Centre for Indian Performing Arts and Culture
By Christina Jackson

In its diamond jubilee year, Kerala Kalamandalam, set up by poet Vallathol Narayana Menon, has been awarded the status of  a deemed university, and henceforth it will be known as Kerala Kalamandalam Deemed Cultural University. It is the first cultural institution in the state to get the status of a deemed university.  A distinguished centre of excellence in performing Arts, Kalamandalam spearheaded the movement of cultural renaissance in Kerala. Established in 1930, the beautiful campus for performing arts seeped in classical music and dance, lies near the majestic River Nila in the village of Cheruthuruthy in Thrissur district.

The ancient Gurukula system of education continues to be a living tradition in this school which has over the years become a significant milestone in the cultural history of Kerala. Kalamandalam is invariably the best institution in India imparting training and conducting performance of Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Panchavadyam and Thullal. Its administration was taken over by the Kochi Devaswom Board in 1942. The institution started receiving grant from the Government in 1947. 

The Campus

From 1930 to 1971 Kalamandalam functioned in the beautiful campus in the village Cheruthuruthy beside the river Bhartappuzha. It was. indeed,  an ideal location which the visionary poet chose to preserve and promote Kerala's rich heritage of arts.   The growing number of students and teachers coupled with new courses  compelled a shift from Cheruthuruthy to the thirty-two acre campus at Vallathol Nagar. Most activities of  Kalamandalam now take place at Vallathol Nagar. The several many kalaris (training rooms), the Koothambalam (Temple-theatre), High School, College Library, Administrative Block, Art-gallery, Archive, Recording Studio, Hostels, Staff Quarters and the Employees' Co-operative Society are situated in the Vallathol Nagar Campus.   

Is Kathakali a stylized dance-drama?  Is it a pantomime? Can it be called a classical ballet?  One of the world's top-ranking poets and Nobel Laureates Rabindranath Tagore was instantly impressed by the aesthetic range and the narrative techniques of Kathakali when Kalamandalam presented a programme in Santiniketan.  Along with Manipuri, Tagore included Kathakali in the curriculum of Viswabharati. Kathakali was born only in the 17th century.  But in less than four centuries it grew up to represent India's cultural heritage to the world outside. 
Kathakali plays have their themes selected  from the great Indian epics, Raamayana, Mahaabhaarata, and the Bhaagavata.  The play synchronizes on stage nritta (pure dance),  nritya (expressional dance), naatya (histrionics), geeta (vocal music)  and  vaadya (percussion ensemble).  Kathakali characters communicate through the language of hand-gestures (over six hundred gestures are in use), body movements and facial expressions.  The text of the play is sung by the principal and supporting vocalists.  The dancers simiotically translate the songs into appropriate gestures, movements and expressions.  Chenda and Maddalam are the two major percussion instruments used in Kathakali.  They provide audio effect to the performance by tracing the character  behavior, which includes both the aamgika (gestural) and saatvika (emotional) aspects of abhinaya (acting).

A colorfully decorated piece of cloth functioning as a curtain, movable to any part of the stage and called tirassiila  is held by two persons  just before the entry and exit of all  main characters and on other specific occasions such as manifestation of deities.  This is a traditional theatrical device to transcend time and space. Kathakali make-up and costuming ( the aahaarya aspect of acting ) is intricate, elaborate and colorful.  It takes about  three hours for an actor to transform into a full-fledged character with facial make-up, head-gear, ornaments and colorful costumes.  Kathakali characters are broadly divided into noble, wicked and grotesque.  Their make-up and costumes differ from one another.  Love, Separation, virtue vs vice, comic-relief, emotional struggles, gruesome-war and murder are common scenes in the  Kathakali plays. 
Kalamandalam gives intensive training in Kathakali to young aspirants.  Body-massage is a must for Kathakali students.  Teachers will massage the students from head to foot in the wee small hours of the morning during monsoon - June to August.   After applying oil throughout the body the students have to take a set of exercises.  There are also post-massage exercises.  In Kalamandalam  Kathakali students are trained in such a way as to master the techniques first.  Character-analysis and emotional identification are encouraged to be  undertaken during successive stages of study according to individual preferences and leaving sufficient room for improvisation within the classical frame work.

Koodiyattam,  the sole surviving classical Sanskrit theatre has recently won the UNESCO’s recognition as an illustrious example manifesting intangible human heritage.  It is a two thousand year old theatre-tradition.  Traditionally Koothu and Koodiyattam are the privilege of the temple castes known as  Chakyars and Nambiars.  Chakyars enact the male-characters and Nangiars (the women of the Nambiars) enact the female-characters.  Nambiars play Mizhaavu, the major percussion-instrument in Koodiyattam. One finds in Koodiyattam more of naatyadharmi (stylized acting) compared to other classical art-forms. 

