"Beral Ge Koral" – (A throat for a finger) a dance presentation of Ekalavya’s story based on the poetic work by national poet laureate Kuvempu. Kuvempu was the first poet from Karnataka to win the Jnanapeeta award.
According to the poet’s interpretation, Ekalavya comes to the city Hastinapura to learn archery from the renowned guru Drona. Due to the jealousy of the Pandava princes Drona is unable to train him and therefore advises him to learn under his son Aswathaama. Ekalavya has to return some time later to his forest upon hearing about the death of his father. He never returns to Hastinapura but practices archery in front of his guru’s statue. He dreams that his guru appeared in his dream and granted him all the shastras (weapons) and teaches him the Shabdavedi vidya (the art of shooting by listening).
Ekalavya assiduously masters this art and is finally encountered by Arjuna. The pandava prince to whom Guru Drona had promised that no one else would be taught the Shabdavedi vidya is upset upon witnessing Ekalavya. Finally Drona in order to please his student Arjuna asks Ekalavya to give his right thumb as his Guru Dakshina. Prasanna played the role of Ekalavya and Pulikeshi played all the other characters. Using dialogues in between, both the dancers with a theatrical background executed the original dialogues of "Beral Ge Koral".
The performance of the play was organized as part of the class room production on 15th Nov to 1st Dec 2019 during the weekends.
