Arts

We often wonder what the state of classical art in the modern world will be, especially when we have several media that can entertain us. Various modes of entertainment such as movies and tele-serials, and platforms such as YouTube and Netflix rule the world. A movie can portray amazing feats of men, easily capturing the hearts of its audience. Television brings several serials to our drawing room, effortlessly entertaining the masses. Similarly, we can watch video recordings of the performances of stalwarts on YouTube. Smartphones help us access all of this at our fingertips.

Yakṣa-navodaya is an attempt at aesthetically stitching together the compositions of a few Navodaya poets of Kannada. The compositions chosen are ene śuka-bhāṣiṇi of D V Gundappa, nānu baḍavi āta baḍava of Bendre, bṛṃdāvanakè hālanu māralu of Kuvempu, nīḍu pātheyavanu of Ti. Nam. Sri, ahalyè of Pu. Ti. Na, nīvallave of K S Narasimhaswamy. The production is merely an attempt to indicate one such possibility.

The paintings on epic and purāṇic themes by Sri Chandranath Acharya, an artiste par excellence, represent an optimal blend of the classical Indian flavour with the techniques of the West. He has not only mastered the traditional Indian techniques but also brings in perfect anatomy and three-dimensional charm, typical to the Greco-roman tradition and the Italian Renaissance. He has taken forward the tradition of master artistes such as Raja Ravi Varma, M V Durandhar, M T V Acharya, Vaddadi Papaiah, and S M Pandit.

A Summary of our Productions

The following is an overview of our productions.

The interpretation and elaboration that Mantap does for the line raṅganyātakè bārano is extraordinary. He shows several different emotions of the gopikā as he enacts the line. O Raṅga! Why haven’t you come? – Do you think I am ugly? Or has our love lost lusture? Have other women captured you more than me? Or am I hallucinating? I am not able to bear this! Why is he so proud? Why is he arrogant and insensitive? Why do you still ignore?

We have hitherto discussed about āhārya, āṅgika, and vācika. The next aspect to discuss is sāttvikābhinaya – the most difficult aspect to teach and to express in words. In another sense, it is also easy to speak about sāttvikābhinaya because every form of expression finally culminates in sāttvika. It is only through sāttvika that śānta comes as the backdrop for all bhāvas and elevates them to the level of Rasa. And yet, how can we point to an exclusive thing called space?

We used the traditional accompaniments of Yakṣagāna, namely caṇḍè and maddalè. To enhance the melody, however, we included flute and violin as accompaniments. From the early days, I felt the need to include a svara-vādya to add to the melody of the Yakṣagāna himmeḻa. I have even spoken about this on various platforms. Shivaram Karanth, Padmacharan, Mahabala Hegade, and others were of the same opinion. Shivaram Karanth has used violin and saxophone for accompaniments. It is worth mentioning here that when I shared my thoughts with Prof.

Now, moving on to bhāgavatikè. As mentioned earlier, vācikābhinaya of Yakṣagāna is of three kinds and that rendered by the bhāgavata is a major component.

It was a common scenario for conservative-minded audience of traditional Yakṣagāna to brush aside our presentations as falling into the Bharatanāṭya genre. They did so without even watching it. In fact, even some of those who witnessed our shows reacted the same way as well. People who made such comments probably did not even have an exposure to Sadir or Dāsiyāṭṭam and they had no knowledge of Tāphā. Yet, there does not seem to be an end to their comments. The two main reasons behind this are –

There were quite a few questions and uncertainties that bothered Mantap. Who do we converse with, when there are no puruṣa-veṣas on the stage? There is no other female character either. How is it possible to present certain sequences without the presence of a bench or a chair that can work as ratha[1]? How will an ekavyakti-strī-veṣa be received if it lacks even the prose conversations that are typical to the art form?