Origin and Technique of Krishnanattam

V. Subramonia Iyer

Though Manavedan, the author of Krishnageethi, the text on which 'Krishnanattam' is based, lived less than four hundred years ago, the identity of the great poet is clouded by legends and folk-lore. The family convention of the Zamorin royal house, in which the poet was born, to limit the names of its male members to either Manavikrama or Manaveda or Veera Raya resulted in many persons holding the same name. This made confusion worse confounded. Scholars, however have sifted the available records and historical data and have more or less arrived at some definite conclusions which may be summarized as follows:

The palace records of the Zamorin show that Manavedan was born in A.D. 1585, and that he reigned from 1655 to 1658. From references in some contemporary literary works, it would appear that over and above his poetic genius and profound scholarship he was also a far sighted and able ruler. He passed away at Trichur on the 15th of February 1658, and was cremated there or at the Zamorin's palace at Guruvayur. A stone slab on the southern side of the Zamorin's palace at Guruvayur can still be seen and it is widely believed that it marks the place where the mortal remains of the author of Krishnageethi lie buried. It is possible that while the cremation was at Trichur, the remains were later removed to Guruvayur. It is significant that when Krishnanattam performances at Guruvayur temple used to be concluded with a last show at the Zamorin's palace there, the stage was made to face the south - for the author to witness the performances - a direction which is considered inauspicious and invariably avoided wherever the play is staged elsewhere. Bharata champu in which the poet tested his poetic genius, preceded Krishnageethi.

One literary conceit, which at any rate has great historical value, is the practice of poets to refer to the date of a literary work with a particular order of letters in the last verse of the composition. Thus the fourth line in the last stanza of Krishnageethi indicates how many years have elapsed since the beginning of the 'Kaliyuga' a calculation which tallies with the date we have assigned to the poet.

Though the records are lacking for details, we can more or less reconstruct the story of the advent of Krishnanattam. Having witnessed 'Kootiattom', the orthodox Sanskrit drama performances of Chakkiars on one side and various types of folk dances which were common in those days on the other, Manavedan could have been struck with the idea that it might be worth-while to invent an assorted art form which could be more literary than the latter being at the same time having a wider appeal among the common people than kootiattom. Being a friend and admirer of the author of 'Narayaneeyam' a great devotional mini edition of the epic 'Bhagavatham', Manavedan would have read it with great admiration as he did, 'Geetha Govindam' the famous work of Jayadeva. Inspired by these works and his own poetic genius he should have composed his Krishnageethi with its predominantly devotional appeal to his favourite deity, Lord Krishna. This is the first and original contribution of Manaveda to the art of dance - drama of Kerala.

A drama according to Bharata Muni, the great exponent of 'Natya-Sastra' consists of four aspects: viz., verbal, dance, gestures and exhibition of feelings or acting.

Of these, the relegation of the first to Bhagavathars who sing from behind, was an original and revolutionary step because this helped the actors to attend to the other three aspects or the drama with greater concentration and telling effect. It is 'Kathakali' which borrowed this technique from Krishnanattam that has put it into the best use and achieved thereby, world-wide appreciation.

Dance as its very name implies has a prominent place in Krishnanattam. Indeed one may even go to the extent of lamenting that the actors and their tutors are over-emphasizing this aspect of the art-form to the extent of neglecting the other two aspects as envisaged by the author.

