Tradition · Sanskrit temple theatre

Kūṭiyāṭṭam

Also known as Kutiyattam, Koodiyattam, Chakyar Koothu, Kūṭiyāṭṭam — Kerala temple theatre

Function

Sacred site & pilgrimage

Confidence

Not assessed

Location

10.340, 76.210

Worth knowing

In the nirvahanam a character stops the plot and performs his entire previous life in mime before going on — so a play of a few Sanskrit pages becomes a fortnight. It was the first Indian tradition on UNESCO's list, in 2001, and until the twentieth century non-Hindus and most castes could not see it, because it happened inside the temple.

Connections (4)

• Alternative toOttan Thullal

  Kunchan Nambiar is said to have devised Ottan Thullal after being humiliated during a Chakyar Koothu performance, and whether or not the anecdote is true the form is a point-by-point refusal of temple theatre: Malayalam instead of Sanskrit, one performer instead of a company, an afternoon instead of a fortnight, outside the temple instead of inside it, and satire on living officials instead of elaboration of a classical text.

• Teaching lineageKalamandalam, Thrissur

  Kerala Kalamandalam, founded by the poet Vallathol at Cheruthuruthy in 1930, took Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Mohiniyattam and Thullal out of the hereditary families and temples and into a salaried school with admission by audition. That saved several of them from extinction and changed all of them: training became a curriculum, performance moved to a proscenium stage, and non-hereditary and eventually non-Hindu students learned forms that had been caste property.

• Shrine within citySangameshwara / Bharata, Irinjalakuda

  Kūṭiyāṭṭam is performed in the kūttambalam, a roofed theatre building inside the temple compound, and the one at Irinjalakuda's Koodalmanikyam is among the finest — a hall of wood and stone built to the acoustic and ritual prescriptions of the Natyashastra, with a specific place for the drummers and a dressing room behind. The theatre is temple architecture, which is why non-Hindus could not see the form at all until the twentieth century.

• Institutional successionVallathol Narayana Menon

  Vallathol founded Kerala Kalamandalam in 1930 and brought Kūṭiyāṭṭam, Kathakali, Mohiniyattam and Thullal out of hereditary families and temple compounds into a salaried school with entry by audition. It saved several of them and changed all of them: training became a syllabus, performance moved to a proscenium, and students from outside the hereditary castes — and eventually non-Hindus — learned forms that had been caste and temple property for centuries.

On these journeys

• Possession, mask and shadow — the ritual theatres

Sources

Wikipedia, “Koodiyattam”. Sangeet Natak Akademi documentation; UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage nomination files where the practice is listed.

• Wikipedia — Koodiyattam