The Arts of Kerala Kshetram

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In her continuing quest, re-affirming the vision of India as an organic whole, Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan approaches the arts of Kerala both in their distinctive qualities and holistic dimension, which ideally represent the dynamics of Indian cultural processes. This monograph, based on the inaugural Parikshit Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr. Vatsyayan at the Government Sanskrit College, Tripunithura in August 1988, now reprinted, has been commended by many as remarkably rich in the variety of art forms it covers and the directions for future research it offers in the area.
Dr. Vatsyayan has had close association with South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala. She has travelled the length and breadth of Kerala, often on foot, studying its art forms and visiting temples. The present volume is a result of this experience.
 
Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan is a renowned art historian and a leading scholar and authority on classical Indian dance, art and culture. For over half a century, she has worked tirelessly to enhance the understanding and appreciation of India’s cultural heritage.
She has been Secretary, Government of India, Member, UNESCO Executive Board, Member of Rajya Sabha and President, India International Centre. As adviser, administrator and policy maker in the Government of India for fifty years, she initiated many schemes and has been responsible for spearheading policy framework for programmes of art history, education, cultural awareness and Sanskrit, Buddhist and Pali Studies. Today recognized as one of the most important institution-builders in the country, she has been responsible for the establishment of many educational and cultural institutions such as: The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath (now deemed University – Central University for Tibetan Studies); Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, New Delhi; School of Buddhist Studies, Leh, and many others. She is the conceiver and founder Academic Director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi.
She has authored about 20 publications, each of which has broken new ground at the theoretical level, including Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Arts and The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts.
Dr. Vatsyayan holds a post-graduate degree in English Literature from the University of Delhi. She received her Ph.D. in Indology from the Banaras Hindu University. She has been conferred D. Litt. (Honoris Causa) by a number of Indian and foreign Universities.
Recipient of several awards and honors, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award, Talia Prize by International Association of Theatre Critics, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship and Lalit Ratna from Lalit Kala Akademi. She was elected foreign member of the French Academy of Asiatic Studies and Russian Academy of Science. Awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2011.

Contents

List of Figures Foreword
Introduction
Foreword to the First Edition
Introduction to the First Edition
Editor’s Note to the First Edition
Glossary
Index

List of Figures

Fig. 1: Pallimanna Siva Temple, Wadakkancherry, Trichur Dt., Kerala. Mural paintings on the walls of the shrine; close-up view of Siva in enclosed space of circle constituting the prabhamandala.
Fig. 2: Mattancherry Palace, Kochi, Kerala. Kumbhakarna’s Sleep: Ramayana Panel.
Fig. 3: Pallimanna Siva Temple, Wadakkanacherry, Trichur Dt., Kerala. IV panel-murals.
Fig. 4: Krishna, Mattancherry Palace, Kochi, Kerala.
Fig. 5: Siva Temple, Tiruvanchikulam, Trichur Dt., Kerala. General view of Gopura at entrance.
Fig. 6: Sri Rama Temple, Triprayar, Trichur Dt., Kerala (1989). General view southeast (from outside).
Fig. 7: Pallimanna Siva Temple, Wadakkancherry, Trichur Dt., Kerala. Second panel of the mural paintings on the wall of the shrine; close-up view of Siva in a sitting pose, worshipped by Indra and the Rishis in the second panel of the murals. Multi-coloured mural.
Fig. 8: Sri Siva Temple, Peruvanam, Trichur Dt., Kerala. Dwarapala on the northern side of the entrance; Circular Siva Temple.
Fig. 9: Pulpatta: Siva Temple, Malappuram Dt., Kerala.
Fig. 10: Eramam: Chalappurattu Ambalam, Cannanore Dt., Kerala.
Fig. 11: Netrimangalam: Siva Temple, Palghat Dt., Kerala.
Fig. 12: Tiruvalattur: Bhagavati Temple, Palghat Dt., Kerala.
Fig. 13: Kozhikode: Tali Temple, Kozhikode Dt., Kerala.
Fig. 14: Adhishthana of Garbha-griha.
Fig. 15: Kizhavellur: Vamana Temple, Kottayam Dt., Kerala.
Fig. 16: Types of Niches: Kerala.
Fig. 17: Adhishthana and Vedika.

