CHICAGO: Vidyaranya Kannada Kuta and Midwest Havyaka Group organized Yakshagana-Taalamaddale at Naperville (a Chicago suburb) on Aug 30 in honor of a prominent Yakshagana scholar, artist, researcher and professor Dr M. Prabhakara Joshy, who is visiting from India.
Yakshagana is a theater form from Karnataka state that means “Celestial Singing”. It started about 800 years ago and is very popular in coastal districts of Karnataka. Dr M. Prabhakara Joshy, holding doctorate in Yakshagana for his micro study of the famous Yakshagana “Krishna Sandhana, is considered one of the top performers in the “Taalamaddale” form of the art.
The story chosen for the performance was “Vaali Moksha” from Kishikinda Kanda of Ramayana. It relates to the enmity between Vaali and Sugriva who are brothers, how enmity develops between them, how Sugriva makes friendship with Lord Rama and finally how Vaali gets killed by an arrow from Lord Rama and finally attains Moksha.
Dr Joshy himself performed as Vaali and gave a stupendous performance through his unmatched oratory and scholarly skills and he was given standing ovation by a well-attended audience. He was well supported by local artists Aadithya Seetharam, Srinivasa Bhatta and Sowmyashree Aadithya. Anupama Mangalavedhe introduced the artists and Muralidhara Kaje delivered the vote of thanks.
Dr Joshy has already performed in St. Louis and is scheduled to perform in other cities of USA like Sunnyvale, Houston, Miami, Boston, etc. in the coming weeks. A lecture and demo from him related to Yakshagana is also being scheduled at University of California, Berkeley. This is the first time that a series of Yakshagana-Taalamaddale was performed across USA by a visiting Indian artist.
Sunthar Visuvalingam
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