Pulluvan vina

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A woman plays pulluvan vina at the Veerabhadra Swami Temple in Ashtamudi, Kollam District.

Pulluvan vina , pulluvān vīṇā, also vinakkunju, veenakkunju, naga-vina, is a one-stringed string lute with a circular body, which is played by the Pulluvan, a low-ranking caste of traveling musicians in the southern Indian state of Kerala, to accompany ritual songs. The Pulluvan are valued in rural regions as specialists in a snake cult ( Malayalam nagakalam or pambin tullal ) for the worship of the snake deity Naga . During the ritual, which takes place in a private home or on the grounds of a temple, of which music is an indispensable part, two young women fall into a state of obsession. The male musicians ( pulluvan ) repeat the melody of their ritual song with the pulluvan vina , while the women (pulluvati) usually accompany each other with the single-stringed plucked drum pulluvan kudam .

Origin and Distribution

A pulluvan pattu ensemble with pulluvan vina, elathalam and pulluvan kudam in P. Smaraka Mandiram in Kanhangad, Kasaragod district , the house museum of the poet P. Kunhiraman Nair (1905–1978).

The name vina is first used in Yajurveda around 1000 BC. In the course of time , in ancient Indian Sanskrit scriptures, various types of stringed instruments were documented and designated : In the 1st millennium BC Chr. Were with vina bow harps meant Buddhist reliefs on the stupas from the 2./1. Century BC Lutes with a slender, pear-shaped body, a long neck and three to five strings are recognizable and on reliefs from the 1st and 2nd centuries in the Gandhara region , lutes with a short neck and two to three strings are depicted. At least the expression kacchapi vina (a vina with a body made from a “turtle”, cf. hasapi ) may have stood for an ancient Indian lute instrument. From the end of the 1st millennium onwards, rods called vina zither replaced the now-vanished bow harps .

The pulluvan vina has except the name not directly related to ancient Indian string instruments. Other sounds, which occur in numerous different forms in India, also refer by their name, regardless of the origin of their form, to terms in ancient Indian literature, such as the spit- lute ravanahattha , which is probably the oldest Indian string instrument, played by street musicians in Rajasthan . The South Indian long-necked lute gottuvadyam is much more recent and only received its design in the 19th century, but was given the second name chitravina in order to put it in a line of development with ancient Indian instruments . Many Indian string instruments, even if they have a name handed down from Sanskrit, can be traced back to Arab-Persian instruments that came to South Asia with the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and Central Asia , and can be traced back to developments since the Mughal period ( from the 16th century). Around 1800 in northern India the Persian rabāb was used to develop the long-necked lute with a round body sursingar (from Sanskrit swara , "note, melody", and sringara , "ornament, romance") and that in the 1860s from the Afghan plucked Kabuli The sarod that originated from rubāb was also called Sanskrit sharadiya vina ("autumnal vina ").

In Indian folk music , bow-struck bowl-neck lutes are used, the body of which consists of a hollowed-out piece of wood and a skin, like the pulluvan vina , are the sarinda and their regional descendants in northern India , the kamaica in Rajasthan , the mostly single-stringed banam in Jharkhand and the three-string bana in Madhya Pradesh . Simple spit violins include the one or two-string ektara and, in northeast India, the pena . BC Deva (1977) estimates that at least 50 string instruments appear in regional folk music and in the music of the Adivasi . At most, vague statements can be made about their age.

Wandering musicians and actors belonged to the lowest class of the population in ancient Indian times, as was the case between the 2nd century BC. The work Manusmriti, which originated in the 2nd century AD, can be found. In Arthashastra , the textbook on state theory that was written around the same time, the traveling musicians, like the rest of the traveling people, are considered to be easy-going idlers and drinkers, who at least entertain the townspeople in a varied way and are useful as spies and valued as such if necessary. The social position of traveling musicians is determined by the caste system to this day. Despite their low social status, they fulfill an essential function as experts in certain religious and social rituals.

Design

Pulluvan vina , played in the Veerabhadra Swami Temple in Ashtamudi.

