Sacred Dance of India

Author(s): Mrinalini Sarabhai
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 19

On this occasion, the ceremony is conducted by a religious priest, called Kalathi Kanmath. A pandal decorated with green coconut palms is erected, beneath which the musicians draw in coloured chalk, two serpents intertwined in colourful patterns of black, white, yellow and green. Two banana leaves are placed near the serpent's tail and upon them are seated a young girl and an elderly matron of the family. The singing begins and slowly the women go into a trance, swaying and whirling, shaking the areca flowers held in their hands.
Circling around and around their bodies in a frenzy, they shuffle forward, wiping out the chalked patterns of the serpents with their loosened hair. A huge vessel filled with turmeric, lime and water, red in colour, is placed facing the North. The girls dip their heads into this in their trance, splashing the water all over themselves. They then dance to the rhythmic beats of the accompanying folk veena and drum, and pull down the decorations hanging from the pandal. Sometimes the people of the house ask if the puja is satisfactory and the girls who are now 'possessed' reply. If the puja is satisfactory, the girls leap up and run into a sacred shrine, which may be far away and place the flowers there. Only then, is the Snake God appeased. Sometimes, the puja has to be continued for a whole week. Many indeed are the trance dances where the 'possessed' persons utter strange cries and hit themselves with swords as they dance with frenzy.
It was the Nambudiris, who brought the Gods, Krishna, Shiva, Parvati and Rama to Kerala. But so powerful were the deities of the Nayars, and the Nayars themselves as a community, that the Gods intermingled and were absorbed into a vast panorama of Aryan, Dravidian and aboriginal worship, thus making Kerala a land athrob with myth and reality, where deities are revered and worshipped in the fullness of truth and evil; where man's destiny and the highest reaches of his soul are brought into immediate awareness through dance and drama.
Chakkiyar Koothu:
The first of the sophisticated, stylised and scholastic dance dramas of Kerala, was the performance of a particular community called 'Chakkiyars', who recited the ancient Puranic stories in the temples. These men were eminent scholars and in their discourses, while quoting from the Sanskrit texts, explained in Malayalam to the people, the meaning of the sacred slokas in a particularly witty manner. While Koothu is a solo performance, the Kudiyattam, is a dance-drama closest today to the ancient traditions of the Sanskrit stage. Usually the plays chosen are those of Bhasa, but there are also the dramas of the Pallava King, Mahendra Vikrama and of KulaSekhara Varman. Though the Aharya Abhinaya is of the same pattern as the Kathakali, it is more simple in style, the most marked difference being that the actors of Kudiyattam speak, sing and dance as in the Bhagavata Mela Natakam of Andhra. One of the important characters of Kudiyattam is the Vidushaka, who recites in Prakrit and Sanskrit and then explains the story in Malayalam. Huge drums called 'mizhavus' are used as accompaniment along with cymbals (Kuzhittala) and verses are recited in varied rāgas, each rāga chosen for its sentiment. The idakka is also utilised along with the Kombu and Kuzhal. As in Kathakali, the conch is used as an instrument whenever necessary.