Lack of patronage pushes Basavannas to fade

Anantapur: The scenes of fork artistes accompanying with their Do Do Basavannas, bulls decorated with colourful costumes, were very common in the town in the past, especially during Sankranti festival. People, especially women give them alms. But in recent years, people are not interested to give alms to the community people and the number of Basavannas is also coming down due to lack of patronage.

Basavanna, the dancing bull is accompanied by a trumpeter who plays the trumpet which indicates the onset of Sankaranti season. Many traders used to welcome the Basavanna and give presents to the man. But people living in posh residential areas are no longer interested to welcome the folk artistes.

Punnami Raju, hailing from Nimmalakunta in Puttaparthi mandal says while chatting with 'The Hans India' that the amount of labour and trouble taken by him does not financially compensate him as the spirit of alms giving has drastically come down compared to old days of his youth.

He says that the animal used to dance to the tunes of trumpet and perform acrobats. and dance to his trumpet tunes. Now, the animal is not able to perform as before due to growing age.

Parvathi, a woman is all smiles at the sight of the Basavanna, She brought maize corn for the decorated and well-dressed Basava and applied tilak on its forehead and gave alms to the man and sought blessings. Children are highly excited at the performance of the Basava. For the Do Do Basavanna team, it is all struggle for survival once the festival ends. Sangappa, another cultural performer says that their tribe which brings cheers to one and all during Sankranti should be recognised also as cultural artistes.