The body of the pulluvan vina is circular with a flat bottom and is made from one piece of wood. Usually one uses for this (and for other musical instruments) the fast growing and light but firm wood of Gmelina arborea , which is called kumilu in Malayalam . As the skin of a ceiling serves Warans ( udumbu ) which is tensioned at approximately solid at a distance of two centimeters at the edge of the skin and merged under the bottom cords. A short, narrow neck made of jackfruit wood is glued to the body. The neck, which is semicircular on the underside and flat on the top, widens at the base of the body to form a crescent moon, which allows stable attachment, and ends in an artfully carved pegbox. The end of the peg box, which is divided into three turned ridges, is formed by an S-shaped, curved decorative motif, which is supposed to represent a Naga head. The string runs from its fastening point at the lower edge of the body over a flat bridge placed close to the edge on the skin to a wooden peg on the side. In the past the string was made of plant fiber, today nylon, cotton or metal are used.

The bow ( vina kolu ) is a round stick made from the wood of the betel nut palm with a loosely attached bundle of horse hair. When playing, the musician pushes the hair a little sideways with one finger in order to stretch it.

A string instrument with two strings used in a comparable cultural context in Kerala is the nanduni , which has a long oval body. They play low castes in songs called nanduni pattu in honor of the goddess Bhadrakali.

Style of play and cultural significance

Pulluvan and snake cults

Snake stones ( nagakal ) in a sacred snake grove ( sarppakavu ) in Kunnamkulam, Thrissur district .

The Pulluvan are a group of wandering musicians and singers who are counted among the Scheduled Castes , the lowest level of the Indian caste system, and who used to belong to the " untouchables ". Most of them live scattered across Kerala on the outskirts of villages. They are known for the snake cult nagakalam , accompanied by music , which they perform on behalf of higher-caste groups such as the Nayar , but not for Brahmins . The Nayar commission the ritual to avert a threatening curse ( naga dosham ) of the Nagas or to heal an evil that has already arisen through their magical powers. These include childlessness, the death of a child, the lack of a suitable marriage partner and unemployment. In India it is common for lower castes to offer ritual services in which they specialize to members of higher castes. What is unusual for musician communities, however, is that Pulluvan men and their wives, the Pulluvati, perform rituals together or independently in temples and elsewhere. The Pulluvan songs belong to the category of pattu (Malayalam "to sing"), which means ritual singing and the solo playing of melodic instruments (double reed instrument kuzhal or natural trumpet kombu ). The other ritual music category is called kutuka ("to drum", with the drums chenda , idakka , maddale and timila ).

Snake cults ( nagaradhana ) are widespread in India and in the Indian-influenced cultures of Southeast Asia. In India, Nagas, some of whom are thought of as deities or spirits ( Bhutas ), are worshiped mainly in Kerala, Rajasthan and in the far northeast. In the north, the focus is on the serpent king Nagaraja, in Kerala the snakes are worshiped as a whole. In addition to nagakalam, there are other snake cults in Kerala, such as sarpabali . Making a floor painting for Nagas or other deities is commonly referred to as kalamezhuthu .

The habitat of the snake gods is the underworld ( patala ), where the snake king Vasuki also lives. In South India, the serpent and spirit cults are closely related to the worship of trees in sacred groves ( kavu ) near temples. Religious rituals in Kerala are divided into those performed by temple priests at large temples ( kshetram ritual) and the completely different type of worship ( puja ) at the village or house shrines in the sacred groves ( kavu ritual), the associated with animal sacrifice and obsession with a medium. Nayar families who can perform the ritual possess one as a place of snakes ( Nagaloka ) defined sacred grove ( sarppakavu ). Pulluvan perform the kavu obsession ritual nagakalam ("snake picture") with music and dance in a Nayar house , to which the pambin kalam ("snake picture") and the possession dance pambin tullal ( pambu thullal , "trembling of the snake." ") Or sarppam tullal ( sarpamthulal ," dance of the serpent "). The Pulluvan are not to be confused with the Pulavar (singular pulavan ), formerly the title of a scholar and poet in Kerala, today the professional title of puppeteers who perform the shadow play tholpavakuthu and the ritual muniappam for the great goddess Bhadrakali with chicken and goat sacrifices at the village shrine list.

In general, women practice special fertility cult worship rituals for snakes at village shrines. A magical temple ritual for snake worship is the nagamandala in northern Kerala. A floor image ( kalam ) representing the deity is made, just like in Ayyappan tiyatta for Ayyappan, mutiyettu for Bhadrakali and in Nagayakshi kalam , a ritual for a deity whose name is made up of Naga and the demon Yaksha . In South Indian classical music there are certain ragas , such as nagaravali , which are associated with snakes.

