Meet all the king’s men in Prahllad Natak

A more than 100-year-old theatre tradition called Prahllad Natak will die out unless the government steps in and keeps it going

Like its protagonist Prahlad, after whom the theatre tradition is known today, Prahllad Natak was saved from extinction because of a timely intervention more than a century ago. The stories of the survival of Prahlad and Prahllad Natak seem to be curiously similar. Raja Ramakrishna Chottaray, the last king of Jalantar, a small princely state on the Odisha-Andhra border, was instrumental in the creation of Prahllad Natak, which is locally known as Raja Nata (the dance of the king). It is a unique confluence of elements of Indian classical and folk theatre traditions like Yakshagana of Karnataka or Ankia Bhaona of Assam. The play that revolves round the story of demon-king Hiranyakashipu, his son Prahlad and Narasimha, the half-lion and half-man incarnation of Vishnu, was written by Gourahari Parichha, a prominent court poet and musician, at the insistence of Raja Ramakrishna.