Chola Theyyam

On my final night in Kannur, we pulled an all-nighter at an eight-hour marathon of Theyyam rituals in Chola Village just outside the city. 

The word Theyyam - which comes from Devam or god - refers to complicated religious rituals that channel the deity with dance recital and invocation.  People believe that, when the performer puts on his mask, face paint, headdress, and costume, and starts to dance, he actually becomes the god whose story he is enacting!

Theyyam is held once a year from October to April and is unique to Northern Malabar. The dancers, musicians, and priests are from specific lower castes who - along with their heirs - have the sole right to enact their roles. The duty and honor to perform Theyyam is said to have been conferred on these communities exclusively by ancient rulers. 

I also discovered in my research that the Paniyars, an indigenous Dravidian tribe native to this region, may have been permitted at one time to participate in these rituals. I’m unaware if they still do but it speaks to how ancient these rituals are and how they’ve been handed down through the generations! 

Outdoor Location

Theyyams are not traditionally held in temples but in outdoor locations associated with Nature worship such as banyan trees and sacred groves (kaavus). 

The venue we visited was a 50 square yard open space with stadium style seating. Old newspapers were spread on stone slabs to protect against dirt, cold, and morning dew. The temps dropped considerably and I was glad to have my hoodie!  On the road outside, cars were parked for over a mile in either direction. 

Veeran, Gullikan, and Puthia Bhagvathi!

Three Theyyams were enacted covering the legends of Veeran (a warrior), Gullikan (a form of Shiva), and Puthia Bhagvathi (a form of Kali). All are actually older pre-Vedic deities that were associated with non-Brahminical worship and later adopted into mainstream Hinduism. 

As I had seen before at the Parassinikadavu Muthappan Temple, the dancers carrried  clubs and shields; advanced and retreated; jumped up on pedestals and performed with such verve that they often had to be physically restrained by their attendants!

Not every Theyyam is a story of a deity. Some are dedicated to local folk heroes and even martyrs who were unjustly harassed or killed by higher caste people. As opposed to Sanskrit chants, the songs are sung in Malayalam and can be easily understood. 

The Theyyam performer blesses the drummers, village elders, organizers, and “karnavars” (male heads of family, usually maternal uncles) who sit in a small enclosure. He then turns to the general public, performing benedictions, distributing flower petals, and accepting donations in return. Everyone gives a few rupees. 

The entire village pays for Theyyam. Besides small donations from local residents, Keralites from the region who work in Arabian Gulf countries send large sums of money to ensure that Theyyam traditions are preserved.

Grand Finale 

For the grand finale, the Theyyam performers came out wearing gigantic headdresses. Puthia Bhagvathi had a headdress with 16 flames to begin with; when he returned, there were multiple flames coming out of his lower body as well! 

At one point there was a procession with men carrying ceremonial umbrellas and children with coconut, marigold, and other offerings. One of the persons, known as a “vellichappad” (an intermediary, also a pre-Vedic concept), appears with a scythe and performs a cosmic dance.

Gullikan was full of pep, running around like a teenager! He wore an amazing green headdress made from latticed coconut palms that was at least 50 feet tall!  We had caught him earlier (large, a bit grumpy!) resting after his Thottam* performance and tried to sneak a few pictures but were scolded for not asking permission before we did.  After asking permission, he relented!

The younger and more energetic performer of the Veeran Theyyam did cartwheels and somersaults in and around the campfire while five drummers provided accompanying music. 

I also noticed a woman hold up a coconut branch torch. She was the only woman participating in the ceremony.  

At the very end, the younger priests - having taken a cold dip in a nearby tank to further purify themselves - rapidly jumped in and out of the dying embers of the campfire causing huge sparks and cinders to fly around, besides a general commotion. This was quite a startling sight and was, somehow, a fitting end to the night’s events! 

Fireworks 

The only 21st century inclusion in a ceremony that was over a couple of millennia old was modern fireworks! There were three loud and totally unnesessary (I thought!) bursts of firecrackers that exploded over our heads for far too long, polluting the air. 

