By Horeyala Doreswamy
Manteswamy and ‘Male Mahadeshwara’ are the two major folk epics popular in the old Mysuru region of Karnataka. These two unique oral folk epics have been kept alive by professional singers who sing and narrate story of their deity with snake shaped tanti vadya, a string instrument, along with finger cymbals or kamsale battalu and leather drums called dammadi (small tambourine) as well as gaggara (hollow, ornamented silver ring).






