Yakshagana has an obvious and understandable male bias. The reasons for this are structural and logistic. Some troupes, recall old timers, tried using female artistes decades ago but without any success. Since then many all-female amateur yakshagana troupes have emerged but professional melas have always remained 'all-male.' An exception is Smt Leelavathi Baipadittaya who had a fairly long innings as a bhagavatha in professional troupes. A rare feat indeed considering the inconveniences associated with working for professional troupes - that too being the lone lady member of the team.I heard Smt Baipadittaya for the first time when she was the main attraction of the newly launched Puttur Mela in the early 1980s. In the competitive market of tent yakshaganas during those days every new troupe was looking for a USP and for Puttur mela it was Smt Baipadittaya at least for the first couple of years. Puttur mela's initial prasangas like Baale Nagamma and Putturda Muttu were staged with Smt Baipadittaya as the lead bhagavatha but her heart was in singing for mythological prasangas as she stated in a recent Times of India article on her. She had also worked for troupes such as Subrahmanya, Madhur, Aruva and Bappanadu, and taught bhagavatike at Yakshagana training centre of Dharamasthala temple. The only audio cassette featuring her that I have come across is Kotichennayya (Tulu) in which she sings for the first part of the prasanga.
You may find a sample of Smt Baipadittaya's songs at: http://oyakshagana.googlepages.com/audios.htm
