Senior Yakshagana artists Pundarikaksha Upadhyaya and Dayananda Nagooru were presented with the Yakshamangala Award, for 2021-22, instituted by P. Dayananda Pai and P. Satish Pai Yakshagana Adhyayana Kendra, Mangalore University at a function on the university campus on Saturday.
The Yakshamangala Book Award for 2021-22 was presented to ‘Shrikrishna Charita’ written by D. Sadashiva Bhatta.
The Yakshamangala Award carried a purse of ₹25,000, a shawl, a citation and a memento and the Yakshamangala Book Award had a purse of ₹10,000, a shawl, a citation and a memento.
In addition, the kendra also presented its decennial award to 17 Yakshagana artists on the occasion of it completing 10 years of its establishment. Each of them were given away ₹10,000, a shawl, a citation and a memento.
The 17 artists who received the award included Puttige Raghurama Holla, Dinesh Ammannaya, Subrahmanya Dhareshwara, Kuriya Ganapathi Shastry, Padyana Shankaranarayana Bhat, Harinarayana Baipadithaya, Aruva Koragappa Shetty, Shivarama Jogi, Kumble Sridhar Rao, Argodu Mohandas Shenoy, Petri Madhava Naik, Balkuru Krishna Yaji, Mukhyaprana Kinnigoli, Ubaradkka Umesh Shetty, Pookala Lakshminarayana Bhat, Uppangala Shankaranarayana Bhat, and Chandrashekara Damle.
Two books ‘Yakshahasya’, which is the compilation of different papers presented by different speakers at a national level seminar organised by the Kendra, and `Lavanya Lakshmi Mantharopakhyana’ written by Shediguppe Vasudeva Bhatta were released at the function.
The foundation stone for constructing a Yakshagana stage on campus was also laid on the occasion by M. Mohan Alva, Chairman, Alva’s Education Foundation. The Vice-Chancellor of the university P.S. Yadapadithaya presented the awards.
Speaking on the occasion, the director of the Kendra Sripati Kalluraya said that in the last 13 years the kendra had published about 13 books in addition to organising more than 100 promotional lectures.
The seer of Edneer Mutt, near Kasaragod (Kerala) Sachchidananda Bharathi spoke. Later students performed Yakshagana ‘Mahishavadhe.’