Apart from the epic heroes, heroines, villains and demonesses there is the Vidooshaka (Royal clown) who speaks three languages, Sanskrit, Prakrit (Crude form of Sanskrit), and the local dialect (Malayalam).  His words and actions convincingly portray the true-character of the protagonist.  In the past he was a social auditor.  His diatribes against the establishment and those in power were a corrective force in the feudal-society.  The main characters in Koodiyattam customarily enact 'Nirvahana'; a recollection of past events in the play to form a backdrop for stepping into the present. 

Nangiarkoothu brings to the forefront a female character, played by a dansuese. From the broader perspective of the Chakyar-arts It is  essentially the debut or nirvahana of the female character.  Nangiar in forty one days enacts Sreekrishna Caritam (The story of Lord Krishna).  She appears on stage as the ceed i(maid) of Subhadra (Krishna’s sister) in the play,  Subhadraadhananjayam of king Kulasekhara.  Theatre artists, choreographers and theatre researchers in different parts of the world  evince  keen interest in the aesthetic-dimensions of both Koodiyattam and Nangiarkoothu.  They come quite often to Kalamandalam for an intimate observation and analysis of these theatre traditions.

There is no precise historical evidence to establish the antiquity of Mohiniyatttam, the classical female dance-tradition of Kerala.  Probably it was evolved in the seventeenth century.  In the court of King Swathi Thirunal who ruled Travancore (South Kerala) in the 18th century,  Mohiniyattam  flourished along with Bharatanatyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu.  The post-Swathy period witnessed the downfall of Mohiniyattam.  'The dance of the enchantress' slipped into eroticism to satisfy the epicurean-life of some provincial satraps and feudal Lords.  Poet Vallathol rescued Mohiniyattam from total extinction.  It was added to the curriculum of Kalamandalam  at its very inception and within the past seven decades a number of prominent figures have emerged in the field, under its aegis,  giving shape to what has come to be known as the ‘kalamandalam style’. 

The make-up and costume of Mohiniyattam is simple and semi-realistic.  The dancer's face is made up of yellow and pink-paste.  She wears sandal colored, jerry - decorated  jacket and waist garment. .  Jasmin flowers adorn her tied up hair.  Her eyes are blackened with collirium and lips  reddened.  The theme of Mohiniyattam is, in general, devotional   love towards  God, the eternal lover.   Vishnu or Krishna is more often the hero.  We feel his invisible presence when the heroine or her companion (sakhi) describes him through graceful laasya (feminine) type of dance involving delicate  hand-gestures and   circular, wave like  body-movements.  In the slow and medium tempos the dancer finds adequate space for improvisations and suggestive facial expressions.  The invocation of Mohiniyattam is known as colkkettu.  jatisvaram, varnam, padam and tillaana are the other items in a Mohiniyattam-recital. Varnam is the piece of de resistance in Mohiniyattam.  Tillaana unfolds to the audience the dancer's rhythmic virtuosity.  Padam focusses on abhinaya.  Mridamgam, Violin  and Edakka lend excellent support to the vocal music and to the visual rhythm of Mohiniyattam.

Like Mohiniyattam Bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu and Kuchupudi of Andhra Pradesh are quite familiar to Keralites.  They enjoy watching these dance-forms.  Kalamandalam  offers training in Bharatanatyam and Kuchupudi as subsidiary subjects.

Thullal is a considerably simplified single-actor performing art that enjoyed  much more popular appeal than  Kathakali, the so called ‘total theatre’.  Kunchan Nambiar who lived in the 18th  century composed dozens of  tullal stories, adding  to the literature of the local language, Malayalam, a new genre which consisted  of  narrative   poetry  replete with  social criticism surcharged with   pungent satire and sarcasm.  These compositions were singularly  suitable for presentation on the stage  attracting even the unsophisticated illiterate through highly rhythmic recitation enlivened by  closely accompanying  percussion instruments and agile  dance involving mono-act.     Thullal has three varieties - Seethankan, Ottan and Parayan.  The distinction between them lies mostly in the make-up and costumes and to some extent in the metres and the rhythm used.  Thullal often reflects the literary, artistic and cultural life of the medieval Kerala.  The performer establishes easy rapport with the audience through verbal acting which is full of humor and social references.

Dr. VR Prabodha Chandran Nayar,  M.A. Ph.D.(Kerala), Ph.D.(London) 
Chairman, Kerala Kalamandalam
Cheruthuruthy Post, Thrissur District, Kerala
India - 679 531
http://geocities.com/vrpnayar/

Tel : +91-4884- 263440  (Office)
Tel : +91-471- 2451077(Residence)