Theatre Studies and Performance: "Temple Culture" and myths are part of Indian folklore and tradition . Sara Caldwell's Oh Terrifying Mother is a peculiar example which deals in with a temple festival festival called "Mudiyettu" and also about the life of the performers..... Caldwell says ".The experiences chronicled ... and their intense emotional tenor were inseparable from the phenomenological reality of mutiyettu".Sara caldwell’s feelings and frustrations on having to observe Keralese conventions of womanly behaviour form an illustrative part of a chapter of "Female Frustrations" and give the subject an immediacy and degree of empathy that would otherwise be lacking.Emotional upheaval, life changes, intuitions, synchronicity and personal religious experience all become part of the text.

1. THE GODDESS
(BHAGAVATI) AND HER
PEOPLE

3. Sarah Caldwell is an American ethnographer who travelled in
Kerala, in the south of India, in 1991-2 to undertake her
fieldwork.
She chose to study the ritual theatre of mutiyettu - an elaborate
sacred drama, which stages a fearsome contest between the
Goddess Kali and the demon Darika.
Over six hours, their story is sung by an orchestra of singers
and percussionists as the Goddess confronts and pursues him,
climaxing in his decapitation. This is not mere theatre - it is held
to be an actual appearance of the Goddess, as She possesses the
actor concerned.
Caldwell goes into great detail, concerning the variety of
meanings and psychological dynamics compressed into this ritual
structure, and the conflicts and pressures it reflects and
negotiates for both men and women within Keralese rural society.

4. Emotional upheaval, life changes, intuitions,
synchronicity and personal religious experience all
become part of the text.
Sara caldwell’s feelings and frustrations on having to
observe Keralese conventions of womanly behaviour form
an illustrative part of a chapter of "Female Frustrations" and
give the subject an immediacy and degree of empathy that
would otherwise be lacking.
Caldwell says "The experiences chronicled ...
and their intense emotional tenor were
inseparable from the phenomenological reality
of mutiyettu".

5. •The book is structured in seven chapters.
•The opening chapter gives background detail on the area of
Kerala and the history of both the people and their theatrical
art form
•Chapter 2 discusses the structure and experience of the
ritual itself.
•The chapter following shows how the fertile agriculture of
the region and its changing seasons are tied in with both the
lives of the people and the symbolism of the Goddess.
•There's a wealth of information and detail on every page here
which gives us a rich picture of Keralese life - from
encounters with low level corruption, to slang uses of
language linking agricultural produce with human fertility.
•With the seasons, we encounter a key idea within the
Goddesses' cult - a dialectic between heat and coolness.
•In a sense, the mutiyettu performance is an evocation of heat,
the time of drought expressed through the rage of the
Goddess and her violence, which is transformed into the
cleansing and cooling power of the monsoon rains.

6. Mutiyettu is a male dominated art form,
and as such it does not reflect female
experience. Caldwell gives much detail
which suggests that the symbolism
embodied in the figure of the Goddess is
about male fears and fantasies of the
female rather than living women - the
seductive "terrifying mother" with her
forceful pointed breasts and rapacious
terrifying sexuality.

7. Chapter 5 deals with women's lives.
A lot of the frustrations that women in Kerala
experience are articulated, and a lot of detail is given
about abusive sexual relationships, and the stifling
social circumstances that create them.
Caldwell also accesses the real, domestic world of
women - one of calm and female companionship, far
from the fetishised image of the female body as
expressed in mutiyettu.
In addition, she holds out the hope that the women of
Kerala might reclaim the Goddess for themselves, as a
symbol of empowerment.
She states "The goddess in Kerala is no feminist… But
symbols are not static archetypes… The fierce Goddess
provides a rich store of indigenous symbols to India
women with which they can work out some of the real
anger and imagine themselves in new ways".

8. Sarah Caldwell has certainly found the goddess to be
a transformative force in her own life as this book
shows.
Her deep involvement and understanding led to
radical changes in her own life and new self-
understandings, as wells as work of real academic
depth.
The penultimate chapter is on the transforming
power of theatre, and the book closes with an open
ending considering the issues thrown up by the book
and her ethnographic approach.
This chapter concludes with a poem about the
Goddess by Keralese poet, Kattamanhitta
Ramakrishna, his open ended multi-layered portrait
capturing the spirit of the book.

