Chapter XIII CULTURE - Government of Karnataka

Culture 505
placate gods to bestow goodwill on the subjects. This gave rise to Yakshagana,
Bayalata, Krishna Parijata and many other forms of folk theatre. The British
colonialists also contributed in a great way for the development of the theatres.
They brought with them theatre troupes, which performed plays of Shakespeare
and other popular plays in English. Encouraged by this, translations of these
English plays appeared and they were staged successfully.
Gradually, to cater to the people’s tastes, plays with a lot of dance and
music in them were written. In the early days, people of low castes, who worked
as labourers in the day time were illiterates, used to perform on the stages.
Gradually it changed and all sorts of people started acting in plays. Many
literates started performing and another fact was that earlier, only men used
to appear on the stage. Later changes in society encouraged women also to
appear on the stage. Professional drama troupes started touring the state and
performing at different centres. Some very old troupes like the Gubbi Company
toured the state successfully. They made a name even in the neighbouring
states and flourished. In North Karnataka, the companies like the Konnur
Company, the Shirahatti Company, the Vishwa Gunadarsha Company, etc,, who
had talented actors and singers like Yallamma, Gurusiddappa, Venkoba Rao,
Garooda Sadashiva Rao, Master Waman Rao and others, gained prominence.
In Southern Karnataka, there were eminent people like Varadachar, Gubbi
Veeranna, Mohammed Peer, Malavalli Sundaramma, Subbayya Naidu, R.
Nagendra Rao, Hirannayya and others. Thin stories, uninspiring dialogues
and melodrama notwithstanding, these artistes held the audience spell bound
by their melodious voices and irrelevent comedy. Inspite of all this, failing to
respond to growing social consciousness and unable to compete successfully
with cinema as a source of entertainment, commercial theatres slowly
disintegrated. The latter part of the 19th Century and the early 20th Century
were the best times for the commercial theatre.
Shivaramakaranta Rangamandira, Heggodu, Shivamogga District