Theyyam: Indian Folk Ritual Theatre-an Insider's Vision

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Theyyam is a prominent colourful ritual and folk-art tradition of India.

Originating in the northern districts of Kerala, a small state in the southwest corner of India, the performers are daily-wage labourers in their everyday life struggling to eke out an existence. Yet when they perform at the estate of their masters, the latter bow before them with folded hands and are reprimanded for their wrongdoings.

The alluring facial-body drawings with intricate and subtle nuances and the colourful paraphernalia, including various headgears in different shapes, are endlessly fascinating The unpolished rhythm of Theyyam enhances its appeal. Concepts such as Mother, Nature, Fertility and Agriculture, Spirit and Ghost, Ancestors, Animal, Reptile and Warrior, among others, are worshipped as Theyyam which refers to both the form and the performance. In fact, ancestor worship in Theyyam is an example of Indian shamanism. While men from a few particular communities hereditarily perform, most Theyyams are women worshipped as Mother Goddesses.

Any devotee, irrespective of religion or caste, can touch God and directly interact too without the help of intermediaries such as priests.

Art scholar and photographer K.K. Gopalakrishnan has written this comprehensive account from the insightful point of view of an insider. He has also captured Theyyam in its myriad facets in a variety of stunning photographs that adorn the pages of this visually resplendent book.

K.K. Gopalakrishnan, popularly known as both KK and KKG, is a distinguished writer photographer hailing from Kerala. A connoisseur specialising in Kerala performing arts, he is a well-known contributor to India's leading newspapers and periodicals. A recipient of the Government of India's coveted Tagore National Scholarship, he has authored the critically acclaimed work Kathakali Dance-Theatre - A Visual Narrative of Sacred Indian Mime (2016; Niyogi Books).

A former Director of the Centre for Kutiyattam of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi, since December 2022 Gopalakrishnan is the Director of the South Zone Cultural Centre of the Government of India, Ministry of Culture, where he works tirelessly to preserve the indigenous art traditions of southern India. He hails from the Hindu matrilineal family Kamballoore Kottayil which has patronised Theyyam for over three centuries, including a Muslim Theyyam.

Theyyam being a 'Total Art Form', the research has to be accomplished from various angles of anthropology, history, language, theatrical/choreographical aspect, rituals, folklore, performance art, and plastic arts Nevertheless, a comprehensive study of all these has not been attempted so far. Hence, K.K. Gopalakrishnan's present volume from an insider's point of view is a welcome study on Theyyam.

So far, the studies which have been done have been like five blind men floundering to find out how an elephant has to be described. Some pertinent facts have been brought out from their respective points of view, but a substantial result has not emerged. Theyyam is unique in combining the aesthetic aspect of all art forms and some extra mystical power for the performer to go through the strenuous ability to walk through fire and be in the performing area for hours.

Kölathunät extends from Chandragiri, the river south of Mangalore, upto Kora, the river north of Kozhikode. Nearly 180 km long and about forty km wide on an average, situated between high mountains in the east and the Arabian Sea to the west, this region is thickly populated. Evergreen tropical forests, lush with herbal medicinal plants, cover the mountains where wild animals still roam; while the plains around contain mainly rice fields and banana-areca-coconut plantations. Several streams flow down the mountains, join the rivers in the plain, and meander to the sea. Geography, inevitably, influences local life, and dwelling in this rough terrain, amidst wild animals, they adjust to the vagaries of its climate. Water, rice, coconut and flowers have been essential ingredients in every ritual connected with the life of the local people since time immemorial.

The ballads of Kõlathunät, known as valakkan pattukal or songs from the north, are still alive in the oral tradition, often sung by the women at work in the paddy fields. Rich in poetic beauty, the vatakkan pattukal glorifies legendary heroes and heroines such as Tacholi Otēnan, Unniyärcha, and others, besides episodes from the various Theyyams.

Long before the Brahminical varnäshrama impact spread in the society on the west coast of South India, an indigenous culture fount can be traced to the most primitive people. Fire, water and wind were the prime energies the primitive people were fond of and afraid of. People attributed divinity to the immense power of these energies and began to propitiate nature worship. Germination of seed enthralled the people and led them to worship the earth. Dancing has been a ritual performing art form from the time of primitive society. Perennial resources for the tribes were forests and animals living therein. The people who depended upon these had earmarked seasons by instinct or habit. When to hunt or refrain is in tune with the mating and birthing season of animals.

When agriculture was introduced, the farms were safeguarded from wild animals by chasing them away or hunting them. The killed quarry's spirits were also often deified and worshipped to avoid a backlash.

The portrait of the power of divinity through magical patterns or objects.

sounds or movements of the body, often forms the basis of the ritual. Using these as mediums of communication between the divinity and devotees and ...in the state of identification with the deity, the performers walk on fire or strike themselves with sharp swords, utter prophecies and spells to ward off famine and pestilence and give their blessings to the rural community The simple religious faith of the village folk supports them in their roles, seeking their benediction, believing in their pronouncements and fearing their warnings... The majority of these Theyyams are earth deities who protect the rural community and make it prosper. They do not live in the heavens above the clouds but on this red earth sharing it with their worshippers. Since the deities are here on earth, rural folk find them more approachable than the celestial beings, engage in dialogue with them, ask for favours from them, and even remonstrate with them.....Among these divinities are the deified ancestral spirits whose sphere of influence is confined to their descendants and families whom they protect and are worshipped. Some deities are supreme in their localities and are honoured only in that area while others have a wider prevalence.""

