THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Traditional music that was confined to the four walls of temples in Kerala would soon reverberate across the country.
A group of artists would travel the length and breadth of the country in a specially-designed ‘Rath’ to promote music using percussion instruments from ‘Pancha Vadyam’, the ensemble of five musical instruments, to traditional temple art forms such as ‘Melam’ and ‘Thayambaka’.
Those behind the initiative is a group of artists in the state, who are keen to promote temple music. They wish to give national recognition and a fresh lease of life to the dying art form. The group comprises 25 artists who would tour other states in an open jeep designed in the form of a ‘Rath’. ‘Bharat Rath Yatra’ would stop in all the famous temples in the country. “Various cultural organisations are supporting the initiative and we have informed all the State Governments about our yatra,” Edaykka and Chenda exponent Prakasan Pazhambalakode, who would head the group, said.
Temple artists performing the ‘Panchavadyam’ comprising four percussion instruments called ‘Thimila’, ‘Maddalam’, ‘Ilathalam’, ‘Edaykka’ and the wind instrument known as ‘Kombu’ would begin their journey from the state on November 1. “A thantric expert would also accompany the team. Temple music in Kerala has a direct connection to ‘thantra’. This would also be explained in the pamphlets that would be made available in local languages in all states. Literally it is a musical journey without religious or political affiliation with the sole aim to take percussion music of Kerala throughout the country,” said Pazhambalakode, who presently has 39 foreign students from countries such as the US, UK and Australia learning percussion instruments online. The logo of the journey to spread music would be launched by Justice V R Krishna Iyer at his residence in Kochi on Monday.
The Sopanam School of Panchavadyam from Malappuram which organised a ‘Panchavadyam’ concert in which 201 people performed for two hours and seventeen minutes in 2011 at Kozhissamgad Temple, thereby finding place in Limca World Records, would also be part of the musical journey.
Santhosh Alamkode, the proprietor of the Sopanam School which has branches in Palakkad, Malappuram and Thrissur, said that percussion music was one of the art forms in Kerala that was not getting the recognition it should get. “Artists who are true to the art form are being neglected and the whole aim of the Bharat Rath Yatra is to revive traditional percussion music. Music does not have religious or gender differences. Currently we have around 450 students who range from the age of 5 to 69 years learning percussion music,” Santhosh said.
The group is also coming up with a title song for the journey, written by Pramod Payyannur. The song would be directed by music director M Jayachandran.