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."
Thiruvathirakali, women's dance and song. Performed in response to the 1938 A. A. Bake recording, Bake 31.1 "Karkotakali (Thiruvadarakali)." Thiruvathirakali is a dance tradition named for a star of Siva. The star has a festival in December-January, Dhanu, when Thiruvathirakali is performed, as well as at the Onam harvest festival. It is also called kaikottikali, "hand-clap-play." Ten ladies perform the six dances in a clockwise circle around a tall diya, bronze oil lamp. 1. Praise of Saraswati.<br/><br/> [2. Incident from the story of Daksayaga. Only in the audio?] <br/><br/>3. Traditional song by an anonymous poet [not in video?]. <br/><br/>4. Uttara Swayamvaram: about a princess' marriage in the Mahābhārata, originally a Kathakali song composed by Irayamman Tampi.<br/><br/> 6. Mangalacharanam: auspicious concluding song. Group leader: L. Chinnamma; members Parubutti Amma; Ammini Mussath and seven others. The recording location is the Mural Art Center, Archaeology Dept., Ettumānūr Post, Kottayam, Kerala.
