Yakshagana guru B Gopalakrishna Kurup
Credit: Special arrangement
Mangaluru: Well-known Yakshagana guru B Gopalakrishna Kurup passed away on Tuesday night near Neeleshwara in Kasaragod.
Originally from Kerala, he had settled in Shishila, Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district. He was 90. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son.
Kurup, who had acquired knowledge of Chende-Maddale nuances, was the first to publish it in an official textbook format. He had a deep understanding of Bhagavatike.
In 1952, he got the opportunity to sing in the ‘Poorvaranga’ of the Kudlu Mela and impressed Maddale artiste Kudrekudlu Rama Bhat, eventually entering the field of Yakshagana professionally.
Under the tutelage of senior artistes like Balipa Narayana Bhagavata, Agari Srinivasa Bhagavata, Kudrekudlu Rama Bhat, Nambadi Subbaiah Shetty, and Nedle Narasimha Bhat, he honed his skills and later became a guru himself, training many disciples with the same dedication. He learned the intricacies of Mridanga from T R Krishnan and participated as a resource person in numerous Yakshagana workshops.
As an effort to create a treatise for the Himmela of Yakshagana, Kurup wrote and published the work Tenkutittu-Prathamika Yakshagana Patagalu.
He later authored important works like Tenkutittu Yakshagana Maddalevaadana Krama and Tenkutittu Yakshagana Chendevaadana Krama.
His separate work titled Ttittitte, written as part of his study on Yakshagana rhythm, was a testament to his scholarship. Dr Ra Satyanarayana of Mysore praised Kurup's works as scholarly contributions to the field of Yakshagana. Kurup also published his autobiography titled Chende-Maddalegala Naduve.
Having toured with Dharmasthala, Karnataka, Ballambettu, Ira, and Karnataka-Kalavihara Yakshgana mela, Kurup gained fame as a Yakshagana guru by conducting Himmela classes in surrounding areas.
He discussed topics like rhythm, tempo, and prosody whenever he found interested and curious people on Yakshagana. He served as a Himmela guru at the Dharmasthala Yakshagana Centre for three years.
He had received the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award and the 'Gurupuja' award from the Kerala government, Yakshagana Kalaranga award.
Yakshagana Kalaranga president M Gangadhar Rao and Secretary Murali Kadekar have condoled his death.