Maddale player Bhagavatha honoured

When it comes to felicitating achievers in Yakshagana, increasingly Bangalore is the venue. I had been to many such programmes, generally sandwiched between one or two Yakshagana shows, over the last decade.

On Sunday last week at Town Hall it was felicitation for Shankara Bhagavatha, who according to some commentators, is one of the four all-time great maddale players of Badagutittu (the other three being the Late Bellanje Thimmappa Naik; the Late Durgappa Gudigara and Hiriyadaka Gopala Rao). The felicitation programme was held in between two prasangas: Thaamradwaja Kaalaga and Ugrasena Prathapa.

In a curtain raiser to the event, Bhavya Bolar writes in Deccan Herald:
Choosing your destiny at a very young age can be quite challenging. But this maddale artiste did it at a young age of 12; worked hard to achieve what he aspired to with perseverance, and what’s more, he excelled at it. Shankar Bhagawat, 55, a native of Sirsi, is the only artiste at present to play seven maddales at a time.....

Read here the full article in Deccan Herald
Read here a profile of Shankara Bhagavatha in Nagaraj Mattigar's blog Oddolaga