Terukkuttu
Encyclopedia
Terukkuttu or Kattaikkuttu is a Tamil
street theatre
form practised in Tamil Nadu
state of India
and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka
. Terukuttu is a form of entertainment, a ritual, and a medium of social instruction. The terukkuttu plays various themes. One theme is from the Tamil language versions of the Hindu
epic Mahabharata
, focusing on the character Draupadi
.
The writer M. Shanmugam Pillai has compared terukkuttu to the Tamil epic Silappatikaram, calling Silappatikaram a proto-form of terukkuttu. The Silappatikaram story is still performed by the terukkuttu actors, the terukkuttu drama commences and ends in a manner similar to the commencement and end of each canto in the epic, and the actors sing and converse in verse interspersed with prose, the prose coming after the verse as its explanation. Both Silappatikaram and terukkuttu are centered around the chastity
and moral
power of women as cherished values.
However, historically, the terukkuttu is not more than two to three centuries old. The researcher Richard A. Frasca wrote that certain of his performer-informants believed that the terukkuttu originally emanated from the Gingee
area. It spread from South India to Sri Lanka, and became popular in Jaffna
and Batticaloa
. The early Sinhala
Nadagam
(open-air drama) closely followed Terukuttu plays in presentation and in style. The Jesuit priests in Jaffna
also presented Catholic
plays from the Portuguese tradition in Terukuttu style.
Many scholars note the similarity between terukkuttu and other neighbouring regional drama forms, such as Yakshagana
and Kathakali
. However, unlike Kathakali, terukkuttu is less codified, and is generally considered a folk art rather than a classical art form. In recent times, some terukkuttu groups have also started operating as professional troupes.
story, with emphasis on the role of Draupadi
. Terukkuttu plays on Ramayana
are performed at Mariyamman festivals, and some of the plays also involve local deities.
The terukkuttu plays form part of ritual celebrations including the twenty-one day temple festival starting in Chittirai, the first month of the Tamil calendar
. The terukkuttu performances begin in the middle of the festival, and continue till the morning of the penultimate day.
The core themes of the terukuttu plays include:
, drum
s, a mukhavinai (an instrument similar to oboe
), and cymbal
s.
An acting arena is marked at courtyard of a temple, open ground or any other convenient site and people squat on the three sides of the rectangular arena. The chorus of singers and the musicians occupy the place on the rear side of the stage, and the actors use the front side. Two persons holding a curtain enter the arena, with an actor in the guise of Ganesha
, the elephant-headed Hindu god. The chorus begins an invocation to Ganesha, and prayers are also offered to many other deities. The actor playing Ganesha now moves out of the arena, and Kattiyakkaran (jester and sutradhara i.e. the narrator) appears on the stage. Kattiyakkaran relates the story fo the play to be performed and introduces the characters. Sometimes, the characters introduce themselves. Kattiyakkaran links the scenes, provides context to the happenings on the stage and also jests in between the scenes. The actors sing themselves, supported by the chorus.
The text of a terukkuttu play is a series of songs of songs related by a theme. Each song is rendered in a raga
, structured in form of a classical song. It is preceded by viruttam
, chanting of four-line verses in the same raga as the song. After the song, an actor delivers a speech based on it.
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
street theatre
Street theatre
Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves and street corners. They are especially seen in outdoor spaces where there are...
form practised in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
state of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. Terukuttu is a form of entertainment, a ritual, and a medium of social instruction. The terukkuttu plays various themes. One theme is from the Tamil language versions of the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
epic Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
, focusing on the character Draupadi
Draupadi
In the epic Mahābhārata, Draupadi, also known as ' is the "emerged" daughter of King Drupada of Panchāla and the wife of the five Pandavas. When Yudhisthira becomes the king of Hastinapura at the end of the war, Draupadi becomes the queen of Indraprastha...
.
History
The term "terukkuttu" is derived from the Tamil words Teru ("street") and Kuttu ("theatre"). The word "Kattaikuttu" is derived from the name of special ornaments known as kattai (or kattai camankal).The writer M. Shanmugam Pillai has compared terukkuttu to the Tamil epic Silappatikaram, calling Silappatikaram a proto-form of terukkuttu. The Silappatikaram story is still performed by the terukkuttu actors, the terukkuttu drama commences and ends in a manner similar to the commencement and end of each canto in the epic, and the actors sing and converse in verse interspersed with prose, the prose coming after the verse as its explanation. Both Silappatikaram and terukkuttu are centered around the chastity
Chastity
Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....
and moral
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
power of women as cherished values.
However, historically, the terukkuttu is not more than two to three centuries old. The researcher Richard A. Frasca wrote that certain of his performer-informants believed that the terukkuttu originally emanated from the Gingee
Gingee
Gingee is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The nearest town with a railway station is Tindivanam, 28 km away....
area. It spread from South India to Sri Lanka, and became popular in Jaffna
Jaffna
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...
and Batticaloa
Batticaloa
Batticaloa is a city in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. It is the seat of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka. It is on the east coast, south by south east of Trincomalee, and is situated on an island.-Etymology:...
. The early Sinhala
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
Nadagam
Theater in Sri Lanka
Theatre of Sri Lanka originated from traditional rituals and folk dramas in the nineteenth century. Until that period, the art was confined to small villages and didn't have a national presence...
