eloquent spokesmen and finest critics since Dr Shivarama
Karanth.
Dr. Joshi has associated himself with many
programmes and projects designed to promote this
unique art form. When the Regional Resources Centre
at Udupi took up a project to document Balipa
Bhagavatha's singing style on Ramayana and other
assorted themes, Joshi was in the forefront. He was also
the guiding spirit behind its documentation of costumes
and make-up of the southern variant of Yakshagana
(Tenku-thittu). His expertise was sought by Mangalore
University whenever it organised a conference on any
aspect of this art form or when it set up a Yakshagana
Centre there. He had a decisive hand in hammering out
its goals and programmes, directions of work and so
on, and his advice and has always been very valuable to
those who functioned at the centre as its Director or
Coordinator.
Dr Joshi has not confined himself to the southern
variant of this art form. He has daringly moved out of its
picket fences toward its equally wonderful northern
version. He has been associated with 'Shambhu Hegde
Rashtriya Nrithyotsava' at Gunavanthe in North Kanara
for the last nine years. His counsel is sought at the
Brahmari Yakshagana Festival which the temple at Kateel
has been organising regularly. Dr Joshi has also led
Yakshagana troupes to Dubai and Bahrain to ladle out
their rich fare to the audience there. Though not a
professional Yakshagana artiste, he is looked upon as
an embodiment of its manifold richness, possibilities and
as a sort of philosopher-guide for that immensely creative
and complex theatre art form. That is why in any seminar
or symposium on Yakshagana the wise egg-head of Dr
Joshi should invariably figure.
There is another edition of Yakshagana, sans its
dance, make-up and theatrical presentation calledTaala-
maddale, which presents puranic episodes as extempore
explanations in dialogic forms to poetic, lyrical
14 / ಯಕ್ಷ ಪ್ರಭಾಕರ
