For 81-year-old scholar Martha Ashton Sikora, it has been a romance with the art form of Yakshagana for the last 48 years.
Dr. Sikora, who is from the U.S., spent more than 10 years in coastal Karnataka studying Yakshagana and did her Ph.D. in the art form from Michigan State University in 1972.
It was when she read Balwant Singh’s “Folk theatre of India” that she was smitten by the costumes in Yakshagana performances. She later chose Yakshagana as a subject for her doctoral dissertation.
To get a complete knowledge of Yakshagana, she came to Udupi in 1969 and the Jnanpith award winner late Kota Shivaram Karanth arranged a Yakshagana teacher – Hiriyadka Gopal Rao – to teach her the finer nuances of the artform. “Mr. Rao taught me Yakshagana and also took me to different Yakshagana troupes,” she said. She stayed here for a year-and-a-half and learnt Yakshagana. She loves the “Rakshasa Vesha” (demon characters) the most in Yakshagana. “I am still attracted to its costumes, makeup, dance and music,” said Dr. Sikora, who is on a visit to Udupi.
After she got her Ph.D., she returned here in 1973 and did research on “Bhootas,” “Nagamandalas” and “Brahmamandalas.” “I titled my article as ‘Night life in South Canara’ just so that it caught attention of readers and they read about the culture of the region,” she said.
Not content with just learning Yakshagana, she also took a Yakshagana troupe to the U.S. A votary of traditional and pure form of Yakshagana, when Dr. Sikora took the troupe to the U.S., she ensured that there were older artistes in it, so that the artform in its pure form was performed. She recollected that when she had visited Udupi for the first time, the Yakshagana performances then were conducted in paddy fields in the backdrop of traditional torches. But in the early 1970s, tube-lights and microphones entered the performances.
“I still prefer the older, traditional and pure form. But this is my personal opinion, a foreigner’s opinion. It is for the people here to decide. I do not know how long Yakshagana in its pure form will last,” she said.
But she favours all-night Yakshagana performances being reduced to two-and-a-half to three hours performances if the people so desired, but without compromising on its purity.
Her teacher, the 97-year-old Mr. Rao is all praise for Dr. Sikora. “She was a good and determined student. I wanted Yakshagana to be popularised all over the world. She has done her bit. I am happy I taught her,” he said.
Leading a retired life in California, Dr. Sikora and her husband Bob Sikora, a marine biologist, now work for conservation of native plants and trees in their state.
