On Screen & Stage Today
Films, music and modern retellings, such as Kantara.
Mangaluru Dasara: A Festival of the Twentieth Century
Every October, Mangaluru keeps ten days of Navaratri, with clay-idol pandals, tiger dancers and an all-night procession. It looks old, but the sources we found date its public form to the 20th century, and they do not agree on exactly when or by whom.
Panjurli, the Boar Daiva
An orphaned wild piglet, raised by Parvati, tears up Shiva's garden and is sent down to earth, where the wrecker of crops becomes their guardian.
Yakshagana: The Coast's Dusk-to-Dawn Dance-Drama
Singers and drummers, dancers in crowns and painted faces, and a story from the epics told through the night. Yakshagana belongs to the whole Kannada-Tulu coast, and its southern style is centred on Tulunadu.
Koti and Chennaya, the Twin Heroes
Twin brothers born to a healer, raised in a king's palace and insulted for their caste, who stood up to a cruel minister, left their homeland, and died fighting for the king who took them in.
Tulu Nataka: The Stage-Play Tradition
Alongside Yakshagana and the sung epics, the coast has scripted, directed plays in Tulu. They are thinly documented, but a few names stand out: a tailor who founded a troupe in 1958, a national drama school staging Siri, and a troupe still at work today.
Koragajja, the Boy Who Was Turned Away
An orphaned Koraga boy, raised by a Billava woman and refused entry to a shrine because of his caste, who vanished at its gate and returned as one of the most called-upon daivas in Tulunadu.
Pattanaje: The Day the Festival Season Ends
On a fixed day in late May, Tulunadu puts its festivals away. The chariots, the dances, the buffalo races and the all-night plays all stop, and the monsoon takes over.
Pili Vesha: The Tiger Dancers of Dasara
Young men, shaved and painted in yellow and black, prowl the streets of Mangaluru and Udupi to the beat of drums at Dasara and Janmashtami. The painting takes hours, the stunts are daring, and the paint itself has raised health questions.
Guliga, the Hunger That Became a Guardian
Born from a stone in Shiva's ash with a hunger that tried to swallow the sun, Guliga was calmed only by Vishnu's little finger, and became the fierce guardian of Tulunadu's shrines and boundaries.
Pursere Kattuna: The Night Dance of the Suggi Full Moon
On the full-moon nights of Suggi, the last month of the Tulu year, troupes of men go from house to house through the night, as priests, ascetics, animals and spirits, to bless every home they visit.
Pilichamundi, the Tiger Goddess
A tiger cub hatched from an egg promised to Shiva and Parvati kills the cows of Kailasa and is sent down to earth, where the hunter of cattle becomes their guardian.
Kalkuda and Kallurti, the Sculptor and His Sister
A master sculptor carves the great Bahubali at Karkala, and the king cuts off a hand and a leg so that he can never carve another. He carves one anyway, at Venur. His twin sister comes looking for him, and together they become two of the most feared daivas of Tulunadu.
Parati and Mangani: A Paddana Still Waiting for Its Story
A Tulu paddana is said to tell of true events about 200 years ago at Bettampady, near Puttur. It was staged as a play and made into the 2017 film Nemoda Boolya. We could not find the story itself, and this page says what is known and what is not.