Relevance

At the heart of Theyyam is a rural agricultural lifestyle. The songs speak of a culture that is pre-Vedic, pre-Brahminical and combines legend and history. They talk about people and their problems, their relationship with Nature and each other. 

The performance is usually followed by a feast, an example of sharing resources and coming together as a community.

Theyyam is also helping to preserve the ecosystem and biodiversity of the sacred groves where they are performed. 

Younger generations want Theyyam traditions to continue. We heard that people from the village who live overseas return regularly for Theyyam season. An audience member we met had flown in from Melbourne, Australia to attend. He said the reason the performers were so proud to participate was because it’s the one time they can command the respect of the entire village as both high and low caste people attend. No other event confers so much honor.  

For a short period of time, the low caste (SC/ST)** performer becomes a living god, and upper caste people pray to him!  It speaks to an inclusiveness and a broad mindedness one rarely sees. 

I can’t imagine TamBrams (slang for Tamil Brahmins!) attending or finding such events worthwhile but the cultural experience is truly remarkable!  

Theyyams could also be a lucrative source of revenue for the government if the tourism department got involved in organizing tours. 

When we departed at dawn there was a sharp nip in the air. Most of the audience had already dispersed with only a few bleary-eyed men, women, and  kids braving it out...

Ludi Joseph

Kannur, Kerala 

Jan. 26, 2020


* A Thottam is a mini-Theyyam, a sort of precursor, performed in advance of the main event. See videos below stills: priests jumping in fire; Gullikan Theyyam; Veeran Thottam; Gullikan Thottam; Veeran giving blessings; and Veeran Theyyam.

** SC/ST stands for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Their rights are enshrined in a schedule in the Indian Constitution; hence the term! They are also referred to as Dalits or Adivasis. 

Gullikan

Puthia Bhagvathi

Campfire

Gullikan sans Headdress 

Gullikan with Headdress 

Veeran getting ready 

Visit to Coorg

The drive from Beykal to Coorg and the climb into the Western Ghats was picturesque alright but also nerve-wracking, particularly negotiating the steep turns or “hair pin” bends, as they are quaintly called!  Few vehicles ever yield and it was a relief to reach Madikeri intact!  Ramesh, who did all the driving, was remarkably cool and so was Sudha, his wife. 

Coorg (now called Kodagu, with Madikeri as headquarters) is a hilly district in Karnataka state located in the Western Ghats. The average elevation is about 3,000 feet. Compared to the Kerala Coast from where we came, Coorg is much cooler and the humidity is low. At Madikeri, we stopped by Raja’s Seat, the lookout point, and the 17th century fort captured from the Hindu ruler and rebuilt by Tippu Sultan before it was taken over by the British. The CSI church inside the fort is now a museum. 

Starry Skies!

When we arrived at the Bamboo Club in Pollibetta, in the pitch dark, we had a rare treat: a sky full of some of the brightest stars I’ve ever seen that looked almost unreal in their clarity and nearness!  I thought I could even distinguish Ursa Major or was it Ursa Minor?  Coming from the haze, dust, humidity, and pollution of the city, this was a very welcome sight. It helped that the electric lights at the Club were switched off, adding to the starlight! 

Coffee Plantation

Kittu (Monappa Guddanda) and his wife, Padmini, own a coffee plantation, about 7 clicks from the Bamboo Club, near the Margolly Estate where they have lived for over 50 years. His father, once a revenue official, bought the plantation in the 1960s. 

After a delicious brunch consisting of a wide variety of Coorg food, Kittu took us on a plantation tour. We saw mostly robusta (and a few arabica) coffee plants laden with swollen red berries as well as peppercorn vines, orange and lime trees, and silver oak. Workers collected the coffee berries: they spread a sheet on the ground just below the plants and stripped the berries from the branches with their bare hands. 

The berries are later dried in the sun. After drying and bagging, the beans are sent for processing which includes curing or husking. Other plantations pulp the berries, releasing an overpowering musky scent.

