A (Comfortably) Close Look at Theyyam

In his foreword to Theyyam: Indian Folk Ritual Theatre – an Insider’s Vision, artist and sculptor, Balan Nambiar, compares the various studies on theyyam to the parable of five blind men trying to visualise an elephant. It is partially an apt analogy, since most writings on theyyam confine the form within narrow boundaries such as performance, ritual, caste, possession, etc. In north Kerala though, theyyam endures as a shared imagination of the divine binding the rhythms of everyday life. It informs and inspires the lives and work of even those who have moved out of the region, including Nambiar whose artistic work reveals a deep connect with theyyam.

Theyyam: Indian Folk Ritual Theatre by K. K. Gopalakrishnan is an impressive coffee table format book with spectacular photographs. The format works especially well for theyyam given its striking visual appeal. Despite plenty of writing on theyyam being available both in Malayalam and English, according to Gopalakrishnan, they are mostly written by ‘outsider[s]’ and therefore are ‘bound to have inherent limitations.’ While the outsider authorship tag for most books may not be strictly accurate, his reason for writing the book, as the title claims, is to provide an ‘insider’s vision’. Gopalakrishnan thereby straightaway identifies his place within the theyyam milieu. Further, his taravad’s patronage of theyyam over generations and anecdotal glimpses of his own experiences with theyyam over the years establish his standpoint. Claims to insider-status nevertheless, must be carefully navigated to ensure that it accommodates contesting visions and standpoints. There are, as Gopalakrishnan is aware, many kinds of insiders in the theyyam sphere of which patrons are only a part. Temple (both kavu and kshetram) committees, Devaswom boards, koladharis / teyyakkars (those who perform or dance theyyam) and their assistants, ritualists like komarams and velichapads and specific performing communities are ‘insiders’ too and it is clear that Gopalakrishnan has access to them. Many such insiders evidently have provided information for his book. However, the point of view is strictly his. 

Beginning with a meandering introduction that complements the overview provided by Nambiar in his foreword, Gopalakrishnan’s writing style is descriptive and written in a stream-of-consciousness style. As a result, despite chapter titles, the contents of each chapter tend to often feel unstructured and, as he himself admits it, repetitive. Often one gets the sense of being in the presence of a local elder reminiscing about a topic close to their heart. Personal opinion, accepted wisdom, and scholarly interpretations meld together in no specific order. Tracing historical origins of theyyam is largely conjecture and is a challenge that theyyam researchers and writers acknowledge while locating plausible roots and geneses. Gopalakrishnan recognises this and suggests possible ancestries through Tylorean theories of cultural evolution, animism, and theory of survivals. He also narrates the Manakkadan Gurukkal myth, which is accepted as the modern origin of theyyam as we know it today. 

Moving from ancestries to communities, although the chapter on Commune and Community contains a passing reference to Article 15, Clauses (1) and (2) of the Indian constitution regarding caste discrimination, the rest of the chapter provides details regarding theyyam patronage, performance communities, roles of participating communities and theyyam deities without explicating caste tensions or discriminatory practices with reference to theyyam. Of course, Gopalakrishnan, rightly refers to the performing groups as ‘communities’ rather than ‘castes’ since this is how they describe themselves; as samudayams and not as jatis. However, given his insider status, the ways in which communities and caste discriminations might have intertwined and how this changed over generations could have been instructive. Instead, the chapter takes us through the descriptions of individual communities that perform theyyam, the various communities that patronise or provide services related to the ritual and the honorific titles given to performers from specific communities for excellence in performance. Some of this is already available in both Malayalam and English, for e.g. R.C. Karippath’s The World of Theyyam, (English translation of Teyyaprapancham) provides details of the various theyyam performing castes and their hereditary occupations using a colonial format similar to Edgar Thurston’s. Caste discriminations and frictions between communities are mentioned only in passing and usually as a thing of the past. The Parayi Petta Panthirandu myth, which is a ‘philosophical’ rationalisation of caste and its origins is consigned to the Annexures.

What makes theyyam special to believers is of course the embodied presence of deities. The possibility to get close to and touch and talk to their ‘gods’ is often deeply emotional for devotees. Gopalakrishnan writes about this immediacy of contact through personal anecdotes pointing to the inversion of caste hierarchy whereby performers belonging to marginalised communities are briefly worshipped as embodied gods and goddesses who may bless, comfort, curse or castigate devotees. However, as reported by theyyakars in their own writings they have also been rebuked and chastised by committees or patrons post performance for different reasons including performers accidentally muddling caste hierarchies during rituals. 