Foreword

Kerala, the southern Indian state called Keralam in Malayalam, has been an immensely rich and complex cultural field; it is home to ancient communities, confluence of traditions and multiplicity of art forms. The co-existence of the written and the oral traditions, the rural and the urban, the theoretical and the practical, the visual and the performing arts and the inter-relationships therein present a fertile ground for holistic and multidisciplinary cultural studies.
The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts has undertaken several significant studies on various aspects relating to arts, culture and communities in Kerala in the past twenty five years. Textual studies done under the Kala Kosa division as well as contextual studies mapping the inter-relationship of the social, economic, artistic, devotional and environmental aspects surrounding major cultural centres in Kerala, done under the Kshetra Sampada programme and oral traditions and lifestyles of communities done under the Loka Parampara programme of the Janapada Sampada division have generated a rich data base for research on Kerala.
The Arts of Kerala Kshetram, authored by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, encapsulates the fundamental principles of cultural constitution of the region in particular, and expounds a theoretical framework for the understanding of regional cultures of India, in general. Kshetram, a conceptual term developed by Dr. Vatsyayan, has been used here in the widest sense to provide a paradigm for the study of regional cultural fields; it envisages the study of distinctive parts in their relationship of inter-connectedness and symbiosis with the whole. Totality of vision and diversity of forms go hand in hand, making this an ever-expanding field of enquiry.
This monograph, originally delivered as the inaugural Parikshit Memorial Lecture by Dr. Vatsyayan at the Sree Rama Varma Sanskrit College, Tripunithura in August 1988, has been commended by many as remarkably rich in the variety of art forms it covers and the directions for future research it offers. It is important to note here that it was at a time when South India was being re-discovered by Indologists and Historians that The Arts of Kerala Kshetram was first brought out in the book form by the Sanskrit College, Tripunithura in 1989. IGNCA is now bringing out the second edition with a new introduction, making it accessible to a wider readership.
We express our gratitude to Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan for her support and encouragement. We wish to record here our gratitude to Government Sanskrit College, Tripunithura, Kerala, Prof. K.G Paulose, the editor of the first edition of The Arts of Kerala Kshetram, Prof. Omchery N.N Pillai who wrote a well-studied introduction to the present edition, Shri. S. Sreekumar for photographs and Archaeological Survey of India. We are grateful to Smt. Dipali Khanna, former Member Secretary, IGNCA, Shri. R Nandakumar, Art Historian, and Shri. N.H. Ramachandran, Asia Project, IIC for their support in bringing out this book.
Thanks are also due to colleagues at IGNCA, Dr. Molly Kaushal, Professor and Head, Janapada Sampada Division, Dr. Sreekala Sivasankaran, Associate Professor, Janapada Sampada Division, Dr. Ramakar Pant, Assistant Professor, Janapada Sampada Division, Dr. Advaitavadini Kaul, Chief Editor and Ms. Manola K. Gayatri, Project Assistant.
We express our appreciation and gratitude to our co-publisher, Gyan Publishing House for bringing this book out in a time-bound manner.
New Delhi
31st August 2015
Veena Joshi Officiating Member Secretary IGNCA

