The Yakshagana Kalaranga, an organisation devoted to the promotion of Yakshagana, has announced its annual awards.
Murali Kadekar, secretary of Yakshagana Kalaranga, said earlier this week that as many as 16 artistes were chosen for individual awards. Each award includes a cash prize and a citation. These will be presented at Rajangana at 5 p.m. on November 6.
Awardees
The B.B. Shetty Memorial Award will go to Yakshagana artiste Gerukatte Gangayya Shetty; the B.V. Acharya Award to Balakrishna Nayak; Nittur Sundar Shetty – Mahesh Shetty Award to Lakshman Kanchan; K. Vishwajna Shetty Award to B. Jagannath Rao; B. Jagjeevandas Shetty Award to Mundkur Jayarama Shetty; Kuthpady Ananda Ganiga Award to Sitaram Kumar Kateel; Bhagavatha Naranappa Uppoor Award to Vishnu Hegde Hiremakki; Dashavatari Marvi Ramakrishna Hebbar Bhagavata Award to H. Sripad Hegde; Shiriyar Manju Naik Award to Gundibail Subraya Bhat; Kota Vaikunta Award to Bellare Vishwanath Rai; Padaru Narasimha Shastri Award to Jayakumar Jain; and Kadiyali Subraya Upadhyaya Award to Nagappa Holemoge.
The Malpe Shankarnarayana Samaga Memorial Award will be given to artiste Padyana Shankarnarayana Bhat; Airody Rama Ganiga Award to Janardhan Achar; Kolyur Ramachandra Rao Award to Karnad Shivanna Acharya; and the Prabhavati Shenoy–Vishwanath Shenoy Award to K. Nagu Gowda.
The Vishwesha Tirtha Award will be given to the Dr. Kilaru Gopalakrishnayya Pratishtana from Sampaje, Sullia, for its contribution to promoting Yakshagana. This award will include Rs. 50,000 cash and a citation. The Yaksha Chetana Award will be given to a senior worker of the Kalaranga, S.V. Bhat.
Vishweshathirtha Swami of Paryaya Pejawar Mutt will give away the awards. Raghubhushana Tirtha Swami of Balegaru Mutt will grace the occasion. A souvenir, ‘Kalataranga – 2016’, will be released by the general manager of Canara Bank, K. Virupaksha.
The award presentation ceremony will be preceded by a Yakshagana performance titled ‘Sudhanva Moksha’ at 2 p.m.
A joint Yakashagana performance, ‘Rukmangada Charitre’ by artistes of Badagu thittu and Tenku Thittu schools of Yaskhagana, will be held afterwards from 6.30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Mr. Kadekar said.
