'Yakshagana best model of cultural decentralisation'

 
Delivering a talk on the present and future of Yakshagana during a session on the “Tradition and glory of Yakshagana” on the second day of Vishwa Tulu Sammelana here on Friday, he said no other art in the world has the potentiality of Yakshagana in decentralising the cultural diversity.

He suggested that innovations should be brought into Yakshagana as per its ‘carrying capacity’. “People should not have the arrogance of pushing everything to Yakshagana in the name of novelty,” he stressed.

There is no further argument on whether Tulu Yakshagana should be there or not; Yakshagana has become a part and parcel of the language and culture here, Joshi noted. “Yakshagana invests around Rs 60 crore capital annually, but the government’s grant for the development of Yakshagana is too meager,” he regretted.

In his address, Karnataka Yakshagana Academy Chairman Kumble Sundar Rao said Yakshagana should be considered a representative art of the State. “There is no other art in the world that blends music, dance, literature, speech and costumes in such a balanced manner, which Yakshagana does. But it should not be limited to the coastal region, it should become the State art,” he observed.

Speaking on the “Taulava expression of Yaksahagana,” senior artiste Siddakatte Vishwanath Shetty said Yakshagana is educating the mass with the responsibility of a university. “Like teaching Kannada Yakshagana in some of the schools of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, Tulu Yakshagana should also be taught,” he appealed.
Renowned artistes of the region gave the demonstration of Yakshagana through two select parts from ‘Sri Devi Mahime’ (in Kannada) and ‘Siri Mahatme’ (in Tulu).