Nagakalam in Nayar houses

Detail from a floor image representing snakes ( nagakalam ).
Nagakalam scene from 1909: on the left a girl who, in a state of obsession, with the bundle in her hands and her hair loose, blurs the floor image ( kalam ); the woman in the middle beats the beat with two chopsticks on an idiophone; the man on the right is playing the plucking drum pulluvan kudam .

The ritual nagakalam , which is part of snake worship in Kerala, is performed by the Pulluvan in the evenings of the Nayar houses. To do this, they first set up an altar in the middle of the large living room and equip it with oil lamps ( vilakku ), plates with rice, dried coconuts, brass vessels, flowers and other ceremonial objects. The ritual expert and his helpers use colored powder to create a floor picture ( kalam ) made of floral and geometric patterns, which symbolizes intertwined snakes. At sunset the oil lamps are lit and the musical performance begins. Usually a male musician plays the pulluvan vina , a woman the plucked drum pulluvan kudam and another person beats the small pair of cymbals elathalam (also kaimani ) as a clock in a certain rhythmic cycle ( talam ). All ensemble members sing while they make music. The kudam string is plucked with a wooden plectrum in an up and down motion to produce a creaking sound, the body of the instrument can also be struck with the hands like the clay pot ghatam as an idiophone . The task of the kudam is to create a rhythmic pattern that often deviates from the beat sequence of the elathalam , which dictates the beat .

After the invocation ( stuti ) to God Ganesha ( Ganapati-stuti ) ( which is usual for every ritual theater ), who is supposed to ensure success, several songs follow, which are accompanied by various actions of the priest ( pujari ). At a ceremony, the main part was reached after an hour, in which, in a naga pata (“Naga song”), the original myth of the snakes ( sarppolpatt or nagolpatt ), who were born into the world as the 1008 children of the Kadru and their husband Kashyapa came, is presented. This is said to keep the negative forces of the snakes away. The transition to the following song narration tullal pattu means that the Nagas have taken possession of two (or more) young women sitting on either side of or on the edge of the floor painting and put them in a trance-like state, so that the possessed ( piniyal ) move their upper bodies in a circle and swing the tufts of grain they are holding in their hands. As their obsession intensifies, their movements become more violent, uncoordinated and expansive, until they first blur parts of the floor image with their tufts of grain and later the entire image with their hands, arms and especially their long hair. The movements shown in this state are called tullal (for example “tremble, jump, hop, move excitedly”, derived: a special form of dance-music-theater). Only when the Nagas move from the floor image to which they were initially lured into the women and these behave as possessed does the music stop. The Nagas communicate through the women and, in response to their questions, tell the assembled participants whether they will be ready to grant the donors' wishes. Ultimately, ritual experts lead the women away and carefully bring them back into reality. The ritual ends with some sacrifices and a final song.

The songs are shaped by the verses, not the melodies. The song texts sung in Malayalam consist of two-line lines , which are intoned by a male or female solo singer and repeated by just one singer - for example the wife of the lead singer - or a choir of four to five singers. The musical implementation is based on a melodic motif that is repeated as often as is necessary for the length of the text. The melody is made up of a tone scale ( rupam ) of four or five consecutive tones, so that the range is usually limited to a fifth . For their ritual songs, the Pulluvan draw from a stock of around 20 melodic and 10 rhythmic forms ( talam ). For the Pulluvan, the music never stands for itself, but always in relation to another form of representation. It is essential to the nagakalam ritual , because the songs are used to summon the Nagas and to put the women in a state of possession. At the same time, the floor picture represents a visual connection to the world beyond.

Nagakalam in temples

The Pulluvan also appear in temples in Kerala. Her ritual is also part of the Ayilyam celebrations that take place every September and October in Naga temples , including the Mannarsala Temple of Haripad , an important pilgrimage center for snake worship , and the Sri Nagarajaswami Temple in Vetticode near Kayamkulam ( Alappuzha district ). In the temples, the nagakalam ritual ( sarppam tullal ), as in the houses of the Nayar, consists of kalamezhuthu (beginning of the ritual with making the floor picture ) and pulluvan pattu (recital). In the sacred grove ( sarppakavu ), which belongs to the temple area, or in a roofed place near it, the picture ( sarppakalam , "snake picture ") is first painted on the smoothed clay floor and then the obsessive dance sarppam pattu ( sarpapattu ) is performed.

