Mangaluru : Releasing the first commemorative postal stamp on Yakshagana, the Chief Post Master General, Karnataka Circle, S. Rajendra Kumar said here on Sunday that many postal stamps served like cultural ambassadors.

Mr. Kumar said that the postal department will try to release commemorative stamps on freedom fighters Karnad Sadashiva Rao and Ullal Srinivas Mallya and philosopher Madhwacharya. The Philately Advisory Committee, which met once in a year, chose the subjects on which the commemorative stamps will have to be brought out.

Mr. Kumar said that earlier 10 commemorative stamps relating to Dakshina Kannada and Udupi were released during the last 75 years. They were on Nandalike Muddana, Rani Abbakka, B.N. Rao, Pandita Rama Bai, Jerome D’Souza, Konkan Railway, TMA Pai, St. Aloysius College Chapel painting, Kota Shivarama Karanth, Joachim and Violet Alva.

He said that postal stamps helped to spread culture across the world.

Calling some Yakshagana artistes as walking encyclopedia, Dakshina Kannada Member of Parliament Nalin Kumar Kateel said that commemorative stamp on coastal’s region’s ‘daivaradhane’ should also be released.

Mr. Kateel said that it is happy that of late a postal stamp on Yakshagana has been released. It will elevate Yakshagana at the national level.

In his introductory remarks on Yakshagana, scholar, author and senior Talamaddale ‘arthadhari’ M. Prabhakara Joshi reiterated the need to make a renewed effort to get United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recognition to Yakshagana. It requires political will too, he said.

Mr. Joshi said that slots for Yakshagana in programmes organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) have now come down. Yakshagana stakeholders should take this up and ensure that Yakshagana performances got their due share in ICCR programmes.

Yakshagana ‘bhagavatha’ Patla Satish Shetty said that postal stamp on Yakshagana has brought the national recognition to the traditional art form.

The face value of stamp released is ₹5.

L.K. Dash, Post Master General, South Karnataka Region, D. Vedavyasa Kamath, MLA, Mangaluru City South, spoke.