Editor’s Note to the First Edition

Artistic traditions are broadly classified as folk and classical. The term folk’ implies expressions that are participative and spontaneous. correlated to the tribal and group community; in contrast, classical is urban and sophisticated. This division as mutually exclusive patterns, although true from the Western point of view, is not consistent with the Indian tradition.
Kalidasa has extolled Natya as a beautiful visual experience – Kantam krutam chaksusam. According to Bharata, Natya is the fifth Veda created by taking words from the Rig Veda, music from the Sama Veda, gestures from the Yajur Veda and introspective states from the Atharva Veda. At first sight this may imply that Bharata is describing the stylised classical art. But close scrutiny reveals that he has incorporated regional and local styles as well in Natya Shastra. The forms of local character are called Desi as against the more sophisticated Margi. The concept of four Vrittis-Kaisiki, Satvati, Arabhati, and Bharati-implies the classical character; but the Pravrittis, the regional. The treatment of natyadharmi and lokadharmi also implies these two planes in mutual correlation. The later development of the eighteen uparupakas, besides the ten rupakas, enumerated by Bharata also points to the influence of local arts over the other. Natya Shastra thus is an amalgam of all that is regional and stylised.
The tandava of Nataraja symbolises the Indian concept of Art-a still centre and a continuous play of energy and rhythm around. The Rasa theory is the best interpretation of this concept-a dominant state (sthayi) and several correlatives (sanchari) emanating from it. Seen in this general background it becomes clear that the performing arts-whether folk, ritualistic or classical-although characterised by a multiplicity of genres, forms, styles and techniques, and despite being distinct and autonomous in themselves, share a common character. The plurality is, as it were, the flowering of the same tree’.
In her learned expositions earlier Dr Kapila Vatsyayan traced this phenomenon-of Indian tradition as an organic whole amidst

Foreword to the First Edition

The Government Sanskrit College, Tripunithura, now entering the Platinum Jubilee year was founded by Rajarshi Sir Ramavarma Maharaja of erstwhile Cochin for the propagation and preservation of ancient wisdom enshrined in Sanskrit. Parikshith (1876-1964) had been connected with its management from its very inception and had guided the annual Shastra Sadas. In order to perpetuate his memory, the Sanskrit College Committee instituted this annual lecture in his name.
Sanskrit, although alive as an influence on the languages and literatures of India, is facing a crisis as a language of study in schools and colleges. We have to make Sanskrit relevant again for contemporary needs. This is possible only when, inter-disciplinary and intra-disciplinary instruction of our past forms an integral part of our educational system, and thus enables our students to get a clear perspective of the past in its relation to the present and the future. Seen in this background, our Sanskrit colleges have to play a vital role in moulding our vision of life. I understand that this is exactly the work that the Sanskrit College Committee has undertaken and this lecture forms part of their endeavour to this end.
The present work is a detailed study of the different art forms of Kerala from Kathakali to Mural Painting. Dr Kapila Vatsyayan, one of the most creative scholars of our times in India, has traced the evolution of what is called the little traditions’ and the ‘great traditions’ and has conclusively proved that Krishnanattam and Kathakali form the most important bridge between these two.
Kottayam 20-7-198
R. Anantha Murthy
Vice-Chancellor

Introduction to the First Edition

The Scheme envisages conduct of annual Shastra Sadas in the month of December; the Parikshit Memorial lecture in August, and award of Rajarshi Memorial Post-MA Scholarship and Cash Prizes to deserving students.
There is a publication wing attached to the College-Ravi Varma Samskrita Granthavali. Hitherto 17 titles are published in this series. Printing work of the ‘Narayaneeyam’ with the commentary of Sahrudayatilakam K. Rama Pisharoti is nearing completion. ‘Natankusa’ is the next work taken up for publication.
We are reviving the publication of the Ravi Varma journal-a half-yearly bilingual (Sanskrit/English) with the name Pumatrayi from January this year.
We were fortunate enough to get Dr (Mrs) Kapila Vatsyayan to deliver the first Parikshit Memorial lecture in August, 1988. We are glad to present the text of the talk in this form before the learned public for their kind acceptance.
For Sanskrit College Committee
K.M. Kannampilly
Chairman, Principal & Secretary
Prof. K. G. Paulose
Mahatma Gandhi University
 