A coffee plant can yield as much as 10 kilograms (kg) of coffee; altogether, Kittu’s 40 acre plantation can yield 80,000 kg, if the crop is good. About 70 years ago, only rice was cultivated in this region. Coffee is a fairly recent introduction, courtesy of the British. 

Labor 

Planters hire migrant workers, many of whom are Kerala Muslims. They are paid a daily wage of Rs. 325 for women and Rs. 400 for men. If they pick coffee, they are paid by weight: an average of Rs. 3 per kg. Daily remuneration per worker could reach about Rs. 600 per day (less than $10)!

We were told that the state government provides free rations, school education, housing and other kinds of allowances to the workers.  Kittu said he needs to “treat them like friends!”  If they are scolded, they get offended and might not come back the next day! 

Samadhi 

We saw the “samadhi” of Kittu’s parents, G.C. Cariappa (who died in 1977 at the age of 82) and his wife G.C. Nanjamma (who died 20 years later in 1997 at 94). A small portion of the ashes of the dead are interred in a special plot with memorial stones, known as a “samadhi,” similar to Rajput cenotaphs in Rajasthan. 

Padmini, a former teacher, was a very kind and gracious hostess. About 10 years ago, Sudha and Padmini taught together at Lourdes School, a local high school run by Carmelite nuns that catered to the children of plantation workers. 

Wild Elephants

Wild elephants are a constant problem for coffee growers. They slide down slopes, trampling the plants and frightening away workers. They also come around to people’s homes following the smell of ripening jackfruit (or papaya or banana) but don’t usually attack humans unless they are harassed. Last night we saw road signs and wild elephant alerts, warning drivers about their presence in the area. 

As humans encroach into their habitat or their food sources (such as bamboo trees) dry up or diminish, elephants roam the plantations looking for food. They are intelligent animals and have figured out how to access electrical fences that are erected to keep them out. They pick up stone poles (connecting the wires) and throw them aside or hang them on trees. If they mistakenly touch the wires they scream out in pain at the electric shock, Sudha said. Stronger members of the herd usually help the weaker ones. 

Lazy Elephants!

Once they get used to easier to reach food sources in plantations, herds abandon their traditional food, even when bamboo is plentiful and water is available - rather like tigers after they become man-eaters, as per Jim Corbett’s book “Man-Eaters of Kumaon!”  

Besides getting lazy, elephants also get angry when they are chased out by village folk beating drums and lighting fire crackers. When that happens, a lone animal could get separated from the herd and turn rogue, going after and sometimes trampling villagers.

Protected Species

Elephants are a protected species in the region as are wild boar and tigers. Kittu said (only half jokingly!) that it was easier to get bail if one killed a human being - but killing an elephant was an “unbailable offense!” The law protects animals rather than humans, he wryly observed! 

I asked about tigers. Apparently cattle had been killed by a tiger a few miles away from the plantation. The incident had the village residents and workers on edge. Panthers had also been sighted. Monkeys, however, were the biggest nuisance to the planters, we were told, because they destroyed fruit plants and trees, including guava, banana, chicoo, and avocado. Planters are at their wits’ end trying to deal with the monkey menace!  

Bamboo Club

We stayed at the very elegant Bamboo Club, built in the 1880s. This southern part of Coorg was once known as the Bamboo District, from where the club got its name. It was started by British coffee planters in keeping with their tradition of setting up clubs wherever they lived in Africa, Asia, and so on. 

The names of the chairmen, presidents, and honorary secretaries on the Club’s board go back to 1884. There are British names until 1956: Ball, Bell, Davies, Parsons, Lambert, Scott, Tipping, etc. giving way in 1956 to Rao Bahadur, Cariappa, Muthamma, Belliappa, Ayappa, and Apaiah. (The latter have a certain ring, don’t they?)

Indians weren’t allowed membership here during the British Raj - in keeping with similar snobby establishments in Delhi (the Golf Club and the Gymkhana, for instance), as well as clubs in Calcutta, Bangalore, and Madras. 

