Kutiyattam

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Mani Madhava Chakyar as Ravana in a Kutiyattam performance

Kutiyattam ( Malayalam : കൂടിയാട്ടം) is a traditional form of theater in Kerala , India . It is - with a verifiable history of 1000 years - perhaps even the oldest Indian form of theater.

Traditionally, the pieces were by actors of the box Chakyar and Nannyar played in Hindu temples. The late Guru Mani Madhava Chakyar is one of the most famous personalities of the Kutiyattam theater. Kutiyattam's performances on secular stages have made Kutiyattam accessible to a wider public. He brought choreographies of the dramas Abhijnanashakuntala , Vikramorvashiya and Malavikagnimitra by Kalidasa to the stage.

Performance practice

Traditionally, Kutiyattam is performed in a Kuttampalam , a temple theater. Characteristic for this form of theater are the use of costumes, heavy make-up , as well as a large repertoire of stylized gestures and facial expressions, as well as a dialogue that is similar to Vedic chanting . The texts are recited in different pitches and explained with facial expressions and gestures, and the music is accompanied by the drum idakka , the copper kettle mizhavu , the pair cymbal elathalam , the cone oboe kuzhal and the snail horn shankh .

There is no stage design and only a metal lamp as a single light source. Furthermore, Kutiyattam performances have an astonishing length of time, mainly due to rituals before and after the performance, as well as the repetition of individual dialogue passages, the performance of a complete piece can take months, which is why only individual acts of a piece are performed (duration: 5 - 10 days). Only individual verses are recited per performance day. However, the actors are allowed to embellish them by writing their own texts based on the play called Attaprakaram.

The pieces deal with both religious and secular (e.g. love stories, political intrigues, ...) topics. The actions are mostly known to the audience, which is why Kuttiyatam's focus is not on narrating an action, but on its audiovisual presentation.

The actors are not always seen in one, but in several roles (changing the characters is called "pakarnnattam"). By changing the details of their costumes, they can switch between roles.

Actors and musicians

There are three different groups involved in a Kutiyattam performance:

  • Cākyār: They are the male actors.
  • Naṅṅyār: The female actresses who take on the female roles and support the pieces musically with small cymbals.
  • Nampyār: They are the musicians who play the copper drum mizhavu (miḻāvu) , which is continuously present during the performance .

Special role of Vidushaka

The role of Vidushaka ("the fool"), which is mostly only taken on by the older and more experienced Cakyar, differs from the fixed roles of the performances. After all, he is allowed to improvise and has the right to anything and everything (even priests of the temple) criticize. While the other actors speak in Sanskrit or Prakrit , the Vidushaka speaks in the regional language and does not use the gestures used by the other actors. In doing so, he takes a position between the play and the audience: on the one hand, he is a character in the plot (mostly a companion of the protagonist), on the other hand he is also allowed to comment on, even parody, the plot. He also translates the protagonists' dialogues into the local language and therefore acts as a link between the audience and the piece.

history

It is believed that a preform of Kutiyattam has its roots in Buddhism . Buddhist settlers in Kerala likely used plays for religious propaganda purposes. These dramatic practices were only adopted much later by representatives of Brahmanism and also served as a means for satirical and intellectual attacks on Buddhism, later religious rituals that framed the performance (but did not change the actual, original conventions of the theater form) became part of it from Kutiyattam. This probably happened in the 13th or 14th century, the first temple theaters were built in the 15th century. The origin of Kutiyattam therefore lies in the profane and not in the religious.

In 1949 there was a performance by Painkulam Rama Chakyar, the first time a Kutiyattam performance outside a temple theater. From 1965 Kuttiyatam was also taught to people outside the actor caste. In 2001, Kutiyattam was added to the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity .

Plays and authors

These are some authors from whose plays some of the acts are still used for Kudiyattam today:

  • Bhasa : Bhasa was one of the most important writers in ancient India. He probably lived in the 2nd or 3rd century BC. 13 pieces are ascribed to him. These are mostly pieces with a political background.
  • Saktibhadra : Saktibhadra wrote Ascharyachudamani, one of the most popular and most used pieces by Kutiyattam performers (around 8th century AD).
  • Kulasekhara : Kulasekhara was a ruler of the Chera dynasty (which ruled parts of Kerala) in the 10th century. He is believed to have given kudiyattam its present dramatic form.

