Udupi Nov 25:  Yakshagana Kalaranga, Udupi, organised Shree Vishveshatheertha Award ceremony and Dr B B Shetty memorial Yakshagana art exhibition here at Poorna Prajna College Auditorium on Sunday. Delivering the spiritual blessings on the occasion, Pejawar mutt Pontiff Shree Vishveshatheertha Sripada opined that conversion has to be restrained to conserve and protect the rich cultural and spiritual treasure of ancient Vedic Hindu civilisation. Conversion is ravaging the ancient cultural legacy of Hindu religion. It is not merely a communal issue, rather it is the matter of survival of the ancient religion in the country. Ancient Hindu religion comprises the intricacies of all forms of art and is unified with the primeval culture, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Yakshagana Academy President Kumble Sunder Rao said that Yakshagana is the only art competent to protect the existence of Kannada language. The art can be considered as the main art of the State since it is widespread over the coastal belt and has its detection with Kannada culture and tradition, he added.

Shri Vishveshatheertha Award was bestowed on "Yaksha Degula," Bangalore, an institution promoting Yakshagana and related activities for the last 25 years in India and abroad.

K Govind Bhat was bestowed with Dr B B Shetty award, Arate Manjunath with Prof B V Acharya award, Irodi Rama Ganiga with Bhagavatha Nanappa Uppur Award, Gopalkrishna Kurup with Nittur Sunder Shetty-Mahesh D Shetty award, Irodi Govindappa with Dashavathari Marvi Ramakrishna Hebbar- Bhagavatha Vadiraj Hebbar award, Shree Kokkada Ishwar Bhat with Kota Vaikunta award, Haradi Annappa Ganiga with Irodi Rama Ganiga award, Sathya Hegde Hadinbal with Shri Padaru Narasimha Shasthri award and Sanjeev Chouta with Smt & Shri H R Kedlay award on the occasion.

MLA Raghupathy Bhat, Sudhir P Ghate from Magnum Intergraphs, Mangalore, Purushottham Shetty from Ujwala Developers, Manipal, Thonse Vijay Kumar Shetty from Kalajagatthu Mumbai, President of Yakshagana Kalaranga  Tallur Shivaram Shetty and others were present.

DHNS