Yakshagana Performed in Marathi for The First Time Ever: Click For The Details

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 and other men, who did not know Marathi learnt it in a span of three months with rehearsal and staged ‘Abhimanyu Kalaga’ or Chakravyuha ‘prasanga’ 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.