Padayani: The spirit of central Travancore

- By Aishwarya Javalgekar and Deepa Krishnan

Kerala is famous for its rich cultural heritage, and has many popular art forms to its name. But an art form that is perhaps not yet widely known is Padayani; the worship of Mother Goddess, practiced in the Bhagavathy temples of the central Travancore region.

http://pathanamthittatourism.com/destinations/heritage/padayani.php

Padayani is not just an art form. It is a community gathering to ensure the physical and mental well-being of the entire village. It is a set of rituals that transcends the boundaries of caste and religion, generating a sense of unity.

The legend says that Padayani originated as a form of prayer to pacify the goddess Kali, after she killed the demon Darika. This art form has several important cultural aspects:

• Kolamezhuthu - These are beautiful and elaborate coloured drawings of folk deities. Kolams individually embody a certain character associated with spirits and deities. They are made from natural materials which comprise spathes (paalas) of the areca nut palm tree. Natural colours are painted on these paalas using a brush made from the stem of a coconut leaf. 
• Kolappattu - Folk songs with traditional lyrics that include the exaltation of the deities, as well as requests to obtain their grace
• Thappumelam - Musical performance specially featuring a Thappu, a drum made by covering a jackfruit hardwood piece with buffalohide
• Kolamthullal - A dance form that accompanies the festival
• Vinodam - Satire, an essential part of Padayani! This is performed making fun of petty vanities of people, as well as to target areas for social reform.

In this outstanding video below, you can see entire cultural process explained with English sub-titles. The first 3 minutes are an excellent introduction in Malayalam, without sub-titles, but the rest of the video has wonderful sub-titles.

Some practical information:

Padayani performances at temples are easily accessible from Cochin, Kumarakom or Alleppey. They are performed at night outside Bhadrakali temples, during the Padayani festival, typically between March and April. If you are visiting India this September, you can attend the padayani at the Neelamperoor Bhagavathy Temple at Kottayam on 29 Sep (photo below). It's only a 2hr drive from Cochin, and a 1hr drive from Kumarakom or Alleppey. 

http://babuscamera.blogspot.in/2008/09/pooram-padayani-at-neelamperoor.html

You can stay overnight in Kottayam if you prefer. The Athreya Ayurvedic Resort in Kottayam provides excellent therapies, so you can combine a detox stay with a festival visit. They also have yoga practitioners who can teach you yoga. 

If you'd like more information about a tour that incorporates the Padayani festival, please send an email to deepa@magictoursofindia.com. Or you can also look up the Kerala Festival Calendar (search for "patayani") to see the schedule. 

What is Culture? Thoughts upon seeing the Sarpam Thullal of Kerala

What is culture? It is a way of life, rich with symbols and meaning.

I do not have adequate words to express the many layers of myth, legend, and beliefs that are in this Sarpam Thullal video. This is actually a 3-part video series. Please see it. Look at the number of people involved in it. Look at all the elements. Music, art, craft, religion, food, ecology, environment, people, clothing, all the richness of the land....everything is embodied in this video.

If Sarpam Thullal ends, all of this culture will die. The communities who depend on it for survival will lose a way of life. The musicians will stop singing. The artisans will stop making these crafts. The beautiful sarapakkalams will stop being drawn.

This post is not really about Sarpam Thullal. It is about culture and change. I fear that we are already losing much that is unique about our land. Under our very noses, a whole way of life is being lost through the relentless urbanisation of India. And it's not a slow, gradual change. It is abrupt change, in the space of a single generation.

I agree that change is inevitable. That some of the ways of our forefathers are no longer feasible. But we have much that is good. How do we save this?

Suprabhatam – The Dawn Prayer

- by Deepa Krishnan

This morning I listened to Suprabhatam - the Dawn Prayer - as sung in the Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh. This is the prayer sung to wake up the sleeping Lord Vishnu. To me, there has always been something mesmerising and calming about the sound of this morning chant. 

Perhaps the sound of Sanskrit appeals to me; or perhaps it is the cadence itself, or perhaps it is the knowledge that I am listening to something very old.

On an impulse, I looked up the Tirumala website for a translation of the Dawn Prayer - and found myself captivated by the beauty of the lyrics.

Wake up, Lord, the song says, wake up! See the beauty of the Dawn! 
The breeze carries the scent of half-opened blue lotuses; it blows gently through coconut and arecanut trees. 
Green parrots in beautiful cages open their eyes; they eat bananas and sweet payasam, and sing gracefully. 
The black bees hum loudly, declaring themselves more beautiful than the flowers! 
Wake up, Lord, and with your waking, render the three worlds auspicious!

