Yakṣagāna is a folk theater form that combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up, and stage techniques with a unique style and form. This folk theater style is mainly found in the coastal districts and the Malenadu region of Karnataka. Yakshagana is traditionally presented from dusk to dawn. It literally means the song (gana) of the yaksha (nature spirits or the celestial beings).
Yakshagana is a separate genre of music, independent of Karnataka Sangeetha and the Hindustani
music of India. It is believed to have survived as an indigenous phenomenon only in Karnataka. A typical Yakshagana performance consists of background music played by a group of musicians known as the himmela); and a dance and dialog group (known as the mummela), who together enact poetic epics onstage.
It makes use of traditional
musical instruments, such as the maddale (hand drum), the pungi (pipe), the harmonium (organ), and the chande (loud drums). The music is based on ragas, which are characterized by rhythmic patterns called mattu and tala (or musical meter in Western music). Yakshagana talas are believed to be based on patterns which later evolved into the Carnatic talas.
A performance usually depicts a story from the "Kavya" (epic poems) and the "Puranas" (ancient Hindu texts). It
consists of a story teller (the bhagvatha) who narrates the story by singing (which includes prepared character dialogues) as the actors dance to the music, portraying elements of the story as it is being narrated. All components of Yakshagana—including the music, the dance, and the dialog—are improvised.
Yakshagana is popular in the districts of Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada,