Introduction

Linking the past and the present: A scholar’s journey Traditional arts are the cultural assets of a people. They comprise broadly speaking, two traditions, the folk and the classical, the former being the natural, spontaneous expressions of the tribal and rural communities and the latter, the stylised arts of the sophisticated.
Every region in India is rich in indigenous artistic traditions with distinct identities of its own. Dr Kapila Vatsyayan, whose knowledge of the traditions of different regions, at the level of both theory and practice, is direct, intimate and extensive, focuses her attention on the artistic traditions of Kerala in this book.
The term ‘kshetram’, which denotes the cultural identity and the totality of the traditions of a region, is definitive, while being all encompassing and indicative of the vast scope and framework of the study. This work is the product of her critical observation and participatory experience of the richness and robustness of the traditional arts of Kerala during her long cultural association with the region.
Kapila Vatsyayan’s has been a life of pilgrimage and exploration into the soul of Indian culture. As one, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the arts and the traditions of the country is direct and intimate and transcends linguistic and regional boundaries, her writings truly present a kaleidoscopic vision of Bharata Kshetram.
The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts, Traditions of Indian Folk Dance, Indian Classical Dance, Traditional Indian Theatre: Multiple Streams, Paramparik Bharatiya Rangmanch: Anant Dharayen, The Indian Arts, Their Ideational Background and Principles of Form, her numerous studies on Natya Shastra and Gita Govinda, and her more recent “Plural Cultures and Monolithic Structures” are what come immediately to my mind, as would constitute the vivid expositions of the plural Kshetras comprising the grand Bharata Kshetram.
In her literally peripatetic exploration of the centres far and wide in Kerala, where the arts, folk and classical, still pulsate, she rediscovers their ancient charms and new meanings. She seems to echo the words of Thomas Carlyle, “What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it”.
She recognises how the folk and the classical traditions -the “little traditions” and the “great traditions”-interacted, coexisted and formed part of a single, whole monolithic structure. These two traditions have moved on two planes, both clearly differentiated but “always complementary and not antagonistic, one of abstraction and the other of concretisation”.
Nowhere is this aspect more clearly evident than in the arts of Kerala, she says and adds, “Kerala is distinctive and incomparable for the complexities and intricacies of cultural dynamics”. The exploration is to probe into and unravel their complexities and intricacies.
More than 120 traditional art forms belonging to the “little” and “great” categories are identified, besides many unrecognised, though vibrant ones. Scholars and researchers from Herman Gundert, Edgar Thurston, William Logan. L.A. Krishna Iyer, Appan Thampuran, Ulloor, Pandit K.P. Karuppan and others to Chummar Choondal, G. Sankara Pillai and A.K. Nambiar and others have done significant studies on several of them, especially the performing folk and classical arts.
In a perceptive sociological interpretation of the popularity of the myths and the archetypal images of Bhagavati, Shiva as Kirata, and Bhima and Hidumbi presented in folk and classical forms, the author says that “no myth lives in society until it acquires meaning in the here and now” and asks “would it be too much to read into it the meaning that forest, disguise and retribution constitute a prime motif or indicator of the culture?”
Similar are the thoughtful observations about another archetypal Bhima and Hidumbi. Connecting this with the Shiva as Kirata story, she finds a meaningful message: “It would appear that by selecting myths and legends which legitimise, gives status to forest dwellers and where interaction takes place between one level and another level of society, a message is being conveyed. These myths and archetypal images acquire importance because one face of the social reality of Kerala is (or was) its rigid hierarchical structure; the other is the continual dialogue and detour routes of legitimisation or dissent of non-normative conduct. In the performing arts, these hierarchies are broken and roles reversed”.
