Udupi District Celebrates Kannada Rajyotsava With Grand Fervour
Udupi: The Kannada Rajyotsava celebrations marked the grandeur of the cultural extravaganza at the Mahatma Gandhi District Stadium, Ajjarkad here, on Wednesday, November 1.
Laxmi Hebbalkar, minister for Women and Child Development, Disabled and Senior Citizens Empowerment and also the district minister in charge hoisted the flag and received the guard of honour.
Addressing the gathering, Hebbalkar noted that the contribution of Udupi to the language and culture of Kannada was immense, with the works of Nandalike Lakshminarayana, Gulvadi Venkata Rao, Late Karantha, Havanje Lakshminarayanappayya, Hattiyangadi Narayana Rao, Airodi Shivaramaiah, Mogeri Gopalakrishna Adiga, Kadekar Rajagopala Krishna Rao, S.U. Paniyadi, Koradkal Srinivas Rao, Pa Vem Acharya, P. Gururaja Bhat, Matapady Rajagopalacharya and others.
The district played a key role in building Kannada Nadu, wherein veterans, including Benagal Rama Rao, Kota Shivarama Karantha, Panje Mangesh Rao and others, struggled for the unification of Karnataka. K Leelavathi Baipadithaya was the first woman ‘Bhagavatam’ to tour with professional Yakshagana troupes.
As elders rendered their immense contribution to the language and the land, it was now the responsibility of the younger generation to nurture the language and its culture. They could do so by using the language in their daily life, stressed Hebbalkar. The district, she noted, also has people speaking other languages, including Tulu, Konkani, Beary and others. These languages were being treated as the land’s own languages.
Udupi’s contribution to the language also extends to oral literature, in the forms of Yakshagana Talamaddale and Yakshagana Prasangas (stories). While hundreds of artists have carried forward the interpretations to Prasangas in Talamaddale, more than 5,000 Prasangas were created by Yakshagana exponents without divulging their names.
Ms Hebbalkar said that the district has created a niche in banking, tourism, healthcare, culture, education, including medical education and other sectors owing to the untiring efforts of enterprising people of the region.
The district Rajyotsava Award was presented to achievers and associations. Earlier, a procession of Bhuvaneshwari was flagged off by Laxmi Hebbalkar at the Government College near the Service Stand.
Attractive tableaux and cultural programmes added colour to the Rajyotsava Day celebrations. Various tableaux from different government departments came in a procession from the Board High School to the grounds. These tableaux focused on different themes.
Udupi MLA Yashpal Suvarna, Kaup MLA Gurme Suresh Shetty, Deputy Commissioner Dr Vidya Kumari, SP Dr Arun K, ZP CEO Prasanna H, Additional DC Mamata Devi, Additional SP Siddalingappa and others were present.
