Padayani- An unforgettable experience

Couple of weeks ago, my cousin rang me up andasked if i was interested in joining him to watch padayani - a traditional performing art of kerala that is celebrated in few Kaali temples in southern kerala. I had heard a bit about padayani from my father and other friends but did not havetoo much idea about it. Hence decided to explore it. And Boy, Had i not been there, it would have been a huge loss.

The history behind padayani goes something like this. There was a daemon called Daarikan who was an ardent follower of Lord Brahma.He got a boon from the god that he could never be killed by a man and if a drop of his blood is spilled into the ground , a thousand daemons would rise from that. The daemon became so powerful because of this boon and he started creating havoc.Lord Shiva opened his third eye and created goddess Maha Kaali to save the people from Daarikan.She travelled on the back of a daemon called Vethala and confronted Daarikan After a few setbacks, Maha Kaali was finally able to defeat Daarikan, drank up all of his blood before it fell into the ground and wore the head of the daemon as an ornament. But, during the fight, kaali was so enraged that it was impossible to put out her anger even after the killing. So shiva sent Ganapathi, his son and Nandi, the bull in the guise of yound kids to her to welcome her to Kailas. On seeing the kids, her mind was filled with motherly affection and she descended into the mortal world as the mother of all.padayani is celebrated to honour this mother goddess. Its also symbolic of the victory of light over darkness and the good over the evil.

As we entered the Padayani village in Kadammanitta,it was obvious that the entire place and people were in a festive mood. The whole village was celebrating the festival with all its vigour. The padayani festival in this place spans over 10 days and we were there on the last day which was the most elaborate celebration of all. The padayani kolams ( the dress and the masks) are made out of palm leaves and arecanut leaves and painted using natural colours. This in itself is a work of art and needed quite a bit of skill.

These kolams are welcomed into the central stage by all villagers accompanied by drums and "choottu" - instant torches made tying together the coconut leaves and lit. The people carrying these fire torches beat these torches onto the ground producing flares, fumes and ashes all around, giving the whole environment a fiery feel.

The 2 main kolams follow the fire and reach the main arena where they dance to the beats announcing their arrival. After they are gone, there is a group dance where young boys and adults dance to the beats of traditional padayani song. The song starts with a low tempo and by the end of the dance the tempo reaches a maximum. I got so absorbed in the rhythm and beats of the music that i started swaying to the beats in some time.One of the most interesting aspect of this dance is that small children are also equally involved like adults. This ensures that this tradition goes on from one generation to another.

The dance is complete, now enters a variety of kolams. Each of them dressed as per a mythological character.They dance to various tunes and in well ordered steps. It takes long years of practice to get the dance moves perfect. These kolams dance into a trance or frenzy at the end of their dance.Of course its a custom to enter a frenzy state and most probably a lot of the kolams dont enter into the frenzy state as they show.. but its quite possible that they reach that state of mind owing to the tight beats and the environment surrounding them. Some of the kolams are"Ganapathi", "Kaalan- god of death", "maadan- a daemon", "kuthira- the horse", "Bhairavi- the goddess", "marutha- the mother goddess of the village", "raktha chaamundi - the blood smeared figure of Kaali after killing Daarikan" and a lot more. The festivities continue till day break and towards the end there are a lot of fireworks which mark the end of celebrations.

Watching these festivals being celebrated with so much passion and vigor makes me envy these people who are still so close to their roots and hold our culture so close to their heart.