Similar sociological explanation of the Bhagavati cult in Kerala leads to the scrutiny of the social structure where matriarchal system became the norm. An interesting question to study is whether the social system identified and installed Bhagavati as archetype to justify the practice or the matriarchal system came into being as an inspiration from the archetype. This may lead to the realm of history. Mythology to sociology to history may become the route to unexplored areas in social history. After all, “a well-beaten path does not always make the right road”. The author has given a number of leading hints for scholars and experts to pursue.
Myths and legends come alive in visual form and in theatrical contexts in the mural paintings and sculptures in Kerala temples and palaces. The author makes an in-depth study of the aesthetics, craft, character delineation and symbolism of murals on the walls of many of the 60 identified major sites – temples and palaces her characteristic sensibility and pan-India experience.
The section on the mural paintings in this study is unique as it is both extensive and intensive, examining several panels of Puranic themes or characters found in different places of Kerala. The colour symbolism, costume, postures, the style and dramatic elements in depiction of the characters etc are analysed interrelating the influence of art forms on one another.
Discussing the compositional patterns of these paintings, the author takes a broad sweep of the panels from Padmanabhapuram in the south to Wadakkanchery and Triprayar in the north. Paintings of the same episodes, as depicted in different temples, are considered together. For instance, the Rama paintings of Triprayar, Mattancherry and Vadakkumnathan at Trichur; Narasimha paintings of Palliyarkavu temple in Palakkad and Vadakkumnathan; Shiva paintings of Kumblanad, Mattancherry and Ettumanur; Krishna paintings of Thiruvanchikulam and the Tali temple.
The comparative deliberations try to comprehend the similarity or otherwise of the artistic and theatrical elements of the panels and their association with different folk and classical forms.
The study leads to a useful classification of the Kerala mural paintings on a selective basis, which is useful for future studies in conjunction with the performing arts.
Kapila Vatsyayan is one of the pioneers of the study of Gita Govinda, a Sanskrit text in verse, written in the twelfth century by Jayadeva, especially the tracing of history of its travels to different parts of India. She records in this study two living traditions in Kerala related to Gita Govinda-the singing of Manjuthara at the starting of every Kathakali performance, whatever be the story presented whether Shaivite or Vaishnavite, and the singing of Ashtapadi at the Sopana in Kerala temples. She indicates the direction of research needed in this area to fill the gaps.
When she deals with kutiyattam of Kerala, regarded as the only living tradition of the ancient Sanskrit theatre in India, the author brings together all her practical experience and theoretical knowledge on the dance traditions of India and makes a significant observation: “Kutiyattam has unmistaken links with the elements, which have very little to do with Sanskrit drama”.
“For an examination of the different aspects of content, form and technique of this highly developed form, it is necessary to be acquainted with the state of Sanskrit theatre and its prevalence in the period immediately preceding the evolution of Kutiyattam, of the regional school of poetry, drama, music and dances which affected its growth”. This and related observations point invariably to the need and nature of further study required in this tradition.
The Arts of Kerala Kshetram covers a wide spectrum of arts of Kerala ranging from the tribal to the classical. The study looks around, looks backward and looks forward, the ideal function of an explorative pilgrimage the author had undertaken. It is as if she is dispensing condensed wisdom, leaving a lot for the “manana” of the reader, to ponder over and giving a clear indication of where to go further. This fulfilled pilgrimage of Dr Kapila Vatsyayan promises much to those who would like to have their own pilgrimage. It is almost unbelievable that this vast work constitutes the body of a single memorial lecture she delivered. I know she does it. I was a witness to her brilliant extempore response to the Thalia Award presented by the International Association of Theatre Critics the duration of which, a long one, one never felt.
Reading this work reminded me of what Dr Samuel Johnson said, “One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose work is not to be studied, but to be read”. Here is a work to be studied, not simply to be read, read with a rewarding fatigue of close attention.
New Delhi
31st July 2015
Prof Omchery N.N. Pillai Malayalam Playwright Recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademy Award and Kerala Sangeet Natak
Akademy Award – Kalaa Ratna
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