Into The World Of Koodiyattam

Natyadharmi Koodiyattam Festival ( 3rd February 2019 - 6th February 2019)

I spent 4 days at Trichur, Kerala attending the Natyadharmi Koodiyattam Festival. The festival was attended by many stalwarts of Koodiyattam who spoke and gave lecture-demonstrations about this ancient art form of Sanskrit Theatre. I spent my days attending lecture demonstrations, interacting with artists, academicians and observing artists preparing for performances. I watched many Koodiyattam performances over these days. Combined with the lecture demonstrations these performances answered many questions I had regarding how experience is codified in art. Koodiyattam uses only the eyes, hands to generate meaning and to transfer experience, through my 4 days at the festival I was able to generate many insights on how experience is generated in art. 

Lecture demonstartion by Padmasri Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri

Witnessing Disguise

I had the immense good fortune of being allowed into the green room of the Margi Koodiyattam troupe and watch their physical transformation. Margi Madhu Chakyar and his troupe were set to perform at 7 pm, but the process of physical embodiment began at 1 pm. I hung around Madhu and his team to witness the entire process. The process is slow, almost as if the spirit of the character is slowly invited into the Self. After witnessing this entire transformation, I was left thinking — is time the ritual here? 

The artists fix their makeup by themselves, they are adept at painting their faces, and critical of how precise the lines should be and how they want to look. The entire process is fascinating to watch, I saw each of them transform in stature and turn into Hanuman, Raavana, Laxman, and Sita right before my eyes. I was enthralled. Something had changed once the disguise was on, people become unrecognisable, only characters walked now!

Margi Madhu gets ready for his act

Rituals

The act of adorning the disguise is a slow and elaborate transformation. The ritual in these actions are all set in slowing downtime, prayer, acceptance, readiness to adorn, conversations about the embodiment, are all in a realm where time is understood differently. In this space, the artist falls in love with his disguise and adornment and is seen checking himself out many times in a mirror, almost as if he/she is accepting a new being into himself. With the wearing of the headgear the transformation is complete, the artist is now the character. 

The Self makes way for a new character to emerge. 

How experience is generated in Koodiyattam

Like all performative arts Koodiyattam uses deception, the truth (story) here is realised through falsehood. Performers I interacted with spoke of two types of performance i) a special relationship between the performer and the deity which is a space of submission an absolute truth. ii) a relationship between the performer and his audience, where aesthetics of the art performance becomes important. How experience is generated in the second type of performance is what I am intrigued about. Koodiyattam uses 4 parts of the performer's body (the body is the only offering a performer has) to generate experience.

Angigam - Body - Physical 

Vaachikam - Word - Verbal 

Sathvikam - Emotional - Inner self 

Aaharayam - Makeup - Artificial authenticity

Unlike other performative art forms, Koodiyatam uses Sathvika Abhinayam (emotional) the most. This art tradition uses the eyes (the most expressive part of the human body) and the hands ( the most restless of the human body ) to convey meaning. Koodiyattam is thus Natyadharmi in nature, which means this form through the use of actions, compels the audience to use their imagination to decipher meaning. 

Insight: Within the performer, the ritual of Koodiyattam focuses on growing a holistic self. In the audience, Koodiyattam attempts to build a temperament for identification (of role, tone, rasa). 

A Nangiarkoothu, where actions tell a story. 

Structure and Symbolism in experience

Koodiyattam performances are long and sometimes run into 3 days, being true to its Natyadharmi nature it uses elaborate symbolism to convey meaning. For example, an elephant is recreated through postures, expression, and elaboration. In this way, this art tradition is truly at war with words. Beyond symbolism, Koodiyattam also strictly adheres to a performative structure, there are 3 stages of relaying experience- 

1. Purapaadu (Preface) - The sutradhar gives a hint about what the audience can expect. 

2. Nirvahanam / Purva Sambhandham (Flashback) - The story thus far, and how we got here. This is done by a single actor who plays all the characters. 

3. Koodiyattam (Performing together) - The story with all characters performing. 

Insight: Sustaining structure in experience allows the audience to anticipate and make meaning and bring together the symbolism coherently. 

Interviews I conducted 

Padmashri Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri (Practitioner) 

Kapila Venu (Practitioner) 

Margi Madhu Chakyar (Practitioner) 

Ammannur Kuttan Chakyar (Practitioner)
Raman Chaktyar

Dr.KG Paulose (Former Vice-chancellor Kerala Kalamandalam, Academician, Sanskrit Scholar specialised in Koodiyattam)
Saritha TR (Practitioner)
Sree Hari Chakyar (Practitioner)
Kalamandalam Hariharan (Mizhavu Artist)