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Kerala’s Mahabharata on Stage: Texts and Performative Practices in Kutiyattam Drama
This article concerns the performance of Kūṭiyāṭṭam enactments of Mahābhārata narratives and the written texts on which those performances are based. The Kūṭiyāṭṭam tradition of Sanskrit drama enactment in Kerala has been recognised by UNESCO as a ‘masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of...
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| Format: | Printed Book |
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The Journal of Hindu Studies
2010
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| Online Access: | http://10.26.1.76/ks/005085.pdf |
| Summary: | This article concerns the performance of Kūṭiyāṭṭam enactments of
Mahābhārata narratives and the written texts on which those performances are
based. The Kūṭiyāṭṭam tradition of Sanskrit drama enactment in Kerala has
been recognised by UNESCO as a ‘masterpiece of the oral and intangible
heritage of humanity’ but is also profoundly concerned with written texts.
I argue that the ways Kūṭiyāṭṭam performers have modified and elaborated
upon the dramas’ texts have resulted in enactments more devotionally oriented
than are the texts themselves, and that this distinctively devotional
performative practice has contributed to the tradition’s longevity. I also argue
that performances in secular settings in recent decades represent both an
opportunity and a danger to the tradition. |
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| Physical Description: | p.124–142 3 |