THEYYAM IN NORTHERN KERALA

 

The word ‘Theyyam’ might have originated from the word ‘Daivam’(God).  It also has its origin from ‘Ancestor Worship’.  There are more than 400 types of Theyyam, namely Vettaikkorumakan, Machilot Bhagavathy, Sree Muthappan and Kathivanoor Veeran.  It is mainly performed in Northern Malabar especially in Kasargod and Kannur districts and in the taluks of Koyilandi and Vadakara in Kozhikod district. 

Theyyam deities have their origins from people who were in the lower castes of the Kerala’s caste system and so they were also performed by them.  Theyyam season covers seven months, starting from the tenth of ‘Thulam’ (Malayalam month) and ends in the middle of ‘Edavam’ (from October to May of every year).  Theyyam is also known as ‘Kaliyaattam’ and ‘Tira’.  It is actually considered as a channel to a ‘God’ and thus people seek blessings from Theyyam. Theyyam is performed in front of the village shrine or kaavu. 

The dancers use ‘Thandava’ and ‘Laasya’ in their performance.  They wear war bonnet, breast plate, waste dress and head dress (Mudi).  They are made up of bamboo sticks, red clothes wooden pieces and coconut leaves.  The body painting and face art of Theyyam is one of the best examples of folk painting in Kerala.  The natural colours like red, orange, yellow, black and white from sandal wood, red sandal wood, turmeric, lime, rice flour are used for them.

The dancer comes in front of the shrine and the ‘metamorphosis’ of a Theyyam into the particular deity of the shrine happens then.  This performance is a combination of playing musical instruments like chenda, thudi and kuzhal.  The dancer also has a shield and a sword in his hand.  Classical dances outshone folk dances at the course of time. Similarly, ‘kathakali’s marketing outshone ‘Theyyam’ and it became the face mark of Kerala.  ‘Theyyam’ however, survives in the northern part of Malabar even now.

https://youtu.be/OoOj4Fy8RNc

-----Thulasidharan V

 

 

Malayalam’s Ghazal – Jeet Thayyil

 

Jeet Thayyil (1959 - ) is a performance poet, journalist, writer, editor, and guitarist who has published four collections of poetry and fiction.  He has won many awards including DSC (Distinguished Service Cross) prize for South Asian Literature and Sahitya Academy award for English literature.  ‘Malayalam’s Ghazal’ is a poem taken from Jeet’s ‘Collected Poems’.  The poem depicts what is lost in translation.  As every language has its own identity and depth, the poet asks the readers to open the windows to the fresh air of their mother tongue.  The word ‘Malayalam,’ a palindrome is repeated at the end of all couplets in the poem. That adds beauty to this poem.

Agni – Sithara. S (1972 - )

 

Sithara is a Malayalam short story writer and translator of repute.  She has won Kendra Sahitya Academy Golden Jubilee Award and also Kerala Sahitya Award for her short stories.  Sithara’s characters are rebels with a difference.  They just pass over shameful situations and laugh at the stereotypification of gender roles.  Her heroines search for their genuine individualities.  Her ‘Agni’ is the story of a rape survivor who declines either to be prosecuted or to be destroyed with disappointment or disrespect.  She resolves to penalize the wrongdoers on her own way of vengeance.

When Priya finished typing in her office, it was dark.  She had to ride her cycle for ten minutes along a narrow lane with undergrowth lining its sides to reach her house.  On seeing three men standing on the road, she stopped her bike in shock.  One of them was Sanjeev, a burly fellow who ran a telephone booth near her office.  The other one was Ravi, a spoiled rich boy whom once Priya had slapped for his taking an obscene liberty with her in a bus.  The third one was a stripling who had barely sprouted a moustache.  One picked her off and the other clamped her mouth shut.  The third hesitated slightly on seeing a sanitary pad, but that didn’t stop him.  All her struggles had no any use.  All the three raped her brutally.  After raping, Ravi slapped her and shouted that she should learn how it would be if she played with men.  Priya slipped into a semi-conscious state as the third one moved away from her.

When she came to her senses, Priya dragged herself to her feet with great effort.  Her body was full of unfamiliar aches.  She got into her clothes that were lying scattered somewhere, took her bicycle and reached home.  Her mother was in the kitchen, her sister before the television and father was not at home from work.  Priya went into her room and closed the door.  She washed her body twice.  She decided not to cry.  The next day Priya went to the office as usual.  On seeing her Sanjeev asked her how she felt the previous day.  Priya said that he wouldn’t be able to satisfy a woman.  Then she turned to Ravi and said that he was a real man.  On her way home from work in the evening, she stopped her bike, ignored Sanjeev but smiled at Ravi.  When she got home, the stripling was waiting for her.  He sobbed and begged to forgive him.  Priya patted his hair and asked him to go.  Priya went to Sanjeev’s booth every day and called up all her friends and watched the feeling of inferiority creeping over his face every time, with the spirit of vengeance.  Similarly, whenever she saw Ravi, smiled at him.  However, that created uneasiness in Ravi.  Actually, these small triumphs gave great satisfaction to Priya.

When Ravi asked Priya one day why she smiled at him, she said that she liked him.  For the next two days Priya did not go to the office.  Priya felt she hated herself.  Ravi came to her house, when she was alone and said that he has realized his love towards her.  Then Priya asked Ravi whether that love began the day that she had slapped him. The confused Ravi asked whether she was taking revenge on him and then buried his face in his hands and started to cry.  Priya too started crying and said that his love was her revenge.  Raising his face, Ravi then touched her tear-stained cheeks as if to console her with retreating fingers.  Thus ‘Agni’ presents sexuality and man-woman relationship from a totally different perspective.

----Thulasidharan V