The charm of Kannur

It has to be my penchant for everything 'Keralese' which got me to Kannur to watch Theyyam.If you ask me what I knew about Theyyam before I watched it live... nothing at all. I have heard of it mentioned in Malayalam movies,.. remember seeing the fantastically dressed up artists dancing to persistent drum beats. To me it looked all out of a page of a tale from yore...

Much later during a series of interesting conversations with a Theyyam enthusiast I got to know more about the art form; the fact that it originated from religious traditions and grew in form and character with the changing times, was something which intrigued me. I wanted to know more. The Nine Lives by William Dalrymple has an entry on the Dancer of Kannur. That story spoke a lot about the artists who masked their faces from real life and adorned the visage of a God or a Goddess offering counsel and showering blessings to devotees who come to visit them.The ordinary man from next door attains the status of a powerful God worshipped and respected by all the people there. So Dalrymple, along with tales from my enthusiast friend, got me packing my bags to kannur. The bus journey to Kannur was uneventful and we managed a few winks of sleep before we disemarked the volvo bus. The weariness from the journey left me, the moment the auto rickshaw driver told us that we could watch one Theyyam right away if we hurried up. (Theyyam performances are almost always during the nights; from 900 PM onwards to the wee hours of the morning). Bags thrown in to our alloted rooms at the home stay, some splash of water on our faces and we were out! To this day I am not sure if I had dragged my friends along in the wee hours of the morning after a tiring journey to go and stand amidst throngs of people to watch the Theyyam. I had no way of knowing it because they were anything but vocal about it :)

The performance at the temple was psychedelic...You had the Theyyam, (dressed as seen in the image) dancing with pokes of fire jutting out from all of him. The venue was a small village temple and at the shrine, the local deity. There were people of all sizes and shapes and colour crowding at the not-so vast temple ground to catch a glimpse of the Theyyam on fire. We managed to push our ways right to the front and caught a satisfying view of the Theyyam in performance. In the hustle one of my friends got pushed out of the front line and we later saw her perched right on top of a pillar trying to capture the Theyyam in action on her camera. As if on some cue, the Theyyam while crossing her during his rounds, walks ahead and immediately turns around to look at her and give her one of his famous yet diabolic laughs. My poor friend who was trying to keep up her act of non chalance atop the pillar is a sight which would never cease to bring out involuntary giggles from me till this day.

Once the Theyyam retired at day break and along with him the people around, we sat down on the low stone walls which were all around the compound and saw the next Theyyam getting ready for his performance. The make - up procedure was elaborate and interesting to watch. You would see all forms of colours taken from things natural and the entire process of doing up the artist would go on for hours. Once made - up he invokes the spirit of the deity in to him and becomes the voice and form of God for that time. There were still people left at the ground waiting to pay their respects to the Theyyam who had just performed. What is interesting to know is that along with his blessings the Theyyam also surprises you with facts and events and causes of worry from your past. He becomes the Oracle talking to you about your worries and offers advice on how to deal with them. I found that particularly amusing and wanted to test it. Test I did and let me just say that I was not disappointed :)

Theyyam is always performed by the lower caste community but the audience is totally cosmopolitan. Kerala is the only place where both the upper-caste Brahmins and lower-caste tribals share an important position in a major form of worship. There are more than 400 different forms of Theyyam and this space is too constrained to get in to all the details. It is a living cult with several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, it embraces almost all the castes and classes of the Hindu religion in the northern region of God's own country.

 

This was my first trip to Kannur to see the Theyyam. I see myself going there quiet frequently in the future to explore this temple art form in greater depths.

(Kannur, Feb 2012)

Disclaimer: The pictures displyed are not taken by me or my friends.
Courtesy to Google images and Flickr.