All theyyams irrespective of their gender, except the Devakoothu, are performed by men from specified marginalised communities (Dalit castes). Gopalakrishnan devotes a couple of chapters and a few annexures to the origin myths of various theyyams including recent additions such as a police theyyam to the pantheon of deities. Muchilott Bhagavathy by far the most spectacular theyyam has a whole chapter devoted to her, as does Devakoothu, a theyyam performed by a woman. Gopalakrishnan narrates the story of an erudite, young Nambudiri girl who is deified as Muchilottu Bhagavathy; Destroyed by patriarchal injunctions and male ego she eventually self-immolated and transformed into Muchilottu Bhagavathy. Payyanur Kunhiraman’s Perumkaliyattam and R.C Karippath’s Kolathunaatile Theyyamkathakal too narrate these versions in Malayalam. While there are several local variations of this origin myth, the thottam narrative (songs of origin stories of theyyam deities and are sung ritually during the performance) does not tell the tale of an educated Nambudiri girl. Instead, Muchilottu Bhagavathy is believed to have been created by Siva to protect human beings from infectious diseases. This also appears to be the perspective of some practitioners who perform the Muchilottu Bhagavathy theyyam. Folklorist and professor Raghavan Payyanad explains that often the atrocities of the ‘affluent landlord classes’ (dominant castes) were either elided or completely absent from the thottam songs due to fear of reprisals from those in power. Gopalakrishnan though, is not convinced by this reasoning. In a book on thottam songs, folklorist Vishnu Namboodiri too provides a similar reason regarding the absence of details in the thottam of Thottumkara Bhagavathy, while popular narrations of the myth indict the kolathiri of extreme cruelty on another erudite, grieving mother. Such deifications in theyyam were believed to appease the wrath of spirits of women across caste lines who had been subjected to extreme violence.

Devakoothu, on the other hand, is a gentle tale of a young celestial virgin, Valli Devi who gets separated from her friends and loses her way when she comes to the Thekkumbad island on earth to pick flowers. She is found and given shelter by the local chieftain, and later escorted back to the heavens by Narada. Gopalakrishnan points out that Devakoothu appears closer to performance forms such as Nangiar Koothu and Mohiniyattam and is of the opinion that the former acts as an ‘aesthetic link’ between desi and margi performance conventions. Devakoothu reportedly was revived in 1981 after a long break. Gopalakrishnan believes that its current popularity might be the result of local media attention and its portrayal as the sole theyyam performed by a woman. 

Gopalakrishnan’s familiarity with Kerala’s classical forms Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Mohiniyattam etc. is evident from his comparisons and the weaving together of similarities and differences between theyyam as a ‘folk ritual’ theatre and ‘classical’ performances often using Natyashastra terminology and categorizations including the description of costumes and colours used in theyyam, although he acknowledges that theyyam was neither influenced or bound by the Sanskrit treatise. The classification of theyyam as ‘Indian Folk Ritual Theatre’ further locates Gopalakrishnan’s positionality vis-à-vis the politics and contestation around theyyam. From the 1970s a long line of academics – folklorists, historians, anthropologists etc. – have interpreted theyyam as ‘folk art’, ‘folk theatre’, ‘folk ritual theatre’ often espousing communist and/or socialist ideologies although still rooted in ritual and faith. Conservatives attempt to push back against such interpretation, which they perceive as instrumentalisation by Left-sympathisers and attempt to reclaim it as a strictly religious ritual. 

A remarkable aspect of theyyam are the Muslim theyyams accompanying certain main deities. While Buddhist and Jain influences may be detected in certain ritual practices and the worship of theyyams such as nagas, yakshas, and yakshis and there seem to be no known Christian influences in theyyam, the presence of more than one Muslim theyyam or Mappla theyyam such as Kalanthan Mukiri, Ali, Bappiriyan indicate ancient historical connections. Gopalakrishnan devotes a chapter to Muslim theyyams that point to cultural and social mores of a past and additions and erasures over time. Although not always in stunning theyyam costume, Muslim theyyams often add the ludic element (porrattu) in the theyyam ritual. However, many of the Muslim theyyams are human victims of enraged Hindu deities. In life some may have violated the devotees of the Hindu deities who avenged such violations by killing them. Death at the hands of the deity deified the not necessarily innocent victims. As Stuart Blackburn says, “it is not moral considerations but violence that transforms humans into deities” and “a violent, premature death is a prerequisite for deification in folk Hinduism … (as is) clear from stories performed in cults of the deified dead.” Although the secular impulse to romanticise past Hindu-Muslim unity especially in current times might be strong, origin myths of these theyyams do not always tell a story of unity. 