The fantastic ingenuity of the people who visualised and gave forms and invented legends attributed to various characters connected to the whole spectrum of Theyyam is terrific. The present generation is harvesting the dividends of the artistic treasure invested in the past's rural set-up.

A reader of this book may well ask me why I chose to write it. There are about a hundred books on Theyyam in Malayalam. Far fewer in English. The books have been written for various purposesc for socio-anthropological study, dissertations, research grants, and to satisfy the curiosity of tourists with cursory information about the form. Bearing in mind the folk, ritual, social and theatrical elements of a form like Theyyam, its customs, and the factors behind the natural grooming of artistes, any writing on Theyyam by an 'outsider' is bound to have inherent limitations.

Theyyam cannot be viewed as a mainstream performance radition. Its centuries-old literature (thottam and mumbunthanam) was preserved until very recently exclusively through oral transmission. It unveiled human history life, social culture and practice, and the diachronic perspective of northern Kerala Malayalam sans Brahminical or Sanskrit influence.

How old is Theyyam? The basics of the form we endorse today probably took shape after the fifteenth/sixteenth centuries. It resulted from a crucial and historical interaction between Manakkātan Gurukkal and the then Chirakkal king, on the latter's initiative. The late veteran scholar C.M.S. Chandera considers the Chirakkal king's patronage of Theyyam as seminal. Nevertheless, the Chirakkal king neither choreographed a Theyyam nor composed any relevant literature.

Cherusseri Nampütiri (1375-1475), the pre-eminent epic poet, mentioned the post-harvest festival Onam but not Theyyam. It is possible that at that time, Theyyam did not have sufficient court patronage.

Theyyam is also not well documented. There are about a thousand forms, mostly rarely performed, except deep in the countryside. Nevertheless, of the 350 to 400 identified, only about 200 Theyyams have a distinctiveness, according to Chandera. Behind the origin of each form (kölam) lies an amusing story.

During an ordinary Theyyam festival (kaliyattam), five to ten different forms are usually staged. I have witnessed various performances in my decades of association with this form. Many practicing artistes enabled me to identify substantial Theyyam forms and know more about them.

The art of Theyyam, with extensive rituals, customs and culture, aesthetics evolved from the soil, communal harmony, elements of anomalistic psychology and belief, dynamic changes and flexibility, has always been dear to my heart. It elevates the subaltern to the stature of God, whom one can touch and freely and directly interact with to discuss problems to reach a solution. My love for Theyyam goes back to my days as a toddler. Looking back, I wonder at the sheer number of performances I have watched, fondly recall the interactions I have had with the artistes and patrons, and ponder over the photographs I have clicked for the artistes who are/were my friends, for the media and myself.

While Kathakali and Küțiyättam keep me going when I am in central Kerala, whenever I am back in my home town, Theyyam (and Kalarippayattu too) occupy my mind and rekindle old memories. I return to my roots in the picturesque, remote villages such as Kamballoore (near Cherupuzha in Kasaragod district), where I was born in a small delivery room of a big house that my maternal grandfather built and not far from the Kamballoore Kottayil tharawat. Theyyam opened several windows of aesthetics and benevolence to my soul and was instrumental in moulding my outlook on the world around me, providing me with a lifelong lesson in humility. Additionally, it helped me become frank and direct by nature while dealing with shady characters and naysayers in our cultural arena there are many, inviting more foes among them.

Both my parents hail from families who are highly respected patrons of Theyyam. The Kamballoore Kottayil (K.K.) family is a significant patron. The annual kaliyattam rituals start here to mark the beginning of the season (usually the last week of October as per the Malayalam calendar). An added attraction is that a Muslim Theyyam has been performed here for centuries. I belong to this tharavat in the Kasaragod district, which follows the matrilineal lineage.

My first experience of an art form was Theyyam, more than half a century ago in Kamballoore Kottayil, as a child perched on my maternal grandmother's hip or someone of that stature in the family. I vividly recall Theyyam performances that I watched as a child of eight or ten. Besides the annual kaliyättams at their tharavat and the kärs, my father's family, Periyätan Katinjappally, in Vellore of Payyannur (Kannur district), possesses the köyma (hereditary supervisory rights) of a few nearby Theyyam venues. This matrilineal family was once known for its acclaimed Sanskrit scholars and Ayurveda physicians. For a long time in the past, they never accepted any remuneration for their teaching and medical treatment. However, the Land Reforms Act of 1963 (Kerala) soon compelled them to charge for medicines administered, which gradually resulted in the cessation of these practices and the tradition itself. My maternal grandfather's family, Kototh, is among the highly regarded patrons of Theyyam in northern Kerala.

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