Mannān pāṭṭu (Nantuni pāṭṭu), songs of the Mannān ādivāsi community, with naṇduni (plucked chordophone) and izhārā (rubbed drum). Mannān Velayudhan performs in the home of folklorist Chummar Choondal. <br/><br/>1. Ganpati Invocation: Naṇduni pāṭṭu, Mannān pāṭṭu. Malayalam song to Ganpati (Ganapati). Velayudhan plays a naṇduni and sings. <br/><br/>2. Birth and marriage of the Goddess Kali and the Silappadikaram. Velayudhan plays naṇduni and sings. This is the Malayalam version (the original is in Tamil, the Mannān's language). <br/><br/>3. Naṇduni Demonstration. Velayudhan holds up the naṇduni, then demonstrates playing each of the two strings with a plectrum, called wāyana (vāyana, from vāi: voice). He also demonstrates tuning the instrument by adjusting the two pegs and the bridge. The instrument has raised frets. <br/><br/>4. Izhārā Demonstration. The izhārā is a waisted tension membranophone, also called a "rubbed drum." The right head is struck with a slightly curving stick, and the left head is rubbed with a deeply curving stick, similar to the sticks used to play the urumbi (urummi uṟumi) and idakka hourglass-shaped drums. Velayudhan plays with a larger curved stick, then switches to smaller curved stick, in a duple meter rhythm. Velayudhan drinks water without touching his lips to the cup. He licks his left hand fingers to moisten the left hand drumhead, made of cowskin, and licks the curving stick at the point it will rub the drumhead. He plays a 3+3+2 rhythmic cycle merging into a duple meter cycle, ending in a complex rhythmic pattern. Chummar Choondal speaks to him in Malayalam. Chummar Choondal told us that the izhārā is played only by the Mannān community, and is used to invoke spirits. It was formerly played for exorcisms but "now people will give him trouble" if he does it. Velayudhan says the right hand stick is called "izhārā kol" (kol: stick). He holds up the left hand stick and says "mudiyan kol" (turning/curving stick). The curved end is tied to the straight part of the stick with twine. He holds up the right hand stick and names it. Nazir asks the name of the drum. Velayudhan replies "izhārā".<br/><br/> 5. Izhārā Muntian Pāṭṭu. Velayudhan sings 36 lines of Izhārā Muntian Pāṭṭu, "a description of kalam of evil spirit, and pandal." He accompanies himself with his izhārā, in 7-beat metrical cycles, and plays brief interludes between verses.
Two women and one man sing a long, unidentified song. The purpose of this session was to playback transplanting songs from the 1938 A. A. Bake recordings and re-record the songs. They heard Bake 28.3 "Two Pulliya transplanting songs," Bake 28.4 "Two Pulliya kolāttam songs, Kolāttam (sticks)," and Bake 28.5 "Two boat racing songs, Kolāttam (sticks)." One non-Bake song was recorded. The singers are Nani, whose father was renowned for singing these songs; her husband, Thankappan, and their daughter, Molly, from Edayazham Vechoor, Taluk Vaikam, North Kottayam district. The recording location is the Mural Art Center, Archaeology Dept., Ettumānūr Post, Kottayam, Kerala. In the recent past transplanting songs were sung by 50 or more women in a row, with one or two singing as leaders who do not do the transplanting work. Their lines are repeated in chorus by the others. The tradition is becoming rare because many of the Puliyas have converted to Christianity and become educated, and seek jobs outside their traditional laborer class, so that other castes are doing the field labor. Molly, in fact, held a paper with the song texts from which she sang. The family did not know the Bake #28.4a song, but they remembered hearing it as children when their mothers and aunts sang it. They identified it as kadambi, a kolāttam (stick-dancing) song. Playback of Bake #28.4b was identified as a Paraja, not Pulaya.<br/><br/> Item 3: They sang another song, and could have sung many more, but the others were waiting to dance and it had become very late."