The Bamboo Club continues to be popular and well-maintained with large donations from companies like Tata’s that have business interests in the region. It’s all very “pucca” and “brown sahib” with a strict dress code, a card room, badminton trophies on display, as well as mounted bison and tiger heads that are probably more than a century old! I felt as if I should be wearing a solar topi, clicking my heels, and saluting!  

Famous Coorgs!

The earliest inhabitants of Coorg were the Kodavas, a warrior community. It was ruled by Nayakas, then Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan; after the Anglo-Mysore Wars and the death of Tippu, Coorg was taken over by the British. At the time of India's independence, Coorg was a separate state until it was merged into Mysore State, now called Karnataka. 

Though the Coorgs are a small community, they’ve had famous people!  Every Indian knows (or should know) of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa, the first Indian Commander in Chief; General K.M. Thimayya, the head of the Indian Army (who also headed the UN Peacekeeping force); and C.B. Muthamma, the first woman officer in the Indian Foreign Service. 

Heritage Bungalows

We visited the Cottabetta homestay bungalow, a former estate manager’s home now converted into a luxurious homestay (hotel) run by Ama (the Tata Group). Once occupied by British coffee planters, Coorg has many such 100 year old heritage bungalows with picture postcard views of the Madikeri Hills. They are built on an elevation, overlooking the mountains so that British planters could live like sahibs, waited upon by khansamahs, bearers, ayahs, and maalis (that’s Urdu for cooks, waiters, nannies, and gardeners)!  Many years later, managers of the Tata Group occupied these bungalows until they converted them into homestays. Tata is the largest owner of coffee estates in the area. 

On the way back there were more elephant warnings. I also thought I could smell elephant dung! What fun it would have been to glimpse elephants - perhaps, next time!  

Ludi Joseph

Bamboo Club

Pollibetta, Coorg

January 24, 2020

Kittu and Padmini, Coffee Planters in Coorg

Coffee Plant with Ripe Berries

Ramesh & Kittu in front of Drying Coffee Berries

Peppercorn Vine

Padmini’s Garden

Samadhi (Memorial) for Kittu’s Parents

Flowers on the Estate

Sudha and I at the Bamboo Club

Elephant Alert

CSI Church Outside Bamboo Club 

Ramesh and Sudha at the Bamboo Club

Elephant Crossing

Bamboo Club List of Honorary Secretaries

Bamboo Club

Bamboo Club Verandah

The Theyyam Ritual and What it Means

I was fortunate to attend a Theyyam at the Parassinikadavu Muthappan Temple outside Kannur, Kerala. It was fearsome, frenzied and altogether fascinating!  

Theyyam has been done for thousands of years and dates back to a time when tribal animism was the most common form of worship.  Although present day Theyyam includes Hindu beliefs, the ritual is said to predate Hinduism.

A man with an elaborately painted face and costume accompanied by traditional instruments begins to strut, dance, call out, and sing out, getting louder, and more dramatic by the minute until he enters a trance. At that time he is considered a god! Worshippers flock to the temple in the hundreds to make offerings and receive the god’s blessings. 

Hundreds of Worshippers

It is a tradition handed down through families. Men prepare for their roles in their early teens and spend years learning the skills required including making costumes from coconut husks, painting their faces with vivid colors, and wearing huge eye-catching headdresses. The ritual can go on for hours, depending on how long it takes for the god to enter a trance as he dances to the drums. 

The day we went, the temple was jammed with hundreds of worshippers, easily five or six hundred in a very confined space. The temperature must’ve hit 110 degrees F indoors! The ceiling fans were switched off to ensure the giant oil lamps continued to burn brightly and provide light. I was sweating profusely and barely able to keep my balance with women and children pushing from behind. (The men’s section was a bit more disciplined). But it was all worth it to see such a spectacle! 

There are more than 400 kinds of Theyyam in Kerala and music, mime, and dance are an intrinsic part of all of them! 

Parassinikadavu Muthappan Temple

The temple is located on the banks of the Valapattanam River, 16 km from Kannur City and is dedicated to Lord Muthappan, believed to be a combined form of Shiva and Vishnu. Visitors make offerings of alcohol (toddy)! I was told that other kinds of alcohol (whiskey, for instance) are forbidden!  

