Kateel mela troupes kickstart daily Yakshagana shows of 2024-25 touring season

A festive atmosphere prevailed in Kateel town on Monday as more than a century old Durgaparameshwari Prasadita Dashavatara Yakshagana Mandali of Kateel kickstarted its daily tour of the 2024-25 season.

A festive atmosphere prevailed in Kateel town on Monday as more than a century-old Durgaparameshwari Prasadita Dashavatara Yakshagana Mandali of Kateel kickstarted its daily tour of the 2024-25 season. The mandali or mela attached to Kateel Durgaparameshwari Temple has six performing troupes.

The artistes of six troupes together performed ‘Pandavashwamedha’ prasanga all night in front of the temple at Kateel. The troupes will tour to different places in the coastal belt from Tuesday presenting short duration shows from 6 p.m. to 12.30 a.m.

An authority of the mela said the troupes will present 1,080 shows in 182 days till May 2025. The ‘Devi Mahatme’ prasanga performed by the troupes are very popular and sought after.

According to Uppangala Shankaranarayana Bhat, a researcher on Yakshagana melas and author of Kannada book Tenkanada Yakshagana, as per a document, the Kateel mela was started in 1867.

The Kateel mela had switched over to performing from all-night shows to short shows (from evening to midnight) from the 2022-23 touring season since November 2022 after the State government issued a circular in May 2022, which did not allow the use of loudspeakers, an integral part of Yakshagana performances, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. except in closed premises. Later, then Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada M.R. Ravi Kumar allowed the mela to perform till 12.30 a.m., considering the tradition of Yakshagana as a special case.

Then, on November 15, 2022, a resident of Bengaluru and a devotee of the temple approached the Karnataka High Court questioning the endorsement by the Deputy Commissioner restricting the timings till 12.30 a.m. The High Court allowed the mela to perform from dusk to dawn adhering to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, after counsel for the petitioner gave an undertaking that they would adhere to the decibel norms. However, the court made it clear that if the undertaking was breached, then it was open to the Deputy Commissioner to initiate action as per law.

Sanath Kumar Shetty, president of the managing committee of the temple and its hereditary trustee, went on record early this January that the mela will stop performing in its truncated form from Makar Sankranti as many have demanded all-night shows and the court has permitted it. But the mela continued to perform short-duration shows.