Yakshanaga

Some of the Department staff invited me to a Yakshagana performance at the staff quarters on campus Saturday night.  Yakshagana is a South Indian drama most similar to opera in the west that tells the story of good, represented by a Hindu God, conquering evil.  There are many troupes that travel around Southern India staging performances during the dry season. My friends Ivan and Yanesh joined me.  Before Yakshagana there was the pooja which is an offering of food to the God by the devotees (not Ivan, who is Swiss, or I).  The grounds outside feature about a 50 m circle delineated with lighted arches.  Inside there is a stage and at least a couple of hundred chairs.  Outside the circle are a large tent for pooja and a food serving area.  Once the pooja is done, everyone is served annaprasadam (dinner) beginning about 9PM and the troupe begins the initial show which I am told is primarily to entertain while everyone eats.  There are 1-4 percussionists, a narrator/singer, and 0-5 characters on stage at any time.  There is a mix of dialogue, dance, and music and the characters are elaborately dressed.  Men play the roles of women.  It is amplified and very loud.  This is a photo of the stage and an audio clip.

I learn that being a Visiting Fulbright Professor has its privileges: without asking the security chief moves us to the front of the food line shown in the photo.  The meal is traditional South Indian: pickle (hot and salty condiment), dahl (lentil curry), palya (spiced vegetable), rice, and rasam (soup/sauce for rice).  I’ll have more on food in later posts.  Find a seat and dig in with the right hand.  Dessert is laddu, a sweetened flour (probably chickpea or seminola) with coconut and nuts shaped as a ball and fried, and warm sweet wheat and rice pudding.  We don’t get dessert at the guesthouse so it is a treat. 

The main story begins about 1030PM when dinner is done.  The audience is large and attentive.  A little after 11PM two new characters make a dramatic entrance with full percussion, a band, the narrator/singer, fireworks overhead, and fire torches on the stage.  I just missed video of a flame thrown in front of the stage.  Here is a short video a moment later.  Everyone but Ivan and I is familiar with the story, which is told in Kannada.  Various people kindly try to keep us apprised of the plot.  We depart about 1130PM.  Yakashagana continues until about 6AM, a total of about 9 hours.  I occasionally hear the narrator until then in my room which is a 10-minute walk away.  At about 5 or 6 AM I was reminded that Indian society is composed of many cultures -- the nearby mosque’s first call for prayers was playing simultaneously with the finale of Yakshanaga.