr K Shivarama Karanth tried to arrest the trend by highlighting the artistic greatness of Yakshagana in lectures, seminars and books. This led ultimately to the starting of this Yakshagana Kendra, for offering training in traditional Yakshagana dance, music and costuming. At the same time to present Yakshagana before alien audiences a variety of Yakshagana ballet was evolved by Dr Karanth where the dialogue was removed and the songs became an uninterrupted recital almost acting like a commentary on the action on the stage. It is this Yakshagana ballet that is going to be presented today. Here all the elements of Yakshagana are accentuated except the dialogue, with particular attention paid to choreography where the visual impact is heightened to the best extent possible.

Now you may enjoy a sample of this artistic recreation of the Yakshagana tradition.