Yakshagan is a folk dance of which of the following states?

Correct — D. Yakshagana — the paper spells it 'Yakshagan' — is the all-night open-air theatre of coastal Karnataka, at home in the Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.

It is performed in Kannada, and in Tulu in the Tulu-speaking belt. A bhagavata sings the story over the chande and maddale drums while dancers in towering headgear act out episodes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Madhya Pradesh — Yakshagana is a Kannada-language form of the Karnataka coast. Nothing in its language, music or costume belongs to Madhya Pradesh.
• (b)
  West Bengal — Wrong region. Bengal's own dance and song traditions are Purulia Chhau and the Bauls, neither of them related to the Yakshagana stage.
• (c)
  Odisha — Odisha's classical dance is Odissi and its masked dance-drama is Mayurbhanj Chhau. Yakshagana belongs to the Karnataka coast, not the Odisha one.

Yakshagana is theatre rather than dance alone: music, spoken dialogue, dance and costume carry one Puranic story through a whole night.

The troupe splits into the himmela, the music party led by the bhagavata singer, and the mummela, the actor-dancers on stage.

Costume is what makes it recognisable even in a photograph — tall carved headgear, painted faces and wide beaded ornaments.

Key facts

• Yakshagana is a folk theatre form of coastal Karnataka, performed mainly in Kannada and also in Tulu.
• The performance pairs a singer-narrator, the bhagavata, with the chande and maddale drums.
• Chittani Ramachandra Hegde was a celebrated Yakshagana artist.

Common traps

• Pairing Yakshagana with Kerala because of the make-up and headgear it shares with Kathakali.
• Treating the paper's spelling 'Yakshagan' as some different form.

No directly related past PYQ was found.