All Castes (and Religions) are Welcome!

There is no religious or caste discrimination; all are welcome to enter the temple, which makes it rather unique. You can also see dozens of dogs roaming around; they’re considered sacred!  There are two carved bronze dogs at the entrance of the temple that symbolize Muthappan’s bodyguards. The belief is that he was very fond of dogs and there are many stories of miracles involving dogs. 

On entering the temple, you are given a little snack wrapped in a banana leaf: cooked dry lentils with fresh coconut slices and hot sweet tea!  This is not part of the usual prasadam or offering distributed after prayers (or aarti) as in other temples. Perhaps it was sustenance to prepare one for the nearly two hour wait for Lord Muthappan to appear! Whatever the reason, it was very welcome!  I found out later that the temple provides free food twice daily to all comers. 

Visitors from all over the world come for Theyyam and - thanks to Ramesh -  I’m so glad I got to bear witness!  

Brahminism Vs. Dravidianism?

Seeing trees, plants, and animals being worshipped alongside Hindu gods gives one a different perspective, especially someone like me who’s tagged along with the Ramaswamys to temples all over North America such as the Siva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, Maryland, mainly frequented by Brahmins!  Theyyam, on the other hand, is earthy, tribal, more Dravidian in my view, and certainly more egalitarian. As I said before, all castes and creeds are welcome!  

Kannan, my friend KK’s husband, told me the priests at the Parassinikadavu Muthappan Temple are often from the Thiyya caste, in itself an unorthodox concept!  In what universe is a priest not a Brahmin (that is, from the priest caste)? 

In Kerala, though, every rule that applies in the rest of India gets broken!  The Thiyyas (a “backward” caste or OBC), are a very progressive and well-educated community. We had Thiyya girls at Nirmala College who were light-skinned and light-eyed, supposedly  descended from Arab traders, sailors from Crete, or the soldiers of Alexander the Great!  Whatever the case, they are a high-achieving community with every right to preside over temples, if they so wish!

Unlike other parts of India governed by rigid caste rules, it is a breath of fresh air to be in Northern Malabar and experience strict Brahmin fetters being somewhat loosened, even cast aside, especially in the current highly charged political climate!  

Ludi Joseph

Kannur, Kerala 

January 21, 2020

 Parassinikadavu Temple (interior)

Parassinikadavu Temple (exterior) 

Map of Kerala 

Theyyam

Mahé: Then and Now, and the Sad Demise of all Things French!  

It was lovely to be back in Mahé! The place looks different, smaller somehow, less grand, but located in a beautiful spot where the Mahé River flows into the Arabian Sea. The forest behind the house that we clambered over as 16 and 17 year olds, used to be full of dangerously steep rocks and dense vegetation with a hard to reach lighthouse at the summit. 

Hilltop and Walkway

Now there’s a stone stairway, constructed in 2015, reaching all the way to the top. The wilderness and brambles have been tamed. There are canopied lookouts and stone seats at the summit to admire the horizon beyond the Arabian Sea. The path below has been developed into a walkway that’s very French-looking, très Corniche! Another small vestige of the French is the statue of Marianne (symbol of the French Republic - of liberté, égalité, et fraternité), still standing in the garden, now rather inaptly called Tagore Park! 

A former French colony on the west coast of India in northern Malabar, (just south of Tellicherry in Kerala State), Mahé is an obscure and sleepy little backwater - only famous (I like to think) for hosting us Joseph siblings during brief blips in our lives: our holidays while we studied at Coimbatore’s Nirmala College, Madras University!  

Administrator’s Bungalow

We stayed at the Administrator’s bungalow when my late Pondicherry-based uncle, P.L. Samy, was appointed Administrator, the highest government position in the territory. Known by my immediate family as “Uncle Lourdes,” P.L. Samy was a tall, intensely scholarly man, better known for his book on the flowers in ancient Tamil (Sangam) literature rather than for any administrative proclivities!  

