A band of poverty-stricken villagers from Kanchipuram district in Tamil Nadu have found life-support through the Gurukulam Kattaikkuttu Sangam which has been training them in performing folk arts apart from providing basic education to their children.

Kattaikkuttu is a rural theatre form of Tamil Nadu and Therukoothu a form of street play with music and dance. Though their profession is not be lucrative, the villagers of Punjarasantanaal have devoted themselves to reviving these art forms.

Recently, the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, organised a chain of shows in Chennai. The performers are mostly students of 10th and 12th class along with some ex-students of the institution. However, many students have had to leave education to go back to agriculture which is their hereditary occupation. Traditional Koothu families don’t encourage their wards due to the hardships involved in being a professional theatre performer.

“We don’t have a fixed salary. At times, we get around Rs 10,000 for one performance and maybe Rs 2,000 for the next two. But I never took any other job. I want to keep this art form alive in me,” said Radhakrishnan, one of the performers.

Dr Hanne M. De Bruin, the facilitator of the Sangam and wife of P. Rajagopalan, the moving force behind the Gurukulam, says that a lot more has to be done. “If we could win the hearts of the city people, I’m sure they’ll travel to the rural areas to see Koothu theatre,” she added. This will be helpful for the performers as they spend many hours travelling. They will have time for agricultural activities. The Koothu performers ended their city tour last month with the play ‘Raam Ravana’.

(Wriddhaayan studies at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.)

source: http://www.TheHinduBusinessLine.com / Home> On Campus/ by Wriddhaayan Bhattacharya /

Kanniamma with her beads.

One overcast evening, in a corner of North Mada Street, Mylapore, I meet Kanniamma who tells me she has just returned from Delhi. “I buy all the materials for these necklaces from the North,” she says, pointing to colourful strings of beads hanging from the steel-frame of her pavement-shop.

“People told me that stones and beads are very good there; so for the past 10-15 years, I have packed food, take a train and travelled there to bring back plenty of beads.”

Beads costs Rs. 500 per kg wholesale, and Kanniamma can make about a dozen necklaces from it. “But there’s no big profit in this; I sell the necklaces for Rs. 50 or Rs. 60,” she says, adding that her son and daughter are also in the same trade. “But they also collect paper and plastic, to earn a little extra.” .

Born into a family of bead-sellers, Kanniamma learnt a good many bead patterns from her parents when she was a little girl. “You need exceptionally good eyesight to string the tiny beads. You also need to keep changing the designs and beads, otherwise you can hardly make any money.”

Adjusting her dress — Kanniamma’s usual attire is a handmade long-skirt and blouse, with a dhavani — she attends to a customer who is looking for navaratna malais. When the customer leaves, a disappointed Kanniamma wonders aloud if hers is only a sightseeing shop. “Business is bad today,” she says, because although several people, on the way to the Kapaleeswarar temple, stop by to look at her wares, no sale is made. “I haven’t even earned even Rs.100; on days like this, there’s no money to eat.”

Sitting down next to her husband — with whom she converses in their language (“It has no script; it’s only a spoken tongue”) — Kanniamma tells me that their lives revolve round their shop. “We are from Tiruvanmiyur; but for the past 15 years, I have been selling beads near the temple. We sleep here, use the public conveniences, and buy food and eat.” The festival season is a little kinder to Kanniamma. “Everybody here knows me; during Navarathri, I even get orders for necklaces. But I’m careful never to undersell my stuff. This is very demanding work; my neck hurts, as I constantly bend over to string the tiny beads,” she says, pointing out to some new designs, made with tiny blue-green beads, and a transparent glass necklace, tasselled with orange.

As we speak, the wind tugs at the bead necklaces and the evening sky darkens; slokams can be heard from the Kapaleeswarar temple, while Kanniamma’s radio plays old MGR songs. “I like MGR and Chiranjeevi songs; I can understand Telugu too,” she tells me with a smile. When Kanniamma travels to source beads, her grand daughter — among the few in the family who is educated — helps out with the shop. “But she dropped out in the 7th Std when her friends stopped going to school.” And then Kanniamma attends to a small girl looking for pink beads.

(A weekly column on men and women who make Chennai what it is)

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> Arts>  Crafts / by Aparna Karthikeyan / December 30th, 2012

Sri Abeeshta Varada Perumal adorned with Muthangi.  / Photo: B. Velankanni Raj / The Hindu

Karappankadu near Madukkur in Pattukottai taluk, Thanjavur district, has a famous Vaishnavite temple called Abeeshta Varada Perumal temple or Devaperumal temple. Karappankadu is one among the Panchagramams in Thanjavur district. Other places are Nammankurichi, Puliyankudi, Serankulam and Peravurani.

How the temple came into existence at Karappankadu is an interesting story. Legend has it that a group of Vaishnavite scholars, that travelled from Kanchipuram to Thirupullani, in Ramanathapuram district, had to stay in a forest near Pattukottai for a night. The chieftain of the area, Karuppan Devan, was attracted by the devotion of the scholars towards the Lord of Kanchi – Varadaraja Perumal – and asked them to stay in that place itself.

The scholars stayed in the place and named it after the chieftain i.e., Karuppankadu which later became Karappankadu. The scholars, however, longed to see Varadaraja Perumal of Kanchipuram. It is said that Perumal appeared in their dream and asked them to take His idol, which was lying buried at Moorthiyambalpuram near Vaduvur, and that the place can be identified with the Garuda flying over the sky. After having found the idols of the Lord and His consorts, the scholars built a temple and installed the idols. As the Lord fulfilled the wishes of the scholars, He is called ‘Abeeshta Varadan’ (one who fulfils the wishes of His devotees).

Karappankadu is also the birth place of Vaishnavite saints such as Singaperumal Swamy, Desika Varadachar Swamy, who later became Sri Rangam Jeer and Venkatachar Swamy.

On December 22, this year, a devotee of the temple, V. Thiruvenkatasamy, son of Varadachariyar, has offered Muthangi to moolavar Deva Perumal, Pakkathu Nachiyars and moolavar Perundevi. He also offered stone-studded crowns to Moolavar Abeeshta Varadan and His consorts. Hundreds of people witnessed the event and worshipped the Lord and Goddess.

source: http://www.TheHindul.com / Home> Arts> History & Culture> by G. Srinivasan / December 27th, 2012