Ritual and theater

There are rituals for the actors before the performance. So they dip their ring finger in clarified butter and finally touch their forehead, nose and chin and tie a red cloth around their heads. Finally, they put on their makeup. This is often described as crossing boundaries in which the actors move from the profane to the religious world. However, there is no complete identification of the actor with the characters depicted (while there are certainly ritual performances in which it is believed that the actor transforms into the depicted deity). Above all, this refutes the change of role during the performance (pakarnnattam). Despite the existing connection with the religious, Kutiyattam is not to be regarded as a ritual per se (it is often referred to as a "visual sacrifice"). After all, there must be a distinction between self-contained rituals that are not linked to other activities and rituals that are associated with other practices, such as B. Kutiyattam, which do not turn the practices into independent rituals.

literature

  • Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, pp. 136-153
  • Farley and Yasmin Richmond: The Multiple Dimensions of Time and Space in Kūṭiyāṭṭam, the Sanskrit Theater of Kerala. In: Asian Theater Journal 2/1 , 1985, pp. 50-60
  • Farley P. Richmond: Kūṭiyāṭṭam. In: Farley P. Richmond, Darius L. Swann, Phillip B. Zarrilli (Eds.): Indian Theater. Traditions of Performance. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1990, pp. 87-117
  • Bozena Sliwczynska: Cakyar Initiation in the Kuttiyattam Theater of Kerala. In: Heidrun Brückner, Elisabeth Schömbucher, Philipp B. Zarrilli (Eds.): The Power of Performance: Actors, Audiences and Observers of Cultural Performances in India. Manohar Publishers, New Delhi 2007, pp. 105–118
  • Arya Madhavan: Kudiyattam. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness . Rodopoi, Amsterdam 2010, ISBN 978-9042027985

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Narayanan, Mundoli Vasudevan, "Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam", in TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 137
  2. ^ Farley Richmond, Yasmin Richmond: The Multiple Dimensions of Time and Space in Kūṭiyāṭṭam, the Sanskrit Theater of Kerala. In: Asian Theater Journal 2/1, 1985, p. 57 and p. 137
  3. ↑ Madhavan, Arya, KUDIYATTAM. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness , Amsterdam: Rodopoi 2010, p. 24
  4. ↑ Madhavan, Arya, KUDIYATTAM. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness , Amsterdam: Rodopoi 2010, p. 139
  5. ↑ Madhavan, Arya, KUDIYATTAM. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness , Amsterdam: Rodopoi 2010, p. 140
  6. ↑ Madhavan, Arya, KUDIYATTAM. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness , Amsterdam: Rodopoi 2010, p. 145
  7. ↑ Heike Moser: Das Sanskrittheater Kūṭiyāṭṭam - a short introduction on the website of the University of Würzburg, accessed on January 2, 2015
  8. ↑ Sliwczynska, Bozena, "Cakyar initiation into the Kuttiyattam Theater of Kerala," The Power of Performance: Actors, Audiences and Observers of Cultural performances in India. , Heidrun Brückner, Elisabeth Schömbucher, Philipp B. Zarrilli (eds.). Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, 2007, p. 113
  9. ^ Farley and Yasmin Richmond: The Multiple Dimensions of Time and Space in Kūṭiyāṭṭam, the Sanskrit Theater of Kerala. In: Asian Theater Journal 2/1 p. 57
  10. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 146
  11. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 147
  12. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 141
  13. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 142
  14. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 142
  15. ↑ Arya Madhavan: Kudiyattam. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness . Rodopoi, Amsterdam 2010, p. 23
  16. ↑ Arya Madhavan: Kudiyattam. Theater and the Actor's Consciousness . Rodopoi, Amsterdam 2010, p. 26
  17. ^ A b Farley and Yasmin Richmond: The Multiple Dimensions of Time and Space in Kūṭiyāṭṭam, the Sanskrit Theater of Kerala. In: Asian Theater Journal 2/1 , 1985, p. 55
  18. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, p. 140
  19. ↑ Mundoli Vasudevan Narayanan: Over-Ritualization of Performance Western Discourses on Kutiyattam. In TDR: The Drama Review 50/2, 2006, pp. 143f.

Web links

Commons : Koodiyattam  - collection of images, videos and audio files