Rakthachamundi Theyyam being held at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple as part of the annual 10-day festival in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
| Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
The sound of anklets and the ear-splitting cry of the Kantara and Panjurli Theyyam, which made a mark on celluloid, filled the Attukal temple premises on Friday when the dance was staged for the first time in Thiruvananthapuram in all its original and grand format.
The Theyyam performance was the highlight of the cultural space at Attukal during the 10-day Pongala festival that has grown over the years to accommodate over 300 art performances.
The Kantara Theyyam, Panjurli and Rakthachamundi in tow, was staged on Day 5 of the festival by the Kozhikode Theyyatta Kala Samiti, a conglomerate of artistes who have the ritual art handed down to them over generations.
Kantara and Panjurli Theyyam are usually performed by the Mavilan and Malavettuvan tribes and are part of the different variations of Theyyam staged annually in the sacred groves of Malabar. Performed after staunch austerities observed for nearly two months, the art demands a unique agility, both of the body and the mind.
Attukal temple has a history of Thottampattu, which is held on all the days of the annual festival. Staging the Theyyam at the temple hints at a twist to the festival traditions that have so far retained a marked regional flavour.
‘Welcome change’
Such changes are welcome, according to Sivadasan C.K., who led a team of 10 artistes from Kozhikode who performed the three Theyyams in a manner that suited the “sobriety” of the deity at Attukal. Rakthachamundi is otherwise a very fiery dance performed usually past midnight and involves frenzied scenes where the dancer remains high-wire as though in a wrathful trance.
“We cannot enact that format here. Rakthachamundi Theyyam is for the worship of the fiery form of the goddess,” he says. The same is the case with Kantara and Panjurli, which too are warring forms that caught the fancy of many after the success of the Rishab Shetty flick.
The art is now in demand beyond Malabar where temples want to stage Theyyam, not as an aside in the ceremonial processions but as a full-fledged ritual. “We have performed at temples in Ernakulam, Thrissur, Chettikulangara, and also at Sabarimala, where we have been staging the Malikappuram Theyyam for the past few years,” says Mr. Sivadasan, who is a guest faculty for Theyyam at the School of Drama and Fine Arts, Thrissur.
