Yakshagana - a dance and drama form

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A Yakshagana artist wearing pagaDe or kedage mandhale (Ketaki Mundhale), one type of headwear.

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INTRODUCTION

Yakshagana is a theater form that combines, dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up and stage techniques with a unique style and form.

This theater style is mainly played in the coastal districts and Malenadu regions of Karnataka, India and traditionally played for whole night, till sunrise next morning.

Yakshagana is the recent (200 years) scholastic name for what are known as Bayalaṭa, Dasavatara. It is believed to have evolved from pre-classical music and theatre during the Bhakti movement.

Yakshagana is popular in the districts of Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Shimoga and Kasaragod district .

Yakshagana has become popular in Bangalore over the recent years, particularly in the rainy season, when there are few performances in the coastal districts.

It has drawn comparisons to the Western tradition of opera.

Actors wear costumes and enact various roles.

Traditionally, Yakshagana would go on all night. It is sometimes simply called as ಆಟ "play" in both Kannada and Tulu.

Yaksha-gana literally means the song (gana) of a yaksha, which was a term for exotic tribes of ancient India.

Yakshagana consists of a himmela "background music group" and a mummela "dance and dialog group", which together perform Yakshagana poetry.

Himmela consist of a bhagawata "singer" who is also the director (also called the first actor, modalane vesha), maddale, harmonium for drone (pungi was used earlier) and chande (loud drums).

The music is based on Carnatic ragas characterised by melodic patterns called Mattu and Yakshagana Tala.

Yakshagana Talas are believed to be based on patterns which later evolved into Carnatic talas.

A Yakshagana performance begins at the twilight hours with the beating of several fixed compositions on drums called abbara or peetike for up to an hour before the actors get on the stage.

The actors wear resplendent costumes, head-dresses, and face paints.

A performance usually depicts a story from Indian epic poems and the Puranas.

It consists of a narrator (Bhagvatha) who either narrates the story by singing or sings prepared character dialogues, backed by musicians playing on traditional musical instruments as the actors dance to the music, with actions that portray the story as it is being narrated.

All the components of Yakshagana, music, dance and dialog are improvised. Depending on the ability and scholarship of the actors, variation in dance and amount of dialog may change.

It is not uncommon for actors to get into philosophical debates or arguments without going out of the framework of the character being enacted.

The acting can be categorised as method acting.

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HISTORY OF YAKSHAGANA - ORIGINS

Stree Vesha or Female Role is also performed by male actors in Yakshagana

Rakshasa or the demon as depicted in Yakshagana is called Bannada Vesha

Yakshagana is a recent scholastic name adopted for what were and are known as Kelike, Aata, Bayalaata, Dashavatara in Karnataka. Yakshagana actually refers to a style of writing and to the written material or the Yakshagana poems. There are questions on whether this writing system originated in Telugu literature and used for poems enacted in Bayalaata. Yakshagana performance is believed to have evolved from the now-extinct Ghandharva Grama musical system.Earliest mention is in Sangeetha Ratnakara of Sarngadeva (AD 1210) as Jakka later called Yekkalagaana.Yakshagana in its present form is believed to be influenced by the Vaishnava Bhakthi movement. Yakshagana is a separate system of music independent of Karnataka Sangeetha and the Hindustani music of India, believed to survive as an indigenous phenomenon only in parts of Karnataka and Kerala.Although origins of Yakshagana is traced to Historic period and even Pre- historic periods, linking Ganddharagrama and Natya shastra and ekkalagana, first written evidence about present day Yakshagana is available on an inscription dated 1556 CE found at Lakshminarayana Temple, Kurugodu, Somasamudra, Bellary district, a copy of which is available at University of Madras.This inscription mentions of a land donated to the performers of the art, so as to enable people enjoy tala maddale programmes at temple. Another important evidence is available in the form of a manuscript of Virata Parva on palm-leaf found at Ajapura (present day Brahmavara) and the poet's name was Vishnu.One more historic Palm-leaf manuscript dated 1621 CE describes Sabhalakshana.

There is some resemblance among the members of the 'Traditional Theater Family' like Ankhia Nata (Assam), Jathra (Bengal), Chau (Bihar, Bengal), Prahlada Nata (Orissa), Veedhinatakam & Chindu (Andhra), Terukoothu Bhagawathamela (Tamil Nadu), Kathakkali (Kerala). Researchers have argued that Yakshagana is markedly different from this group.

Experts have placed the origin of Yakshagana from the 11th century to the 16th century.Earliest limit is fixed by a finding by Vidwan Bannanje Govindacharya who says a legend goes to show that Sage Narahari Thirtha (c, 1300) started a Dasavathara Ata performance and a troupe in Udupi and later this spread to other places and grew into what we call Yakshagana today.

Yakshagana must have been an established form by the time of famous Yakshagana poet Parthi Subba (1600) to whom Ramayana in Yakshagana is attributed.Shivarama Karantha in his research work argues that it is Subba son of Venkata who is its author, rejecting claims by Muliya Thimmappa and Govinda Pai citing procedural lapses in their findings.Because he is said to be a Bhagawatha (singer) himself and is believed to have founded a troupe, and probably he is the formulator of the Tenkuthittu (Southern style) of the art.Troupe centers like Koodlu and Kumbala in Kasaragod District, and Amritheshwari, Kota near Kundapur claim having a troupe three to four centuries ago. So we can safely assume that this art form had taken shape by about 1500. However, what we see today as Yakshagana, must have been the result of a slow evolution, drawing its elements from ritual theater, temple arts, secular arts like Bahurupi, royal courts of the time and artists imaginations – all interwoven over period.

It is related with other forms prevailing in other parts of Karnataka and neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharastra.Yakshagana, like many other forms, defies neat classification into categories like folk, classical, rural. It can be included into each of these, or all of them together, depending upon our line of approach. Being a theater form, unlike a dance form, it is more plural and dynamic. And hence it exhibits many types and varieties inside itself. However, Yakshagana can be rightly called a traditional form. Primarily it is a name given to the form prevailing in Coastal and Malnad areas of Karnataka, though forms like Doddata are also called by the same name often. The traditional theater form Mudalpaya of Southern Karnataka, the Doddata of Northern Karnataka, the Kelike in the borders of Andhra Pradesh, the Ghattadakore of Kollegal in Chamarajnagar district – are such forms. Among them, the Ghattadakore is a direct branch of Coastal Yakshagana, while Mudalapaya is the most closely connected form.