Yakshaganam is a costumed dance-drama item — a team of performers in elaborate make-up and traditional attire acting out an episode from epic or legend through stylised footwork, gesture and staged presentation rather than ordinary spoken dialogue. On a kalolsavam or school/college arts-fest stage it sits in the same “stage item” family as Chavittu Nadakam and Kathakali, but it is judged on its own distinct set of heads — and because two of those heads both concern costume (not one, as a panel might assume), scoring it on a generic drama rubric under-rewards exactly what makes it Yakshaganam. This guide gives a verified Yakshaganam judging criteria and marking scheme, a printable judgement sheet, team-size and time-limit details, and how to set the item up in eTalenter so it tabulates cleanly alongside every other stage item on your programme.
What a judge is actually watching for in Yakshaganam
Yakshaganam asks a judge to score five distinct things rather than one blended “performance” impression, and the five heads split cleanly into two pairs plus one. The first pair is costume, scored twice over — once as Aaharyam (make-up and overall costume craft: how elaborate, correct and well-finished the headgear, ornaments and face paint are) and once as Vesham (the costume as worn and inhabited on stage: fit, movement and how convincingly the performer carries the look of the character). The second pair is presentation (Avatharanam — stage presence, expression and how the scene is delivered as a whole) and footwork (Chuvaduveppu — the stylised steps and movement patterns that carry the dance-drama’s physical vocabulary). The fifth, standing apart, is story (Kathavasthu — how clearly and faithfully the chosen episode is conveyed to the audience through the performance). A team that looks spectacular in costume but tells a confused or truncated story has only won half the rubric, and the scheme below is built to keep that visible on paper instead of folding it into one number.
Yakshaganam judging criteria: the verified marking scheme (100 marks)
Unlike some stage items where the weightage is left to the organising committee, Yakshaganam’s kalolsavam template prints a specific, even five-way split — publish it with your competition rules so every team rehearses against the same scale.
| Criterion | Marks | What the judge looks for | What pulls marks down |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make-up and costume (Aaharyam) | 20 | Elaborate, correctly assembled traditional make-up, headgear and ornaments, well finished across the whole team | Patchy or incomplete make-up; missing or mismatched costume pieces across performers |
| Costume (Vesham) | 20 | The costume worn and carried convincingly — fit, movement and how the performer inhabits the character’s look on stage | Costume that restricts or distracts from movement; a look that doesn’t match the character being portrayed |
| Presentation (Avatharanam) | 20 | Stage presence, facial expression and overall delivery of the scene as performance, not just as routine | Flat expression; a performance that reads as mechanical rehearsal rather than a presented scene |
| Story (Kathavasthu) | 20 | The chosen episode conveyed clearly enough that an audience unfamiliar with it can follow who is who and what is happening | A sequence of movements with no legible narrative thread; key moments of the story left out or unclear |
| Footwork (Chuvaduveppu) | 20 | Clean, controlled stylised steps and movement patterns executed in time and in unison across the team | Steps out of time with each other; footwork that blurs or disappears during the more dramatic passages |
| Total | 100 | ||
The two costume heads are deliberately separate rather than merged into one “costume” line — Aaharyam rewards how well the costume and make-up are made and assembled, while Vesham rewards how well the performer wears and moves in it on stage. A team can score well on one and poorly on the other, and the split is there so the judgement sheet shows exactly which half fell short.
If your event’s own manual prints a different weightage for Yakshaganam, use that instead — this scheme is cited from a kalolsavam arts-festival template and matches the usual even-split pattern for this item, but always defer to your own rulebook when it specifies the marks.
Printable Yakshaganam judgement sheet
Print one sheet per judge per team, filled in with the age group, time limit and team name before the session starts, and make sure every judge on the panel is scoring from an identical copy.
| Criterion | Max marks | Marks awarded | Judge’s remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make-up and costume (Aaharyam) | 20 | ||
| Costume (Vesham) | 20 | ||
| Presentation (Avatharanam) | 20 | ||
| Story (Kathavasthu) | 20 | ||
| Footwork (Chuvaduveppu) | 20 | ||
| Less: time / rule deductions | – | ||
| Total | 100 |
Leave a footer line for Item · Age group · Team name · Unit or house · Chest number · Number of performers · Time taken · Judge’s name · Signature · Date. A unit or house may enter several differently named Yakshaganam teams in the same age group — identify the sheet by team name and chest number, never by the unit alone.
