Art Forms of Karnataka travel guide

Best-known art form

Yakshagana

Best time to watch

Winter months (festival and fair season)

Visual arts

Hoysala sculpture, Mysore painting

Yakshagana

Yakshagana is the state's best-known theatre form, combining dance, music, dialogue and spectacular costumes. Actors wear heavy face paint and tall, ornate headgear and act out stories from the epics and Puranas, often improvising their lines. It is rooted in coastal Karnataka, and the main performance season runs through the cooler months after the harvest, when troupes tour villages and temple grounds.

Folk dances

Several folk forms are closely tied to devotion and community life:

• Dollu Kunita: a drum dance with its roots in the Kuruba shepherd community, performed by men and now also seen at public events and awareness campaigns
• Goravara Kunita: a dance by devotees of Shiva, who wear black fur caps and move to devotional songs
• Somana Kunita: a ritual masked dance linked to village deities
• Beesu Kamsale: a vigorous dance with cymbals, performed by devotees of Male Mahadeshwara
• Krishna Parijata: a folk theatre form from north Karnataka that retells stories of Krishna

Sculpture and painting

Karnataka's visual arts are just as rich. The Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu are covered in fine stone carving, and the ruins of Hampi show the scale of Vijayanagara building. Mysore painting, with its gold leaf and gentle colours, is a distinctive court style still taught and practised today.

Where to see them

Temple fairs, village festivals and state cultural events are the most reliable places to watch folk performances, especially in winter. On the coast around Udupi and Mangaluru, ask locally about Yakshagana shows, which often run late into the night. The Dasara festival in Mysuru is another good time, as folk troupes join the celebrations. We can help you time a Karnataka trip around these events.

Also nearby