Discography

  • Kerala. South India. Pulluvan songs. Archives Internationales de Musique Populaire Musée d'Ethnographie, AIMP LXXIII, Geneva 2004 (VDE Gallo 1147) Laurent Aubert: Text accompanying booklet

literature

  • Deborah L. Neff: Aesthetics and Power in Pāmbin Tuḷḷal: A Possession Ritual of Rural Kerala. In: Ethnology, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 1987, pp. 63-71
  • Pribislav Pitoëff: Pulluvān vīṇā . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 4, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 175

Web links

Commons : Pulluvan pattu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alastair Dick: Vina. 1. Early history. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  2. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments. National Book Trust India, New Delhi 1977, p. 101
  3. ↑ Walter Kaufmann : Old India. Music history in pictures. Volume II. Ancient Music. Delivery 8. Ed. Werner Bachmann. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, p. 21f
  4. ↑ Pribislav Pitoëff, 2014, p. 175; Laurent Aubert, booklet accompanying the CD, 2004, p. 25
  5. ↑ Neelakanthan: Nanduni Pattu - The Kannagi legend . Smithsonian Folkways; Nanduni Pattu . Virtual Museum of Images & Sounds. Audio sample from the CD Ritual Music of Kerala . Smithsonian Folkways, 2008, photo by Rolf Killius
  6. ↑ Deborah L. Neff, 1987, p. 63
  7. ↑ Manohar Laxman Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Loka Ranga. Panorama of Indian Folk Theater. Vol. 2. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 1992, p. 54
  8. ↑ Deborah L. Neff, 1987, p. 64
  9. ^ Rolf Killius: Ritual Music and Hindu Rituals of Kerala. BR Rhythms, Delhi 2006, pp. 13, 24
  10. ↑ Rolf Killius, 2006, p. 15; see. Chevillard Jean-Luc: On four types of poets and four types of scholars: from pulavar to kavi in ​​the changing intellectual landscape of Tamil Nadu. In: Histoire Épistémologie Langage, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2014, pp. 149–166
  11. ^ Edgar Thurston: Castes and tribes of southern India. Assisted by K. Rangachari. Vol. 6, P-S. Government Press, Madras 1909, illustration opposite p. 231
  12. ↑ Snake Worship in Kerala . CPR Environmental Education Center, Chennai
  13. ^ Rolf Groesbeck: “Classical Music”, “Folk Music”, and the Brahmanical Temple in Kerala, India. In: Asian Music, Vol. 30, No. 2, Spring – Summer 1999, pp. 87–112, here p. 98
  14. ↑ Laurent Albert: Booklet of the CD Kerala. South India. Pulluvan Songs, 2004, pp. 26-28
  15. ↑ Laurent Albert: Booklet of the CD Kerala. South India. Pulluvan Songs, 2004, p. 24
  16. ^ Christine Guillebaud: Variation and Interaction between Musical and Visual Components in a Kerala Ritual for Snake Deities. In: Indian Folklife , No. 24, October 2006, pp. 21–23, here p. 21
  17. ^ Carol S. Reck, David Reck: Nāga-Kālam: A Musical Trance Ceremonial of Kerala (India). In: Asian Music , Vol. 13, No. 1, 1981, pp. 84-96, here pp. 87f
  18. ^ A. Sreedhara Menon: Social and cultural history of Kerala. Sterling, New York 1979, p. 147
  19. ↑ K. Murugan, VS Ramachandran, K. Swarupanandan, M. Remesh: Socio-cultural perspectives to the sacred groves and serpentine worship in Palakkad district, Kerala. In: Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, Vol. 7, No. 3, July 2008, pp. 455-462, here p. 458
  20. ↑ Dinu Das, Arumugam Balasubramanian: The Practice of Traditional Rituals in Naga Aradhana (Snake worship): A Case study on Aadimoolam Vetticode Sree Nagarajaswami Temple in Kerala, India. In: SHS Web of Conferences 33, 2017, pp. 1–7