Yakshagana

What it is

Yakshagana mixes dance, music, spoken dialogue, costume, make-up and stagecraft into one form. A troupe divides into two groups. The himmela supplies the music; the mummela dances and speaks. The lead singer, the bhagavatha, sings the story and also directs, which earns him the name first actor. Behind him sit the other players: drummers, a harmonium and a pipe. Much of the dialogue is improvised, so no two nights of the same episode match. Actors can fall into argument or philosophy without leaving their characters, a manner close to what Western theatre calls method acting. Performances have often been compared with opera.

Origins and history

Nobody can give a single date. Researchers place its beginnings somewhere between the 11th and 16th centuries CE. It is widely held to have grown from proto-classical music and Sanskrit theatre under the Vaishnava Bhakti movement, and tradition says that Naraharitirtha, a disciple of Madhvacharya, brought it to Udupi in the 12th century. The oldest written trace is an inscription of 1556 CE at a temple in Kurugodu, in Bellary district, recording land granted to performers. A palm-leaf manuscript from 1621 CE describes a performance text. Troupes at Kudlu, Kumbla and Kota are said to have existed three or four centuries ago.

How a night runs

A performance opens in twilight. Drummers beat out fixed compositions called abbara or peetike, sometimes for an hour, while the audience waits. Then the bhagavatha begins to sing and the dancers come on. The episodes come from the epics and the Puranas, and a full night can last until sunrise. Since the 20th century many troupes have shortened the programme. Kota Shivaram Karanth cut a show from about twelve hours to under three, and tent companies began selling tickets, playing by electric light to people who came for entertainment rather than ritual.

Two regional styles

The coast divides the art into two main styles. Thenku thittu belongs to the south, from Dakshina Kannada down to Kasaragod, and Badaga thittu to the north, from Udupi up to Uttara Kannada. Both are performed across the region. Thenku thittu leans on Karnatic music, uses three set colour schemes for make-up, and is known for spinning jumps and fierce demon characters. Badaga thittu gives more weight to facial expression and to matugarike, the spoken exchanges. The Dharmasthala and Kateelu melas are the best known of the southern troupes, and Shivaram Karanth's shortened Yaksha Ranga helped carry the northern style to new audiences.

Today and change

In the 19th century new plays were written and troupes multiplied along the coast. The next century brought commercial tent companies, ticketed seats and electric lighting, and the repertoire widened to take in folk epics, Sanskrit drama and invented stories. Women now appear on stage, which was not the case before. The art stays strongest along the coast, in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, Kasaragod and western Chikmagalur, and it has found a following in Bengaluru, especially during the rains, when the coast offers little else by way of evening entertainment.

How Yakshagana is kept

A troupe brings its himmela and its mummela. The musicians take their places, the drums start, and the fixed prelude plays until the actors are ready. The bhagavatha sings the story; the dancers answer with steps, gesture and speech. Make-up and head-dresses mark who is who: gods, kings, demons, women. Scenes follow one another without a curtain, and the performers improvise as the hours pass. The night ends at dawn.

When and where

It has no fixed date in the calendar. Performances begin at dusk and run until dawn, and the nights belonged traditionally to temple and village occasions. In recent years Bengaluru has taken to the form, especially during the rainy season.

The art belongs to the Tulu Nadu coast and its neighbours: Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and western Chikmagalur in Karnataka, and Kasaragod district in Kerala. It is strongest in those districts, and has also drawn audiences in Bengaluru.

What Yakshagana means

For those who keep it, a night of Yakshagana is a way of holding the epics in common. Its stories come from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata and other old texts, and it draws on Hindu, Jain and other Indian traditions alike. Gods, kings and demons share the same open space, and the singing and drumming carry as much meaning as the dialogue. The form resists easy labels, sitting somewhere between folk and classical.

Questions people ask about Yakshagana

See also

PulikaliPainted tigers and leopards dance through Thrissur on the fourth day of OnamBhangraA Punjabi harvest dance, first kept by farmers and now performed worldwideGhazalA short rhyming poem of love and parting, recited and sung from Arabia to South AsiaQawwaliDevotional Sufi singing from South Asia, led by hereditary parties at shrines

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Archive Articles from WebThe Hindu, Article
• Archive Articles from WebThe Hindu, Article

• Yakshagana on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.