Eminent Yakshagana script writer Raghurama Shetty passes away

Eminent Badaguthittu Yakshagana scriptwriter and retired teacher Kandavara Raghurama Shetty passed away in Noojadi village, Kundapura taluk, on Wednesday (November 26, 2025). He was 89.

A teacher by profession, Shetty gave a new dimension to Yakshagana by writing ‘prasangas’ with social relevance. Also an interpreter (arthadhari) and an amateur theatre artist, he was known in the Yakshagana circle as “Kandavaradavaru.”

Born in Kandavara village of Balkur in 1936 to Karki Sadiyanna Shetty and Kandavara Puttamma, Raghurama Shetty worked as a teacher and later as the head master at Netaji Higher Primary School in Kandlur for over 35 years.

Having great love for literature, music and Yakshagana from his childhood, Raghurama Shetty was known as “Bala Bhagavata” after he did Bhagavatike (singing) for children’s Yakshagana.

Raghurama Shetty authored several ‘prasangas’ for the Badaguthittu “Tent Melas”, thereby paving way for a new era in that segment. Some of his ‘prasangas’, including Cheluve Chitravathi, Rati Rekha, Shree Devi Banashankari, Shoodra Tapaswini etc., are still being enacted in the melas.

He served as president of the Kundapura Taluk Kannada Sahitya Parishat for four years and was also a ‘gamaki’ and interpreter in Purana Pravachanas.