Saligrama Makkala Mela performs Yakshagana at Infosys Mysore

Yakshagana is a folklore art popular in coastal Karnataka. It is a mix of dance and drama wherein a particular part (episode or Prasanga) of some popular story (say Mahabharatha) are enacted with unique costumes, background music and a combination of dance and drama. Saligrama Makkala Mela (ಸಾಲಿಗ್ರಾಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮೇಳ) is a troupe of child artists who learn Yakshagana from its founder H. Sridhar Hande. Unlike other troupes or bands members of Makkala Mela team keep changing- Children grow up and eventually leave the team due to various reasons including studies. So Sridhar Hande continuously need to keep looking for youngsters, train them from scratch and make them perform on stage.
Makkala Mela was founded in 1975 and the troupe has toured all over the world, including US and Behrain. Recently they were in Mysore and was invited by Infosys to perform in their campus. I happened to be in the city on that day (Sunday, 8th June 08) and visited Infosys Campus and watched this Yakshagana show.

The episode was related to Vrishasena, son of Karna, who, on 17th day of Kurukshetra battle heads the Kaurava Army. Couple of still photos and videos of this show below.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0CAJaJmNPk

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCRFiD6NUvE

More about Yakshagana in this website: Yakshaloka.com

The Infosys Mysore campus was great too. “Whatever we have here is the best one can get in the world” is the one line description of the facilities there. I think a zoo is missing. (Satyam’s Bahadurpalli campus has it, though one cannot compare two campuses) Don’t want to blog too much about it- some Infy bloggers will be better equipped to write about it.

For those of you wondering what I am doing at Infosys campus, I was just there as a visitor.