Maritheyyam (Mari Theyyam,) is an art form with ritual dance and ritual song about the myth of Maritheyyam, a kind of theyyam. It is performed in the Kannur District of Kerala during Malayalam month of "Karadakam" "monsoon season" (July-August) for the purpose of getting rid of the evil spirits by sweeping them out to the ocean. Traditionally there are six figures of gods. In this performance there are four figures of gods. Kalivan (Kaliyan) is a male kalam with a round headdress, face paint and skirt made from kuruthola (coconut palm leaves). The other three wear "haystack" costumes made from coconut palm leaves: Kalicci (Kalichi, Marikkalichi -- wife of Kaliyan, with face paint and a kuruthola headdress), Māriguḷikan (Māri Gulikan) (wears a mask and kuruthola headdress) and Mārippoṭṭan (wears a mask and a kuruthola headdress). The gods dance, accompanied by four musicians who sing; three play drums, including a tudi hourglass drum, and one plays a chengila (gong). Performed by N. Kanjan Pujari and party.
Kummāṭṭī - villu (Kummattikali) demonstration and performance. Kummāṭṭī is a form of processional mask dance from the central parts of Kerala. Earlier the group had listened to Bake's 1938 recordings, and said it was very old music, with the sound of the pancha vadyam made with the bows, which they could not do. There is discussion between the performances. <br/><br/>1. Bamboo villu - demonstration. A man demonstrates playing a villu, a struck bamboo bow with bamboo "string." <br/><br/>2. Palmwood villu - assembled. A man demonstrates assembling a villu: inserting the palmwood "string" into the bow. Demonstration of villu with iron "string." Six Nair Hindu boys perform two chanted songs in call-and-response form, while each strikes a villu in steady duple pulse. <br/><br/>3. Invocation to Siva. <br/><br/> (4. & 5. Listed with but not identified on the Data Sheet; not in the video) <br/><br/> 6. Ganapati. <br/><br/>7. Mask dance. Three musicians and six mask dancers. Folklorist Chummar Choondal shows Kummāṭṭī wooden masks (closeup shots) for Kummāṭṭī and speaks about each: Kattalan: the devil, Narasimha: avatar, Lord Krishna (but no connection to texts), Bhima, another Kattalan (Vidyaval), and Hanuman. Tala, an old hag, is the funniest but not here that day. Six Kummāṭṭī dancers put on masks as Chummar Choondal explains each. Chummar Choondal dances with the group, showing dance movements. <br/><br/>8. "Talai" song. Lighting of the thrikakara appan pyramids holding incense and a diyā oil lamp holding a flame, as would be displayed in front of Nair houses during Onam to show the path of the Kummāṭṭī procession. The masked dancers dance in front of the thrikakara as musicians play and recite verses to duple pulse villus. Organized by V. P. Paul, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur and A. K. Nambiar, Calicut University School of Drama. Performed at the Casino Hotel.
Pēnappāṭṭȧ, "Song of the Pena," a curing ceremony to remove evil or disease when a woman is pregnant. The pena is a single-stringed bowed lute instrument played only by Pulluvan community. There is no pena in this performance. Four Pulluvan musicians play one large Pulluvan kudam (variable tension harp), one small Pulluvan kudam, one jālra bell bronze cymbal, and one kinnam bronze pot or bowl. The three male singers and one elderly woman singer sitting behind the instrumentalist/singers are all led by one boy singer. <br/><br/>1. Song. Musicians sing and play their instruments seated beside an altar on the floor. A.C. Narayanan Vaidyar (main singer and kudam musician). <br/><br/>2. Dance. A dancer picks up a frond and flame from the altar and circles the altar. (12:43) the dancer runs off the stage with the fronds and flame. <br/><br/>3. Song. The musicians continue their song. (15:00) The meter of the song modulates from an 8-beat cycle to a 7-beat cycle played on the Pulluvan kudam: 2+2+3.