For me, the imagery these words conjure up is very "South Indian". In my mind, I can see a green prosperous fertile country, with rice fields and coconut groves, where the morning brings with it gentle breezes and calm beauty. 

Dark-skinned beautiful women walk in the fields, their sarees brilliant with colour. Temple spires – tall, colorful gopurams - rise above the trees. White oxen are being yoked to the plough. Everything is green and beautiful…and somehow blessed. (It is just me or does anyone else see these things? I don’t know!) 

Other than descriptions of the land, the Dawn Prayer also contains poetic descriptions of Vishnu:
Darling child of Kausalya! Lord with the Eagle Banner! 
Lord of the Seshachala Hills! Padmanabha, he of the Lotus Navel! 
Purushottama, ideal among Men! Madhava! Janardana! Chakrapani, Holder of the Divine Discus! Lord of the ten incarnations! He whose body is marked by the sacred Srivatsa sign!

The names go on, each bringing with it more and more rich visual images, until the whole Dawn Prayer is infused with a divine grace where God and Nature intertwine, where lines blur, where all you can see is the glory of the Universal Truth manifested in everything around you. 

Dawn sighting of the Lord of Tirumala!

Is it not fitting, then, that the dawn darshanam (sighting of the Lord) in the Tirumala temple is also called “Viswarupa Sarva darshanam”? (For those who do not know, the Viswarupa is the Cosmic Form of the Lord, said to contain the entire Universe in itself).

I am not religious, but I tell you, the Suprabhatam with its full meaning is enough to give me goosebumps.

My only regret is that my knowledge of Sanskrit is still half-baked, that three years of learning it is nowhere near enough to appreciate its depth and grace.

Truly, when you do not know the languages of your ancestors, you have lost half the world.

Araiyar Sevai: Sacred Recitals of the Vaishnavite Faith

Credit: Bharathwaj Thirumalai Ananthanpillai

Although it is 1200 years old, not many people know about Araiyar Sevai, a sacred art form of Tamil Nadu.

Araiyar Sevai is centered on the ritual singing and dance-enactment of the hymns of the Naalayiram Divya Prabandham (The 4000 Sacred Verses).

These verses were composed by the 12 Alvars (Poet-Saints) in praise of Vishnu, and were compiled in their present form by Nathamuni during the 9th–10th centuries. These hymns are still sung extensively today. However the enactment / performance of these hymns by the Araiyars is now increasingly rare.

Araiyar Sevai is usually performed in the presence of the temple utsavamoorty, i.e., the temple's processional deity.

Although temple inscriptions suggest its performance was once widespread, it is today only performed in a few temples in Tamil Nadu. These include the main temple at Srirangam, the Azhagiya Manavala Perumal and Alwar Tirunagari Temples near Trichy, and the temple of Andal at Srivilliputhur.

The performers are known as the Araiyar, and like all such traditions in India, it is a group of hereditary performers, who train from childhood to become proficient in the art. The photo below is from Srirangam:

Credit: http://jaghamani.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post_19.html

An araiyar sevai begins with a ritual summons, where the officiating priest calls upon the araiyar to come before the deity. The araiyar replies with a formulaic response and puts on the araiyar kullai (a conical hat) as he approaches. He then sounds a few strokes on the cymbals and begins the performance.

Each verse is performed in three steps. In the first, the araiyar sings the verse. In the second, he dances a few steps which, through a system of ritualised gestures, give expression to the literal meaning of the verse. In the third step, he explains the inner meaning of the verse, as explained in Tampirāṉ paṭi, a traditional commentary on the Divya Prabandham.

In this video you can see a performance: see the high musical quality of the story-recital:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMgDUTnq910 

Here is another performance, this one is quite different and I enjoyed watching the slow progress of the dance steps. The mudras and the footwork definitely have similarities with the other classical dance forms of South India, thus establishing their roots in the Natya Shastra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su5C4crgWKI
In this video, you can see how a program begins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl_9LTxQxkM 

In this video, I was happy to see a young Araiyar, although there is not much happening in the video by way of music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cPtXHTvtk

The tradition is dying. Why? Because, frankly, we don't reward any of our performing arts. There is no patronage system that will entice a young man to adopt the way of life of his ancestors. We neither know about these arts, nor do we actively encourage them.

Here is the story of 83-year old Araiyar Srinivasa Rangachariyar, which I found on a blog. He has been peforming since the age of 13. I was delighted to see his grandson being trained. But there is simply not enough income! And yet the responsibility of keeping the art alive is on the shoulders of this young man. How will he manage?

Blog by Prabhu S: http://prtraveller.blogspot.in/2010/12/araiyar-sevai-saving-rare-art.html