(open-air drama) closely followed Terukuttu plays in presentation and in style. The Jesuit priests in Jaffna
Jaffna
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...
also presented Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
plays from the Portuguese tradition in Terukuttu style.
Many scholars note the similarity between terukkuttu and other neighbouring regional drama forms, such as Yakshagana
Yakshagana
Yakshagana is a musical theater popular in the coastal and Malenadu regions of Karnataka, India. Yakshagana is the recent scholastic name for what are known as kēḷike, āṭa, bayalāṭa, bayalāṭa, daśāvatāra . It is believed to have evolved from pre-classical music and theatre during Bhakti movement...
and Kathakali
Kathakali
Kathakali is a highly stylized classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion...
. However, unlike Kathakali, terukkuttu is less codified, and is generally considered a folk art rather than a classical art form. In recent times, some terukkuttu groups have also started operating as professional troupes.
Theme
Many terukuttu performances center around the enactment of MahabharataMahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
story, with emphasis on the role of Draupadi
Draupadi
In the epic Mahābhārata, Draupadi, also known as ' is the "emerged" daughter of King Drupada of Panchāla and the wife of the five Pandavas. When Yudhisthira becomes the king of Hastinapura at the end of the war, Draupadi becomes the queen of Indraprastha...
. Terukkuttu plays on Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
are performed at Mariyamman festivals, and some of the plays also involve local deities.
The terukkuttu plays form part of ritual celebrations including the twenty-one day temple festival starting in Chittirai, the first month of the Tamil calendar
Tamil calendar
The Tamil calendar is a solar and sidereal Hindu calendar used in Tamil Nadu. It is also used in Pondicherry , and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. It is also used by Telugu speaking people in Tamil Nadu...
. The terukkuttu performances begin in the middle of the festival, and continue till the morning of the penultimate day.
The core themes of the terukuttu plays include:
- Draupadi Kalyanam (The marriage of DraupadiDraupadiIn the epic Mahābhārata, Draupadi, also known as ' is the "emerged" daughter of King Drupada of Panchāla and the wife of the five Pandavas. When Yudhisthira becomes the king of Hastinapura at the end of the war, Draupadi becomes the queen of Indraprastha...
) - Supattirai Kalyanam (The marriage of SubhadraSubhadraImage:Jagannath, Baladev and Subadra in Radhadesh.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=|Subhadra, flanked by her brothers Balarama and Jagannatha . Deities of the Radhadesh temple in Belgium...
) - Alli Arjunan (The Marriage of ArjunaArjunaArjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...
with Alli) - Pancal Capatam (The Vow of Draupadi)
- Arjunan Tapam (Arjuna's tapas)
- Krishnan Titu (The mission of KrishnaKrishnaKrishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
) - Abhimanyu Cantai (The defeat of AbhimanyuAbhimanyuAbhimanyu is a tragic hero in the Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata. He is the son of Arjuna and Subhadra, who is the half-sister of Lord Krishna...
) - Karna Mokshayam (The defeat of KarnaKarnaKarna or Radheya is one of the central characters in the epic Mahābhārata, from ancient India. He was the King of Anga...
) - Patinettam Por (The Battle of the Eighteenth Day)
- Aravan kalappali ("Sacrifice of AravanIravanIravan , also known as Iravat and Iravant, is a minor character from the Hindu epic of Mahabharata. The son of Pandava prince Arjuna and the Naga princess Ulupi, Iravan is the central god of the cult of Kuttantavar —which is also the name commonly given to him in that cult—and plays a major role...
in the Battlefield")
Style
The terukkuttu plays are a combination of song, music, dance and drama. The actors wear colorful costumes. The musical instruments used by the terukkuttu musicians include harmoniumHarmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
, drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, a mukhavinai (an instrument similar to oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
), and cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s.
An acting arena is marked at courtyard of a temple, open ground or any other convenient site and people squat on the three sides of the rectangular arena. The chorus of singers and the musicians occupy the place on the rear side of the stage, and the actors use the front side. Two persons holding a curtain enter the arena, with an actor in the guise of Ganesha
Ganesha
Ganesha , also spelled Ganesa or Ganesh, also known as Ganapati , Vinayaka , and Pillaiyar , is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations...
, the elephant-headed Hindu god. The chorus begins an invocation to Ganesha, and prayers are also offered to many other deities. The actor playing Ganesha now moves out of the arena, and Kattiyakkaran (jester and sutradhara i.e. the narrator) appears on the stage. Kattiyakkaran relates the story fo the play to be performed and introduces the characters. Sometimes, the characters introduce themselves. Kattiyakkaran links the scenes, provides context to the happenings on the stage and also jests in between the scenes. The actors sing themselves, supported by the chorus.
The text of a terukkuttu play is a series of songs of songs related by a theme. Each song is rendered in a raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
, structured in form of a classical song. It is preceded by viruttam
Viruttam
A viruttam or virutham is a Hindu devotional verse sung in Carnatic music concerts. Viruttams do not possess a set tala and are solely improvised using one or more ragams. It is one of many forms of manodharma in Carnatic music.A viruttam usually precedes rendition of a song...
, chanting of four-line verses in the same raga as the song. After the song, an actor delivers a speech based on it.