The Pulluvan serpent ritual is an annual festival to propitiate cobras living in a snake grove in a family garden. Pulluvan musicians play and sing behind a ceremonial diyā oil lamp, next to the 8-serpent kolam floor image, made of colored powders depicting the entwined ashta naaga. Musicians include Mr. Kumaran, the leader (singer, vīṇā kunju), Oravavan Kunnatha Raman (singer, vīṇā kunju, kudam), Mrs. Kumaran and her mother-in-law, Mrs. Parukutty, sing response verses. <br/><br/>1. Song in slow triple meter, accompanied by tāḷam (bell metal cymbals). <br/><br/> 2. Song in slow triple meter. The camera pans to the kolam (10:04), an attendant adds oil to the hanging diyas (10:15). There is a reverse pan to singers and vīṇā kunju players (11:15-11:27). A crouching man wrapped in white and wearing a white mask with floppy ears hops about, using comical animal-like gestures, pecking at the ground, and opening and closing his beak-like mouth (15:12). Ladies laugh at the creature (15:23). The camera pans to two women sitting in a trance in the center of the kolam (16:38). Traditionally, two young girls would perform this trancing role, but for some reason grown women were used this time. <br/><br/>3. Song with plucked kudam string and tāḷam (17:01). The priest makes puja preparations with the diya and areca nut blossoms facing the women seated on the kolam (18:47). Two women of the hosting household sit in a trance with their eyes closed in the center of the kolam, each holding fronds of areca nut blossoms. A pandal festooned with bamboo strips and four hanging diyas marks off the women's sacred space. Two women can be heard singing pulluvan pāṭṭu accompanied by musicians playing kudam and tāḷam. The camera pans left to the musicians. Priests light large diyā oil lamps. The camera pans right to the women in trances (22:12). The women begin swaying and shaking the areca nut blossoms as they enter further into their trances (22:22). The women's shaking areca nut blossoms are erasing the kolam powder designs in front of the women, whose hair loosens as they tremble. Fade-out (28:51). <br/><br/>4. Instrument demonstration and interview. The ritual is followed by Pulluvan pena/vīṇā kunju and kudam demonstrations, mostly in seven beat meter, with closeups of the inside of the pot using the flashlight of scholar L. S. Rajagopalan. This includes an interview with Rajagopalan about instrument parts. <br/><br/> 5. Song in seven-beat meter. Musicians play a song while singing alternately. The camera pans left to a pandal where priests light diyā lamps and build a sacrificial fire for a new puja. The song ends; Rajagopalan has a brief conversation with the Pulluvans. The preparation of ground beneath the pandal for a second kolam is completed. A new kolam design is begun (43:07). The pandal has been festooned with bamboo strips and hanging diyas. <br/><br/>6. Pulluvati woman sings while playing tāḷam, in six-beat meter. <br/><br/>7. Pulluvans continue creating the kolam designed in a circular shape. Tapping sounds of pierced coconut shells are audible as they deposit small amounts of white and colored powders. Fade-out/fade-up. A Pulluvan taps a coconut shell stencil to create curving lines of white dots. A Pulluvati applies colored powders by hand and pierced coconut stencils. Children sit on the sidelines and watch. Cut. Preparations continue for a second ritual with a different kolam design, with a rectangular base from which two entwined serpents emerge. A Pullavati applies contrasting dark powder onto turmeric-colored spaces. Cut. A distant shot of pandal and observers. Fade-out. This recording event is a restudy of recordings made of Pulluvans by A. A. Bake in 1938 in Ernakulam (Bake 31.3 "Pulloven snake song") and Calicut (Bake 40.13 "Pulloven snake worship," and Bake 40.14 "Pulloven addressing vina"), but in an actual ritual setting. Note: Jairazbhoy also recorded 7 items performed by a Pulluvan playing vīṇā kunju with Pulluvati playing Pulluvan kudam in 1975 in a village near Panjal, Thrissur District.
