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Mangaluru: Every Dasara celebration, men and young boys are painted in vibrant colours, bringing out the tigers within them. Donning the guise of wild cats, these energetic dancers move, prance and frolic across the streets accompanied by the melodious rhythms of the ‘thase’ and entertaining and delighting their audiences, hence the name ‘tiger dancers’ or Pili Vesha (in Tulu) or Huli Vesha (in Kannada).
Pili Vesha is a folk dance with a religious touch and is unique to this region. Enthusiastic young males form troupes and either paint their bodies with vibrant colours or wear costumes to look like tigers. While ‘Pili’ means ‘tiger’, dancers also paint themselves with leopard or cheetah motifs, all in honour of the ‘vahana’ or vehicle of Mother Durga-tiger. The legends have it that after Goddess Durga killed Mahishasura, tigers rejoiced the killing. Till date, the dancers replicate the same celebration.
While the tiger dance has been a male-dominated art form, women have begun to step in and make this folk dance more gender neutral, the most prominent ‘tigress’ being Sushma Raj from Udupi, who became popular after she took part in reality TV series and earned the monicker ‘Tiger Girl’. There have also been all-female Pili Vesha tropes that have popped up in various parts of the region.
In Mangaluru, Barke Friends, headed by Barke Yaddu, is the most popular troupe of tiger dancers and has been performing for the last 26 years. Now, for the first time, the Barke friends will be launching a group of young tigresses this Dasara season. Sixteen trained young girls aged between 5 and 17, will don the guise of powerful tigresses and enthral the Mangalureans during the Dasara procession.
Speaking to NewsKarnataka, Barke Yaddu said, “This is being done for the first time. In the beginning, there were four girls, out of which only two showed interest. Looking at their enthusiasm, more girls joined the group. There are now sixteen girls who will be performing the tiger dance.”
He added that these girls joined of their own volition. In fact, it was their parents who came and requested that a girls tiger dance troupe be formed.
“We had been planning to introduce a girl’s Pili Vesha troupe for five years. However, we did not make one as we were concerned about the security of the girls. We were surprised when the parents themselves came to us and asked us to start a troupe for girls as we thought that people might not want girls to have a Pili Vesha troupe,” he explained.
Explaining further, Yaddu said that Sathish Hoige Bazar (who is also in charge of the girls’ team) is the trainer for the girls. He is a well-known tiger dancer himself. “He has taken the pains to discipline the troupe every day. Rigorous practice for the festival began one week ago in an apartment where, along with the dance practice, sessions on discipline and co-ordination were taught. The speciality of this year’s Dasara procession is the separate girls’ Pili Vesha tableau,” he said.
Yaddu’s team got the idea for a girl’s Pili Vesha troupe after observing the Krishna Janmashtami celebration at Udupi, popularly known as Vittal Pindi Utsav, which comes the day after Krishna Janmashtami. At this event, there were two girls who performed the Pili Vesha.
Speaking about the girls’ costumes, Yaddu said that they will not be wearing costume clothes, but will be painted like the men. “In terms of clothing, they will have specially designed shorts which are longer than what the men usually wear. They will also be wearing short tops to cover the chest,” he explained.
When asked about the future of the tigresses, Yaddu said, “I am sure that around 50 girls will join next year. When that happens, we will make a bigger tableau, on par with that of the men. These girls are a tough competition to the men as they are capable of lifting the ‘aritha mudi’ (paddy ball) with their teeth. All the sixteen girls have been trained well to perform many of the traditional stunts.”
“We have provided the safest place for these young girls to train. Many people may be concerned about the safety of their daughters and may not want to send them because this art form is done mostly by men. However, these girls’ parents themselves have come to the training site and seen that their daughters’ safety is well looked after. They are treated with the utmost respect,” he added.
Santhosh Shetty, one of the key personnel of the Barke Friends said that Ashok Barke and a master from Kodikal have joined in order to train the newly formed girls’ troupe.
Speaking to NewsKarnataka, Srinivasan Nandagopal, father of Prakruthi, one of the girls in the troupe and a former senior journalist said, “This is being done to encourage girls to be a part of the festivities. The Pili Vesha is predominantly a male bastion. It is nice to see girls being a part of this culture. My daughter is one of the youngest in the group. She was always interested in the Pili Vesha. She would stay up late and watch when they (tiger dancers) were getting their make up done the day before the Pili Vesha.”
“The girls had to practice for 10 days. Senior members of the Barke group trained the girls. There will also be a performance at the volleyball grounds by the tiger dancers. This will be a performance of around 2 hours where the girls will join their male counterparts on stage,” he added.
It is traditional for the Pili Vesha troupes to go from shop to shop or house to house to perform their routines. However, Yaddu said that this year, the girls will not be doing that as they will be introduced on the stage during a two-hour-long performance along with the men at 2.30 PM on October 19. “They will first be introduced on stage after which they will join the Dasara procession,” Yaddu said and thanked all the well-wishers.
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(Video credit- Sachitha Nandagopal Facebook page)
