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As we speak about appropriation of art, sharing a part from my DK series, where I highlight:
"Yakshagana is an appropriation of deiva aradhane," says Deekiah. "It is a form of community worship which used to happen among the Tulu speaking masses" https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-coastal-karnataka-was-saffronised-part-12-nagpur-born-rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangathan-alters-history-across-dakshin-kannada-to-fit-national-religious-narratives-6457981.html
"Yakshagana is an appropriation of deiva aradhane," says Deekiah. "It is a form of community worship which used to happen among the Tulu speaking masses" https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-coastal-karnataka-was-saffronised-part-12-nagpur-born-rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangathan-alters-history-across-dakshin-kannada-to-fit-national-religious-narratives-6457981.html
There used to be a person who would narrate the Paddana, in a dramatised manner. He will be the channel to communicate with deiva. This form was later used by Vedic communities, through Yakshagana, to preach their religion. This religion has nothing to do with us," says Deekiah.
Elaborating on why he thinks Yakshagana is an appropriation, he says, "Look at the similarities. Paddana is Bhagavatha, Siri is neri, thala is chenda, thimbara is mandara." (These are components from Aata and Yakshagana, which are similar and almost like counterparts).
Bannanje Babu Amin, referred to as a 'barefoot folklorist' for his extensive work to document Paddanas, affirms what Deekiah says. "The only purpose of Yakshagana is Dharmic preaching. Dharmasthala, Kollur, Udupi, all other Vedic temples were used as centers for this propagation.
Yakshagana performances were used to familiarise people with stories that they otherwise were alien to." Deekiah said people didn't realise the danger of it. "Now RSS and its orgs have managed to turn around history in their favour and we watch this happen as mute spectators."
To understand how RSS is doing this, I asked to be introed to Dr Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, the RSS main-man of DK. I received calls informing me that 'Doctorji' (aka Bhat) will meet me at 9 am. I got off the bus at Kalladka & went to Sri Rama Vidya Kendra, school owned by Bhat
I reached the school and looked for him. When Bhat walked of his office, he seemed surprised to see me. He seemed surprised to see a lone woman and even more taken aback by the fact that she spoke Tulu. He walked me towards the prayer hall across the road.
There were posters of Savarkar and Hedgewar inside the school; this was the first time I'd seen anything like it. There were posters of Dr Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh as well. The students stood in neat lines and on the dais a bunch of them were busy setting up a pooja.
I began to scan the groups for students I could interview when Bhat asked if I would join him on stage. The morning began with a ritual called ‘Agni hotra’. 3 students sat around a fire and fed it dried cow dung, dried jackfruit, and ghee while reciting Sanskrit shlokas.
After the ritual and prayers, Bhat took me on a tour of the school. We walked through a tunnel which led to a cave-like structure, at the end of which was a bust of Hanuman.
He took me to four kinds of classrooms, starting from the ‘Shishu Mandirs’ for the youngest. Children in each classroom broke into a Sanskrit song-dance performance. The Kannada medium school, Bhat told me, teaches Sanskrit to students to "help them connect to their samskruthi".
This school exists to awaken a feeling of nationalism towards Bharat in students," he said. I asked Bhat if students are encouraged to discuss their local culture or whether they are taught about local heroes like Koti Chennayya or Koraga Thaniya. He said they were. However, ...
when I looked around, I didn’t see any local cultural symbols. As we walked through a hanging bridge, he pointed me to the play area where children were making shiva lingas out of clay
Bhat also told me that "more than 95 percent of the students" belonged to lowered castes. Many were also from marginalized backgrounds and lived in the school hostel. He then walked me to the campus across the road, where the senior secondary and pre-university sections were.
Before entering the classrooms, we toured the gaushala at the entrance. It was an open shelter, with the statue of Krishna at the entrance.
Coastal Karnataka is lined with schools which are owned by the Sangh and its functionaries. Perhaps the work of Vidya Bharathi will contextualise why the Sangh promotes setting up educational institutions by its members.
Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan is the educational wing of the RSS, which was established in the late 70s. The RSS had, by then, set up schools at the local level; Vidya Bharati was created as a centralised institution, to coordinate between these schools.
Since then, the functionaries of Vidya Bharati have expanded to 2,000 schools with more than 30 lakh students enrolled in them.
For more on how Brahmanical forces from that day to today continue to appropriate local art/folklore/culture and use it to create enemities and propagate what's not local to Tulunadu, read this: https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-coastal-karnataka-was-saffronised-part-12-nagpur-born-rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangathan-alters-history-across-dakshin-kannada-to-fit-national-religious-narratives-6457981.html
This is a connected piece, please read this as well.
Excerpts: To an extent, deiva aradhane was associated with a sense of shame. It was ridiculed by many as 'demon worship' and as something 'unclean' by Brahmins as serving meat was part of the celebration https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-coastal-karnataka-was-saffronised-part-11-economic-political-shifts-create-vacuum-in-dakshin-kannada-identity-crisis-furthers-hindu-homogenisation-6451601.html
Excerpts: To an extent, deiva aradhane was associated with a sense of shame. It was ridiculed by many as 'demon worship' and as something 'unclean' by Brahmins as serving meat was part of the celebration https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-coastal-karnataka-was-saffronised-part-11-economic-political-shifts-create-vacuum-in-dakshin-kannada-identity-crisis-furthers-hindu-homogenisation-6451601.html
Only with the coming of the Sangh and its projects like 'Hindu Samajautsav' and 'Ittiga pooja' were these spaces revived to operate as another space from where the Sangh could further expand their base.
A before and after-brahmanisation of a deiva sana illustration by @srujangatha
You'll also find in this the story of how Padmavathi took on these new age appropriators. Padmavathi is a veteran leader of Beedi Workers Union, which she joined in 1957. Illustrating her struggle from that day to this day, by @srujangatha