9. BHAGAVATI’S
LIVING HISTORY

10. Hindu deity of kerala
•DURGA
•KANNAKI
•PARVATI
•SARASWATI
•LAKKSMI
•KALI
Associated with both Sanskritic goddess and local
village goddess
 personality varies from benign to ferocious
Portrayed in mythology or iconography as the consort
of male deity, but stands as her own.
Deity of the land itself.
BHAGAVATI

11. DURGADURGA

13. SARASWATI

14. LAKSHMI

15. KALI

16. •For communities in hill – spirit of mountains.
•For low land agriculturalists- paddy and earth
from which it grows
•For toddy tappers – graceful coconut palm is her
form
•Bhagavati is life itself
•Human beings easily invoke, contain
and experience her presence through
the myriad ritual arts offered in
devotions during temple festivals.
•Presence of an oracle , who embodies
the Goddess in daily worship

17. ORACLE

19. PERFORMING RITUALS
•MUTIYETTU is a ritual performed as an offering to
goddess
•Have common features of Kathakali and Kutiyattam.
•‘carrying the head dress’( muti)
•Have close resemblance to Natyashastra.
•It provides a striking combination of the ritual
immediacy of possession performance and structural
features of classical Sanskrit drama
•Complex multimedia event
•Tells the story of demon Darika and goddess Kali
•Mara and kurup performs

20. KUTIYTTAM

21. KATHAKALI

22. MUTIYETTUMUTIYETTU

23. Kerala has a unique place within indian history and
culture
Separate traditions were followed by each group of
people living side by side.
Nambuthirir brahmin’s – patrilineal and
patriarchal system
Nayar and other temple serving caste-
matrilineal system.
Communities of
Christians,Jews, muslims and
hindus have co existed

24. MEDIEVAL PERIOD UPTO 19TH CENTURY
•Development of chief doms
•Feudal organisation bonded agricultural workers to
landlords
•Temple supported by the wealth of land
•Royal family allied by marrying to Brahmin families, whose
male members also serve as priest in their temples
•Bhagavati become the predominant deity
•King made use of river for agriculture
•King obtained wild natural resources such as wood,
medicines, gum, animals and minerals
•Low caste groups specialized in the manfacturing of palm
leaves umbrellas, coconut cultivation and leather work.
•Lower caste ( such as pulluvan) became ritual expert in the
propitation of the dangerous serpent deities revered
throughout kerala
•Others specialised in sorcery (mantavadam)

25. •Mythical battle between Demon
Darika and Kali
•Bhadrakali seen by many as an
allegory of historical conflict
between real political rivals
•Kali represents the Good
•Darika represents the evil

27. SANGAM AGE
Brahmins were
immigrated to
the land
Development of
Dravidian
culture
The concept of ananku
Clear forerunner of the
concept of Sakthi
Clear forerunner of
Sangam religion
‘A malevolent
dangerous power’
Agriculture and fertility act as a metaphor for
female reproductive cycle
Influnence of Buddhism
and Jainism

28. •Text of Mutiyettu is composed in a mixture
of languages like Sanskrit, Malayalam,
Manipravalam and medieval Tamil
•Coustumes combine the element of Chakyar
Kuthu. Kathakali and Kutiyattam
•Folk style of makeup
•Offering of blood during mutiyettu derives
from war rituals of the sangam period as well
as tribal practices.

30. INFLUENCE OF MUSLIMS
•This culture has an impact on mutiyettu
•Kerala women went bare breasted during
20thc
•Muslim women always covered their upper
body with red cotton blouses tied at the back
•This red blouse closely resembles to the red
long-sleeved jacket worn by bhadrakali in
mutiyettu.
•Red blouse as a symbol of female power
•Brillant naked breast worn by the kali outside
the blouse show the powerful breast and
clothed upper body.

33. •Kali derives her form and representation
from kottavai
•Kottavai, A warrior goddess who delights
in the battle of blood
•Sangam literature identified her as a
direct antecedent of Bhadrakali:
Wearing a necklace of tiger teeth
Riding a tiger
Shouting in victory
During Sangam age women get into frenzy ,
dance, sing and make loud noise
Participate in divination and trance
Ambivalent power of Kottavi is inherent in
those young women, who performed ritual
roles embodying and expressing these
powers

34. Female velichapadu
exists in the hilly
tribal areas of palghat
regions
Female oracle come
for Kodungallur
Bhagavti temple at
Bharani and
participates in the
rituals of pollution,
cuttting their heads
along with male
oracle

35. KALI IN THE KALARI: SAKTA
TRADITION IN KERALA

36. Tantra art (top, clockwise): A Hindu tantric deity, Buddhist tantric deity, Jain tantric
painting, Kundalini chakras, a yantra and 11th century Saichō – founder of Tendai Tantra
tradition

