Yakshagana Academy awards presented.

An art will grow only when artistes are honoured and respected, said Minister for Kannada and Culture C T Ravi.

Speaking after conferring the awards instituted by Yakshagana Academy at Kuvempu Kalamandira on Tuesday, he said “Yakshagana is an art with a long tradition. The art form is popular in coastal and Malnad districts. In fact, these districts are known for Yakshagana,” he said.

It is not the government alone which saves an art form in the country. The society has been engaged in promoting and nurturing the art forms in the country.

Academy president Prof M A Hegde said there were over 5,000 Yakshagana compositions. The work on digitisation of such compositions has been taken up. “The names of at least three Yakshagana artistes should be considered while preparing list of Rajyotsava awardees. The government should not neglect Yakshagana,” he said.

Yakshagana Academy honorary awardee S C Jagadeesh could not attend the programme due to ill-health. The award will be conferred on him at his house. Of the Yakshasiri annual awardees, Krishnamani Agera passed away recently.

The following are the recipients of Yakshagana Academy award:

Parthisubba award—Bangarachari Kabballi; honorary awardees—Ramaraje Aras, Subrahmanya Bhat Mambadi, B Gundmi Sadananda Aithal, S C Jagadeesh and K Mohan.

The winners of Yakshasiri awards are Kumble Sridhar Rao, Mohan Baipadithaya, Manooru Narasimha Madhyasta, Nityananda Hebbar, Krishnamani Agera, Bhaskar Joshi, S P Muni Kempaiah, Narayanaswamy, Dr P Shantharam Prabhu and Madangallu Anand Bhat.

Yakshagana book award was conferred on Dr N Narayana Shetty, Dr Kabbinale Vasanth Bharadhwaj and Dr K M Raghava Nambiar.

The Parthisubba award carried cash prize of Rs 1 lakh while the honorary awards carry cash prize of Rs 50,000. The Yakshasiri and book award come with a cash prize of Rs 25,000.