However, as an IAS officer with the Pondicherry Government, Uncle Lourdes accepted the Mahé position and (I’m assuming) enjoyed the few perks that came with the job, although he found it irksome to be away from the center of power (Pondicherry). We, his nieces enjoyed the perks more than he did! This meant getting access to the latest copies of Paris Match and French music: Enrico Macias, Françoise Hardy, Adamo; we were so fashionably on trend, we thought!  

At Indian Independence in 1947, the French colonies were Pondicherry and Karaikal in Tamilnadu, Mahé in Kerala, Yanam in Andhra Pradesh, and Chandernagore in West Bengal. The last was ceded by 1950 and, by 1954, the majority of legislators in the remaining enclaves opted to join India. Pondicherry’s name was changed to Puducherry in 2006. 

Arikamedu

I remember my Dad mentioning Arikamedu, an archaeological site not far from Pondicherry on the (east coast), where the archaeologists Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Jean-Marie Casal conducted excavations nearly a century ago. They found Roman amphorae and lamps, black ceramic ware, glass and stone beads and concluded that Arikamedu traded with the Roman Empire from as early as the first century BC. Later excavations in the 1990s placed the settlement and trading post from the 2nd century BC to the 8th century AD. 

Kutty Thambi

I peeped inside the Administrator’s house and took a quick pic of the ceiling notorious for being the spot where my then-infant cousin Kutty Thambi peed in the upstairs bedroom and the pee dripped into the parlor below - where a meeting with important guests from Pondy headquarters was taking place! Grace à Dieu, the guests were none the wiser about what was stealthily dripping over their heads through the worn out wooden slats!  

Mahogany Furniture, Muskets and Bayonets

I remember the house as large with creaky stairs. It was old, poorly maintained, but with rather striking 19th century mahogany and rosewood furniture: chests of drawers, cabinets, stand-alone cupboards full of moldy newspapers, magazines and other detritus left behind by the French colonial rulers that I loved to explore. I recall how exciting it was to discover faded newspaper cuttings on Arikamedu stored away by previous staff. 

Some of that furniture, including a very handsome table, as well as antique muskets and bayonets are now on display in a one-room museum on the premises which we took a quick peek at! When I first saw the bayonets I thought of W.M. Thackeray’s description of the Battle of Waterloo in ‘Vanity Fair’ or even Georgette Heyer’s evocative account in, was it “An Infamous Army?”

I distinctly remember the cook from the old days! He was an elderly Kerala Muslim and an expert in French and local cuisines. He could whip up the lightest of soufflés as easily as he could a Keralite molee curry! He had been trained by the French ladies who once lived in the bungalow. 

French Culture or Lack Thereof

Sadly, there are even fewer remnants of French culture in Mahé than there are in Pondicherry. On the east coast, it is quite overwhelmed by the all-encompassing all-enveloping Tamil culture! Why, even the strong waves of Bengali culture emanating from the Aurobindo Ashram don’t stand a chance against the Tamil! Sure you have the French Quarter and the street names in French and Tamil, but they’re just tokenism in my view! The French were in Pondy for nearly 300 years; there should’ve been more of an impact!  

I remember a discussion with the French Ambassador in Hanoi years ago (when I visited Vietnam for the WB/IFC) and he was grumbling about how the influence of America was so pervasive that French was practically unknown in Vietnamese schools or elsewhere. It was all American English and American movies, all the time, he mourned! He didn’t know a single family that maintained French traditions or even spoke French! I told him Pondicherry was very similar and that the French - despite being in India even longer than they were in Vietnam - were content not to be the dominant culture! 

Ludi Joseph

Krishna Beach Resort

Pallikunnu, Kerala

January 20, 2020

The Walkway

Administrator’s Bungalow 

Hilltop Plaque 

View of the Bungalow from the rear garden 

Heritage Hillock

Stone Stairway

The Infamous Ceiling!

The Mahé River Enters the Arabian Sea

Lighthouse

At the Bungalow, Mahé 

Le Corniche