37. Tantrism is the form of worship in which deity and
devotee are homologized
Female deity or Devi as the supreme priinciple of
universe
Some forms of saktha uses substances considering
polluting and prohibited in orthodox brahmanical
religion :
Blood , alcohol, sexual fluids and meat
Saktha ideas include ritual of arts of divination and
sorcery.
3important tantric pilgrimage centers in Kerala include:
1.Mukambika
2.Hemambika
3.Kanyakumari.
Religious practices of scheduled caste
are also infused in this tantric tradition

38. Saktha tantrism in kerala
is central to the Kalari
tradition of nayar and
ezhava warriors.
Muthiyettu partakes of
this martial tradition,
artist tranined in kalaris ,
where along with kalam
drawing and physical
traning, esoteric sakta
teachings were imparted.

39. Chavakkad Kalari Santcum in Trichur dictrict shows the relationship
between Tantric practice and martial traditions
Room itself function as a shrine
Guru of chavakadi kalari sanctum is C.S.N. Menon
He says that kalaripayattu is a Nayar speciality.
Method of education is Gurukkul
In kalari main deity worshipped include Ganapathi, Chandikess(a form of
KALI) and Saptamatrakkal (the sevenmother in the form of seven steps
grading upward in a triangular shape)
Why kali related to
kalari?
Kali to kill evil
people and bless
good people
Patronage of war
Female Breasts, a
detachable icons
having the power
to attract and
protect

41. In ancient and medieval periods women
took part in rituals and military activities
Female women Warriors in Thottam
pattu (vocal ballad sung just before
performing the Theyyam ritual)
Nayar girrls were trained in
kalaripayyattu
UNNI ARCHA
Relative strength of nayar women as
compared to Brahmin’s also contribute
to the image of Bhadrakali

43. Bhagavati is more than a mytical image
On one level she represents male political struggle
dating back to the ancient chiefdoms of the Sangam and
feudal period
On another level her stories are the metaphor of
conquest of an indigenous, female-centered religious
culture by a male dominant tradition
Iconography and rituals of the Bhagavti cult echo
ancient traditions centered around fertility and enacted
by human women

44. PERFORMERS AND
PATRONAGE

45. •Only brahmins can enter into the inner sanctum
•Sudra not allowed to enter into shrine
•Sudras can have darshan during procession
• A class of temple members called Ambalavasis,
the upper echelons of warrior communities
•Artistic services of these Ambalavasisi divided
into several types
-Nayar acted as oracle( performing
divining and invocation of Bhadrakali, masters
the drawing of kalam pattu)
-kurup sing sopana sangitam ( temple
singing as offering)
-Marars specialized in the art of
drumming
•Kurup today claims the exclusive right to
perform mutiyettu

46. KALAMPATTU RITUAL

47. MARARS AND KURUP WERE TEMPLE EMPLOYES RATHER
THAN PERFORMING ARTISTS.
Tax free lands were given
These lands could not be sold
If sold goddess will punish for their
sin with the death of their children
Kurup and marar followed matrilineal system
(MARUMAKKATHAYAM- the family property as
well as the knowledge and the right to perform
the temple arts still pass from uncle to nephew
through the female bloodline).
Family head will be matrilineal uncle in his family
MARARS- The property and knowledge of
mutiyettu would strictley remain within the
matrilineal family.

48. Naming of these marar and kurup
Since (1960s)
Person’s first name is the family name
Person’s second name is the name of one of the significant parent
Mother’s name for boy and father’s name for girls
Womens name do not change by their marriage.
Later the trend changed to have father’s name to
both girls and boys
Standard education to marar and kurup
community is less important unlike other
castes
traditionally no intercaste marriage
lives in wifes house
nalukettu

50. The person who plays the role of Kali
has to undergo rules in daily life (
noyumbu) .
December to april- performance season
All the instruction are given by the
ancestors
Never take no vegfood or alcohol
Fating has sexual continence
areabsolutely required for one day
before a performance as a form of self-
purification.
After completing the make up, costume
, the actor is no longer a mere human
being

51. “The ritual power cultivated and released
in kali’s actor’s performance benefits their
community. The offering of Mudiyettu ‘is
performed to make Bhadrakali happy and
to get some useful boon. This is to get rid of
disease, to get crops in the field, and also to
get blessings’ ( Balakrishna Marara).The
eradication of fever diseases in fact one of
the principal aims”

53. THANK
YOU