So better late then never as this is the season for Thyyam in Kerala.ĭSC_0020 from nef 2 exp LATEST sharp red leser br and fce sharpĪ Theyyam dancer near the end of his routine does a slow step, worn, weary and bare feet with a sticking plaster stuck on the small toe as a reminder of its present day happening. This photograph was lying ready but unublished. This was shot in 2008 at Kottayampovil which is about 11-12 kms from the town of Thalassery on the NH 17 that runs along the coast. They yam is an art form practiced only in Kerala and that too in a select part of its Northern Districts of Kannur, Kasragode and Calicut. I have since then been informed that all the leg work and location was done by On the way I took a detour to Kottayampovil which is about 11-12 kms from the town of Thalassery on the NH 17 that runs along the coast.īobinson/ provided the directions to the place and he was there himself. I was enroute to shoot a Theyyam performace in Kannur in January 2008. A few more years and who knows whether it survives or not. It is a rare privilege to see this in one's lifetime. The Theyyam celebrations are expensive affairs and it is a tough job for the vast majority of the clans to keep it going.
The Theyyam dances are performed by distinct caste and communities and it is they who will over a period of time decide whether they would continue to perform the dances or better opportunities and employment will take them elsewhere. Ultimately it is an economic issue whether this great dance form will survive or not. The Theyyam performances are held in clan groups and all the members get their resources together and have it conducted year after year within a dwindling availibilty of money and the exaggerated moral responsibility of keeping the traditions alive for their ancestors and their family names. Steeped in ancient history it is a wonderful mix of the ethnographic influences in the state of Kerala. It is an ancient dance form and a precursor to the more stylised and less vigorous Kathakali. Theyyam is an art form practiced only in Kerala and that too in a select part of its Northern Districts of Kannur, Kasragode and Calicut. Some of the performances can be not only tough but can be quite primitive and raw from killing of live animals to eating it raw or to be jumping into fire over and over. The dance form is unique and it has to be seen to be believed.
It is obvious that the Brahmanical influence was not so stringent and draconian as to remove the tribal and nature part of the earlier worship and thank God for that. It is an essence of nature and tribal worship that has been amalgamated and subsumed in story telling from heroic tales from Hindu epics and local lore. So in essence the dance form has been in existence much before the advent of Bharatnatayam, Kathakali or any of the other dance forms from India that get bandied about in the cultural milieu of India. Theyyam is a dance form or should I say a form of folk religion where the dancer is the God and people pray to him. The oldness of the city from Kerala is allied with the culture and not the trade alone of black pepper and other spices. Most cartographic depictions from the middle ages mention Quilon and Cannanore on the shore line of India. Cannanore is a very ancient port of significance.
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