KOCHI: Manaveda Raja choreographed krishnanattom, the musical dance drama, with ardent love and devotion towards Lord Krishna. No wonder it became a part of the history of Guruvayoor Sree Krishna Temple. Guruvayoor Kshethra Kalanilayam has been preserving and popularising this traditional dance form without losing its soul. Avatharam, the first episode of krishnanattom that describes the holy birth of Sree Krishna in the prison of Kamsa was staged at Poonithura Kottaram Sree Krishnaswami Temple as part of the Sree Krishna Jayanthi celebrations.
With its dramatic elements like soulful music, rich rhythmic accompaniment, special masks used for characters like Brahma and Poothana, and the dazzling costumes similar to that of kathakali, the performance created a great impression among the audience.
An exhilarating mood is made through the thodayam, the conventional beginning of krishnanattom in rag neelambari. Then comes the first combination scene of the mother goddess, Earth and Brahma. Earth describes the agonising experiences she is suffering under the evil king Kamsa. During the conversation rag kedhara gowlam was sung to the accompaniment of edakka by Pallassaran Sudhakaran. The most interesting aspect of this scene was the masked face of Brahma, a specialty of krishnanattom. Poothana too appears with a masked face in another scene.
The second scene unfolds the two extremes in the character of Kamsa who first appears as a loving brother who even takes the role of a charioteer at his sister Devaki’s wedding, driving Devaki and her husband Vasudevar home. After hearing the heavenly declaration that the eighth child of his sister will kill him Kamsa rushes to kill his sister. Muralidharan who came on stage as Kamsa successfully portrayed Kamsa’s flashing emotions with utmost care.
Then followed vishwaropa dharshanam where krishnanattom attains its musical best. “This is actually a musical extravaganza in krishnanattom,” says Mecheri Vasudevan Namboothiri, the senior most playback singer in the troupe. “Here we present the vishwaroopa dharshanam in ragamalika which is a garland of ragas offered to Sree Guruvayoorappan,” he added. The ragas used in vishwaroopa dharshanam are kamboji, dhanyasi, surutti, saveri, ananda bhairavi, mohanan, athana and sree.
Like the eight ragas used to make a garland for Guruvayoorappan, Krishnanattom is divided into eight episodes.
They are avatharam, kaliyamardhanam, rasakreeda, kamsavadham, swayamvaram, banayudham, vivida vadham and swargaarohanam. Unlike other languishing traditional art forms, lakhs of devotees wait for their turn to offer different episodes before the presiding deity of Guruvayoor Sree Krishna Temple.
Devotees present different episodes of krishnanattom as an offering to Guruvayoorappan.
For babies devotees offer avatharam before the deity and for a prosperous and prolonged married life swayamvaram is presented as an offering. From each devotee the devaswam receives a nominal amount of Rs 1, 500 for the staging of an episode. On September 6 the temple had a record collection of Rs 4, 70,000 for presenting swaramvaram as the offering. On Friday Rs 2, 70,000 was collected for staging avatharam.
Accompaniments used for krishnanattom also deserve special mention as thoppi maddalam is used in Kerala only as an accompaniment for krishnanattom along with sudha maddalam.
The sweet tonal variations of edakka add to the beauty of musical ambience.
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