Nevertheless, there are theyyam rituals that involve the participation of neighbourhood sufi shrines or muslim communities through the exchange material things such as sugar, coconuts, or fireworks during theyyam festivals. The Pulingome Makham continues to fix it uroos celebration in consultation with Gopalakrishnan’s taravad pointing to a persistent practice of religious integration in society. Despite communal tensions in recent times, in north Kerala it is not unusual to see Muslims making offerings to theyyams and receiving blessings in turn. But equally disputes too exist. For instance, Bappiriyan theyyam is considered to be the Muslim captain of the ship who accompanied Arya Poonkanni to north Kerala’s shores by some and as Hanuman by others. 

Brief comparisons between cognate forms such as Thira in and around the Kozhikode region and Bhutakola in and around Dakshin Kannada and theyyam are also provided. The final chapter significantly is a case study of a recent conception and consecration of a new theyyam, Alanthatta Daivathareeswaran, a Vaishnavaite deity purporting to be Lord Rama. This is Rama in his final ascetic stage on the banks of the Sarayu river. Gopalakrishnan who witnessed the performance of this theyyam in May 2018 describes the process of conception and consecration as recounted by an Alanthatta Mullacheri family elder, the astrologer, as well as the koladharis involved in the choice of thottam verses and in the performance of the Daivathar theyyam. However, no further scrutiny is attempted to investigate the choice of deity in his ascetic form connecting this with the larger context of contemporary India, where Rama seems increasingly to be the most cherished divinity. In theyyam, the number of Vaishnavite deities is relatively small, therefore, the emergence of this new ascetic Rama theyyam, Daivathareeswaran, in the current socio-political background is thought-provoking. Despite Nambiar’s not entirely unfounded fears of the decline of theyyam due to urbanization, a watering down of rituals, and the paucity of dedicated youngsters willing to take up theyyam, the presence and popularity of theyyam is not exactly waning as can be seen in the consecration of such new they yams and theyyam spaces, although certain aspects of theyyam may be changing. 

Gopalakrishnan’s closeness to theyyam as an insider can be seen in the ornate, romanticised, often hyperbolic descriptions. For a book that appears to have been written anticipating non-regional readership, it would have benefitted immensely from attentive and tighter editing. Copyediting for house style and standardized spellings of Malayalam words, archaic language, repetitions and awkward syntax would have made for smooth reading. Similarly, more depth in pursuing some of the questions raised by the consecration of new theyyam, or specific, tangible improvements, if any, in the material conditions of theyyam performers over generations, the changes in Kaliyattam venues, etc. would have added heft to the book. The text of each chapter is generously interspersed with spectacular photographs, although a few appear to be low-resolution: for e.g., a series of three photographs that appear to be a screen grab of Sumesh Peruvannan falling off a coconut tree mid ritual could have been avoided. Instead, considering that the book provides QR codes that readers can scan to view videos of theyyam online, it might have been useful to similarly direct readers to an available video on the internet after acquiring the required permission. 

Overall the book works well as a detailed introduction to theyyam although Gopalakrishnan’s gaze is a little too comfortably close. Self-reflexivity and a deeper appreciation of the other viewpoints would have provided a more comprehensive view. Despite this, Theyyam: Indian Folk Ritual Theatre provides a wealth of detail especially for those who have little or no access to texts in Malayalam. Readers will find classifications and categorisations of theyyams, male and female theyyams, communities, castes of performers, patrons etc. and their roles vis-à-vis theyyam, costume and jewellery descriptions etc. tabulated formats, annexures that connect theyyam rituals to its larger social context, detailed glossary and other minutiae useful. The book also hints at questions that require scrutiny and deeper investigation, which researchers will hopefully pursue adding to the body of theyyam literature already available. Notwithstanding Nambiar’s blind men and elephant analogy vis-à-vis theyyam writing, as most researchers and observers on the field have experienced first-hand, it is nearly impossible to capture or write about even a single theyyam performance completely, since many of its rituals happen simultaneously. Therefore, all writing on theyyam whether by insiders or outsiders will necessarily be partial and hopefully complementary.

Gita Jayaraj is a doctoral scholar in humanities at IIT, Madras.