Performed by Guru P. K. Madhavan (Pillai) (a singer, drummer, and group leader) and party. Keraleeya Kalakal awardee 1982. Tinta Ganaka community. Padayāni is a folk and ritual dance form from the central Travancore District, performed for the Goddess Bhadrakali. Padayāni means a “row of soldiers” sent by Lord Siva at Lord Subrahmanya’s request to cool Goddess Kali’s anger, aroused the previous night during the Mudiyeṭṭu Theyyam when she fought and killed the demon Darika. The “soldiers” imitate the Goddess’ wrath, which causes her to laugh and forget her anger (see Event 59). <br/><br/>1. Padayāni Procession. Men carrying torches enter with performers of the dances to follow as musicians play. <br/><br/>2. Kutira (horse). The two dancers wearing costumes of kuruthola (coconut palm leaves) to make them look like they are riding horses. The riders leap to the rhythm of the drums. Loss of sound (04:12--04:58). <br/><br/>3. Pakṣi (bird) dance. The single dancer is a bird with a short dhoti, a bare chest, and a birdlike mask with green beak, arms has “wings” of bamboo spines with palm leaves. <br/><br/>4. Gaṇapati. A “soldier” Gaṇapati, with a short dhoti and bare chest, wearing a mask and holding palm leaves in each hand. <br/><br/>5. Yakṣi. Two female demons in green masks, tall painted crowns, long hair, and split bamboo skirts. <br/><br/>6. Kālāri, enemy of Death (Kala: god of death; ari: enemy), epithet of Lord Shiva, with five faces (panchamukha) including the ritualist’s painted green face, and long hair. He holds two staves. The dancer wears a headdress, and holds a flame and a sword. The dancer is carried away at the end of the dance. <br/><br/>7. Māṭan. A single dancer wearing a mask, holding a flame and Siva trident. The dancer is removed from the performance area. <br/><br/>8. Bhairavi. The goddess Bhadrakali, wearing an enormous painted kalam mask, up to 18 feet high, a breastplate, and a triangular waist piece made of areca tree laths. A single dancer with a very large mask that is as tall as the dancer. There are four musicians: one seated (thappu), and three standing musicians (cymbals, and 2 clapping hands) who sing.
Cākyār kuthu (Chakyar koothu), a monologue performance of the story of Hanuman narrated by P. K. G. Nambiar. <br/><br/>1. Prelude on Mizhavu, a copper pot drum with a leather head tied around the neck of a drum, played by a 14-year old boy facing a large diyā oil lamp. The Cākyār Kuthu actor P. K. G. Nambiar enters the stage dressed as Hanuman. (01:00) Mizhavu solo. (03:30) Dancer P. G. Nambiar costumed as a Brahmin character, holds white sacred thread yajnopavita, performs puja ritual with dance, and chanting of Sanskrit slokas. He acknowledges his two accompanists: a small boy playing small jālra cymbals and a 14-year-old boy playing a mizhavu in 7-beat metrical cycles (09:51). He then tells and enacts "Hanuman Pira" (or Hanuman Ouva), a vernacular narrative of the story of the birth and tales of Hanuman (13:25). He replaces his sacred thread, pats his stomach, and begins to evoke the monkey god Hanuman. <br/><br/>2. Birth of Hanuman narrative. (12:45) He then proceeds into vernacular and jocular storytelling. The camera zooms into Peter Brooks' group in the audience. (19:05) He recites a vernacular Malayalam narration of tales of Hanuman, Rama, Bali, Sugriva and others. Hanuman says "Narayana" "Shankar Narayana" "sampradāyanā" resulting in a big laugh from audience. He makes fun of people's names in the audience, such as shortening a man's name "Rādhakrishnan" to "Rādhā," a woman's name.
