Yakshagana is one of the oldest - traditional and popular vernacular dance forms of Karnataka. Yakshagana  is a combination of dance, music, spoken word, costume-makeup and stage technique. Research by experts places the origin of Yakshagana to the period between the11th and 16th Century.

The dance-drama is similar to the Kathakali of Kerala. The themes of all the dramas of Yakshagana are fights, warfare, and stories of 'veera' and 'raudra' rasas from legends. It is remarkable for its pure dance .

The makeup of Yakshagana is rich and closely related to the ornamentation found in the sculptures. The male characters, such as the hero, the king, the ministers and the prince have a fine 'Makuta' (crown); all royal characters have a bow and an arrow in their hands.

The head dress of the wild characters like 'Dhiroddhatas' is an arch-like head dress. The female dress for 'Chandi', 'Kali' and so on is lion's teeth, blood red artificial tongue drawn out and lengthy hair at the back.

All the actors wear trousers to enable them to dance and over it they wear a 'saree' that is tied in the form of a 'kaccha' with ornaments. The faces of kings and princes are painted rosy pink. Yama's face is black, Lord Krishna and Vishnu are blue. The face make-up used is made of vegetable die.

 

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