That the poet had meant to give great importance to the dance aspect is clear from the text itself. The dance sequence called 'Mullappu Chuttal' in Krishnanattam choreographic parlance is a delightful mixture of the classical 'Lasya' (soft-sweet-curves - emphasizing dance movements) with traces of the folk-dance common in Kerala called 'Kaikotti Kali'. This feature is included in 'Avataram' and in 'Rasa - Kreeda'. Two other types of dances also find a place in Krishnanattam. The 'Thandava' (a sort of violent war-dance) is exhibited by the wrestlers in 'Kamsa Vadha' and by Murasura and Narakasura in 'Bana yuddha'. The dance of the Ghanta- Karnas falls into the category of 'Bhibhatsa' (a sort of witches dance inspiring disgust and fear) shown acted in 'Bana Yuddha'. It is a tribute to the genius of Manaveda that he has managed the text dealing with even such dances retain its basic devotional appeal. Regarding the aspect of gestures- technically known as 'Nritya' - Krishnanattam is considered at least by the common people as lacking in appeal. This criticism stems not only from the fact that in Koodiattom, we have very elaborate gestures which are a virtual annotation of the text but from the example of Kathakali, where every word of the text is shown by the actor to synchronise with the singing. Knowing as he did, this technique of Koodiattom, Manavedan should have regarded it as having little appeal to the common man and too elaborate to fit into the scheme he had in mind. Its later adoption and effective use by Kathakali was a later development which the author of Krishnanattam could not have bargained for. What is relevant is to emphasize that Krishnanattam has not, as a matter of fact, ignored the place of 'Nritya' or its undoubted popular appeal. In Kathakali, there is what is technically called 'Ilakiattom' which is improvised 'speaking' in sign language between actors without backing of any singing. This is shown in Krishnanattam by Kamsa when he issues orders to Puthana and others to kill children and by the mahout to the elephant in Kamsa Vadham, by Yavana and Rugmi in Swayamvaram, by Sisupala in Vividha Vadham and by Uddhava in Swargarohanam. That the author of Krishnageethi did not envisage word for word sign language is proved by the fact that the text is often directly addressed to Lord Krishna. It certainly gains devotional appeal thereby.

Orthodox critics of the dramatic art world would classify Krishnanattam or for that matter, even Kathakali as a dance rather than a drama because verbal delivery on the part of actors is absent. This is being more royal than the King; because defining 'Natyam' (acting), Bharata Muni himself says, 'Nana bhavopa Sampannam nanavasthantharatmakom, Loka Vrithamikaranam Natyam' (rich with various emotions, activated, by diverse interesting situations, being true to life). In other words, the essence of drama need not include oral expression from the actors.

The exhibition of feelings and emotions appropriate to the context is certainly there in Krishnanattam acting too. Only, it is not as blatant as in Kathakali because Krishnageethi is concerned with its fundamental devotional appeal and gives only secondary importance to their emotions unlike Attakathas (texts of Kathakali).

Some references may be made to the sources used by Manavedan in composing Krishnageethi. Books X and XI of Bhagavatham, the great epic of Vyasa, Narayaneeyam, the famous devotional poem summarizing the whole of Bhagavatham by Melputtur Bhattathiripad, and Geetha Govindam, the popular lyrical composition of Jayadeva are the chief sources the poet has drawn from. In many places, Krishnageethi not only shows a close resemblance to Vyasa’s work but actually echoes some of the verses. But Manavedan has contributed an original turn to the Vaishnava cult by weaving into it Saivaite episodes - see Bana Yuddha - virtually wiping out the difference between Siva and Vishnu. The scene between Siva and Krishna is a masterpiece of insight and integration and a tribute to the catholic outlook of the poet. The direct address to the Lord in many places is adopted from Narayaneeyam which has also inspired Manavedan to imitate some of its metres and style. In a similar manner there are resemblances both in metre and style between Krishnageethi and Geeta Govindam. But it has to be emphasized that these do not in any sense adversely affect either the originality or the poetic genius of Manavedan. Indeed a careful student of Krishnageethi would be inclined to conclude that the poet went out of his way to put in unmistakable echoes or close imitations of verses from all of these sources in a few places in his composition just to place on record his own regard and appreciation for those authors. There is no dearth of originality or poetic imagination in Krishnageethi.

List of figures

• The tomb of Sri Manaveda the author of Krishnageethi
• Two veteran exponents of Krishnanattam: Sri. A. Gopalan Nair and Sri Palakkal Achuthan Nair
• Scenes from Krishnanattam (Bhumi Devi and Brahma, Yavana and Krishna, Narakasura)