Malayan Kettu is connected with Velikkala Pāṭṭu. It can be performed to help a woman conceive, or to remove a curse. There are many kalams for the same purpose. A woman at the back of the stage holding bunches of leaves portrays the already pregnant "patient" for this performance. Performed by P. K. Panicker (Malayan dancer and teacher) and party. The musicians were Panans from Calicut. <br/><br/>1. Thotam (ballad) - Introduction to the Theyyam. Four musicians play percussion and concussion instruments: ceṇḍa (chenda) drum, vikku ceṇḍa (shorter length ceṇḍa), jālra bronze bell-metal cymbals, and a maddaḷam (a horizontal barrel drum). A Pillai Theeni (literally "child eater") demon, wearing a red headdress, red neck band with suspended beads, and costume, plays the maddaḷam and sings. He falls into a trance (06:50). <br/><br/>2. Pillai Theeni Theyyam introduction song. With an attendant, the demon leaves the other musicians and circulates the open area facing the audience. There is a break in the performance. A woman musician (13:27) begins to sing and play the maddaḷam. The pregnant "patient" is seated on the right, holding leaves in front of her face. <br/><br/>3. Pillai Theeni Theyyam. The musicians continue playing. The demon enters transformed, with pustule infested skin, wearing a split palm leaf skirt, and a split palm leaf headdress with flames. As the demon searches for the fetus of the pregnant woman, a targeted victim, one attendant offers a chicken as a decoy and sacrifice (18:38), which the demon accepts (19:30) and ultimately devours. There is a break in the performance, during which there is an announcement over a loudspeaker (33:38). <br/><br/>4. Rakteswari Theyyam (Rakteshwari, Rikteswari -- rakta-blood eswari-goddess). Because the Bhagavati goddess has been satisfied by the offering of a live chicken instead of a human foetus, she appears here in a joyful form in a large headdress and grass skirt with flames, blessing the audience by shouting and dancing. The performer enters to be costumed and sits so that an attendant can put a large headdress in place (35:10). There is a close-up of the face (35:35). The goddess stands still while attendants complete the preparation of this kalam costume, with seven flames on the palm frond border of the large, conical headdress, and four flames on the upper border of the column-shaped skirt. Rakteswari dances (39:42-48:26). Rakteswari is seated, the very large headdress is removed by attendants (51:00) and Rakteswari exits (52:04). The musicians sing (52:05-59:30). There is an announcement over a loudspeaker (59:32). Rakteswari is escorted back into the performance area by attendants (59:47) wearing a kalam costume with a columnar red skirt, long blue wig, and headdress with a semi-circular metallic crown, and red fabric back. Rakteswari dances, assisted by two attendants, for several minutes. The goddess is given a curved dagger or scepter (1:01:28) and dances. The goddess crawls up to a leaf with eggs on it (1:38:29), dances, and returns to the eggs. Having eaten the eggs, Rakteswari is transformed into a triumphant cobra as attendants attach a huge cobra costume made of slats of palm wood to the goddess (1:45:38). The headdress is too tall to fit in the enclosed performance area, so the performance is shifted to an adjacent open air area. The cobra circumambulates, bows (1:50:08), and spins (1:52:36). The cobra headdress is removed and the goddess exits (1:53:25). The asuras (demons), Darika and Danavendra are led into the performance area by attendants in costumes that include crowns, tubular skirts and beards. (1:53:32). The two crowned and bearded asuras are in military stance to show determination to fight Kali. They put on large, round headdresses (2:08:00). They dance, then exit the performance area (2:11:26). They return, their costumes removed except for the beards, and dance as the attendants assist them.
Poraṭṭu nāṭakam (Poṟāṭṭunāṭakaṃ) is a popular Tamil drama form performed in the Alathur and Chittoor taluks of the Palakkad District in Kerala. This performance was provided by Pānan community actors, accompanied by harmonium (here playing drone only), one ceṇḍa drum played upright with sticks, one maddaḷamdrum played by hands and held in the lap, and one pair of elathalam or kaimani bronze cymbals. An English announcement identifies the rhythm of the tune as tisram: triple meter. The instruments and players, dancers and characters are identified by name. (00:00) Instrumental prelude: ceṇḍa and kaimani. (02:50) A harmonium drone enters. (03:10) A male voice sings praise of the Guru in tisram triple meter while playing kaimani cymbals. (03:20) Other musicians repeat the line. (03:50) A solo singer changes rhythm from 3+3 to 2+2+2 creating a hemiola pattern. (04:30) Praise of Ganapati. (04:40) The story begins with a Chettichi character, the wife of a Chettiyar, who has left her husband. She enters and crosses the stage quickly several times, as if running away from her abusive husband. She is a transvestite dancer in a yellow sari, the color representing sex. (05:49) A 3+3 pattern changes to 2+2+2 creating a hemiola pattern again. A man (the Chettiyar?) enters and hits her with a baton, but the clown protects her. After a song and dance, the Chettichi dances alone. Dialogues alternate with dances, ending in a succession of dances to different rhythms and sung melodies. Performed by K. Viswam and party.
