The first yakshagana prasanga (episode) on Jesus Christ — Maha Chetana Yesukrista Mahatme — is all set for a relaunch with some revisions. This is more than four decades after it was written. Hundreds of shows based on this script have been performed over the years.
The new script, with commentaries by author Muliya Keshavayya, now in his 80s, is being released in Mangaluru on May 27.
When Yesukrista Mahatme was first published in 1976 — a major departure from the tradition largely dominated by Hindu mythology — the work was accepted without any criticism. The script was so popular that it was translated into English and German during 1977-78.
However, 40 years later, there has been some discontentment on social media platforms over the yakshagana form being used to “propagate” Christian faith by those affiliated to Hindutva groups. Undeterred by all this, the family members of Mr. Keshavayya, a law graduate and a postgraduate in economics who retired as an officer with Karnataka Bank, have decided to go ahead with the release of this literary work.
The author had revised the text about a year ago. The original script had 200 songs but did not have commentaries for the songs. “My father observed that some artistes of recent times who played the roles did not have deep knowledge on the life of Jesus Christ. Hence, the commentaries have been written to keep the story line intact and guide the artistes,” said Raghu Muliya, son of the author. If the first version with only songs had about 50 pages, the revised one has 122 pages. “It is a pure literary work. No bias should be attributed to it,” Mr. Raghu, who is a chief operating officer of a chemical engineering company in Bengaluru, told The Hindu . “Those raising objections have not read the book and are not familiar with yakshagana.” This episode of yakshagana has a running time of six hours.
