A Scientific view and analysis of theatre art Yakshagana

Many of the Indian performing arts have deep scientific/engineering aspects involved in them without being recognised or studied. Yakshagana is one of such arts being performed in coastal districts of Karnataka and has a history of more than 500 years. Yakshagana is a team, multidisciplinary art involving classical music, percussions, dance, dialogue, comedy, costumes, and scholarly discussions. This article discusses the components/parameters of the Yakshagana art form from a scientific and engineering perspective, and we have attempted to formulate mathematical equations for a better understanding of the art execution, artist’s capacity and overall performance. Empirical mathematical relations are formulated to estimate the performance index to grade the quality of the overall performance of the day. As art is an “all-in-one” form of art performance, it is represented using a Venn diagram. Four main components of Yakshagana and the importance of the coordination between them for successful, cohesive and high-quality performance are analysed by incorporating scientific and engineering approaches. We hope that the present study will open up further scientific research on long-duration performing Indian traditional art forms