Team size, time limit and category
Yakshaganam is run as a Team item open to performers of any gender, with no fixed language requirement, and the verified group assignment caps it at 30 minutes, with a warning given at the 29-minute mark. It sits in the Category III age band on the template this scheme is drawn from — if your event runs it in more than one age category, decide and publish the limits for each band in advance rather than assuming they carry over unchanged. Have deductions applied by the stage timekeeper or item in-charge, not by the individual judges, so the same overrun or rule breach isn’t docked separately by several panel members.
| Breach | Suggested deduction | Applied by |
|---|---|---|
| Over the time limit, up to 1 minute | 2 marks | Stage timekeeper |
| Over the time limit, beyond 1 minute | 5 marks | Stage timekeeper |
| More or fewer performers than the rules permit | 5 marks | Item in-charge |
| Incomplete or mismatched make-up/costume across the team | 2–5 marks | Item in-charge |
| Prompting or reading narration from off-stage/props where not permitted | 2–5 marks | Item in-charge |
| Obscene, offensive or community-targeting content in the portrayal | Entry disqualified | Organizing committee |
How Yakshaganam differs from Chavittu Nadakam
Both are costumed, team-based stage items that tell a story through stylised movement rather than ordinary dialogue, and panels new to either form sometimes reach for the same mental rubric. The schemes are built differently, though. Chavittu Nadakam’s judging is anchored on sung-declamatory dialogue (vachikam) delivered while stamping, with footwork and vocal delivery together carrying half the usual weightage — the form is as much about the spoken chant as the movement. Yakshaganam carries no dedicated vocal-delivery head at all; its five marks sit entirely on the two costume elements (Aaharyam and Vesham), presentation, story and footwork, with no single head weighted higher than another. If your programme runs both items, keep them on separate rubrics rather than one shared “dance-drama” scheme — scoring Yakshaganam against a vocal-delivery criterion, or Chavittu Nadakam without one, misses what each item is actually testing. Read our Chavittu Nadakam competition judging criteria for the full comparison scheme.
Setting Yakshaganam up in eTalenter
On paper, Yakshaganam is five criteria multiplied across every team, every judge and every age group, with a timekeeper’s deductions arriving on a separate sheet and each entry representing a cast of several performers rather than a single name. In eTalenter you set Yakshaganam up as a judged Arts competition, enter these five criteria at their verified weightage, and assign the item to the age groups and gender categories you run, with participation type set to Team and a cap on team size. Teams for a group item like this are built during registration — a coordinator can create them through bulk participant management, or a guardian can create a team and assign members through the public registration form — so a house, school or unit can field several differently named Yakshaganam teams in the same age group, each registering as its own entry with its own chest number from the draw.
From there, each judge scores the same rubric on their own device; the system totals and averages across the panel, applies your grades and points, rolls points up to houses, schools or units, and flags ties for you to settle by your published rule. You review results, assign ranks and awards, publish online or to the podium display, and print certificates and trophy stickers from the same marks — and where the item runs at more than one level, winning teams promote upward instead of being re-scored from scratch.
Read how the panel and tabulation work in our judge scoring and tabulation guide, take the ready tables from the judges’ score sheet template, and compare the rubric against the other costumed stage-drama items in our Chavittu Nadakam competition judging criteria and Kathakali competition judging criteria.
Frequently asked questions
What are the judging criteria for Yakshaganam?
A verified, even five-way split out of 100: make-up and costume (Aaharyam) 20, costume (Vesham) 20, presentation (Avatharanam) 20, story (Kathavasthu) 20, and footwork (Chuvaduveppu) 20. No single head is weighted higher than another.
Why does Yakshaganam have two separate costume criteria?
Aaharyam scores how elaborate and correctly assembled the make-up and costume are, while Vesham scores how convincingly the performer wears and moves in that costume on stage. They are judged separately because a team can excel at one without excelling at the other — a spectacular costume that restricts movement scores well on Aaharyam but can lose marks on Vesham.
Is Yakshaganam judged as an individual or group item?
Yakshaganam is a Team item, open to any gender, with no fixed language requirement. A cast of several performers registers as one team entry. Set the participation type to Team with a capped roster when you configure the competition.
What is the time limit for a Yakshaganam competition?
On the verified template this scheme is drawn from, Yakshaganam is capped at 30 minutes with a warning at the 29-minute mark. Check your own event’s rules, since time limits can be set per level or per age category.
How is a tie between two Yakshaganam teams broken?
Write the order into your rules in advance. A common sequence is: higher combined marks on story and presentation (the two criteria that most reflect overall command of the item), then the majority preference of the panel, then a shared rank. If the item feeds a higher level — a sub-district, district or zonal round — decide in advance how many tied teams a shared rank promotes.
Use this rubric at your next fest
Copy the marking scheme and the judgement sheet above into your rules, or set them up once in eTalenter and let the panel score on their phones while totals, deductions, grades, ranks, house points and certificates come out at the other end. Running your school’s or youth fest’s Yakshaganam competition on eTalenter? Message us on WhatsApp or write to support@etalenter.com for help with the software — or open a live kalolsavam demo and log in as a demo coordinator or judge to see judging and tabulation working on a real event (read-only, nothing you click changes the event). We can’t help with individual entries or submissions to your school or fair’s own official competition — for those, please contact your school or the event’s organisers. Explore eTalenter’s competition management software for the full picture.
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