In a first, Udupi artistes present Yakshagana in Marathi

First-ever Marathi Yakshagana performance by Udupi artists begins tour in Maharashtra

On a constant journey of transcending languages, Yakshagana has now been performed in Marathi, probably for the first time.

A team of amateur Yakshagana artistes from Udupi, including a software engineer and some Ph.D scholars, teachers, students and others, performed the first of three Marathi Yakshagana shows scheduled in Maharashtra, at Sawantwadi on Saturday, May 11, evening.

The performers, comprising six women, who did not know Marathi learnt it in a span of three months with rehearsal and staged ‘Abhimanyu Kalaga’ or Chakravyuha ‘prasanga’ (text with songs) written by poet Devidasa in 1695 A.D. The team members were trained by senior Yakshagana ‘guru’ Bannanje Sanjeeva Suvarna who manages Yaksha Sanjeeva Yakshagana Kendra in Udupi.

The Kannada script of the ‘prasanga’ was translated into Marathi by Vijaya Phatarpekar, an 83-year-old retired Professor of Physical Chemistry at Sawantwadi, who had studied at Karnataka University, Dharwad and who has his family routes in Sirsi of Uttara Kannada.

Mr. Suvarna, who was trained in Yakshagana by multi-faceted personality and Jnanapith awardee late Kota Shivarama Karanth, told The Hindu that about two decades ago, he (Mr. Suvarna) had used Yakshagana in a Marathi drama. “It was a mixture of Yakshagana and drama and not a pure Yakshagana performance in Marathi,” he said.

Mr. Suvarna and Mr. Phatarpekar said that according to their information, it is for the first time a Yakshagana has been performed in Marathi.

Earlier, Yakshagana had been performed in Sanskrit, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Konkani, in addition to Kannada and Tulu.