Bards of Guruvayur: Manavedan Raja

It is around ten at night. The final Athazha Puja and seeveli procession at the Guruvayur temple are all over. The large crowd of devotees who milled around everywhere inside the temple all day, chanting, praying, performing circumambulations or sitting around simply enjoying the ambience, have all left.

- SULINI V NAIR

The temple is quiet. The fragrance of oil, incense, flowers and sandal paste lingers in the air. The world is ready to ease into rest and slumber, but within the temple a new world now opens up before a few that seek it. After a long day of giving darshan to devotees, Bhagavan will now come out to dance.

Krishnanattam, or Krishna's dance, is a dance drama that celebrates the life of Krishna in eight parts, performed every night within the temple. The performance takes place on the north-west side of the temple, right outside the door through which devotees exit after praying at the sanctum. At dusk, just after the deeparadhana worship with lamps, the 'keli' or percussive announcement begins as a precursor to the performance. Following this the artistes start getting ready. After 9 pm the central oil lamp called the kali vilakku is lit. The percussion instruments thoppi maddalam and shuddha maddalam and idiophone instruments chengila and ilathalam are placed in front of this lamp. Before the performance all artistes, including the one who plays Krishna, touch the instruments reverentially by way of seeking blessing. The musicians and drummers pick up their respective instruments. They play the keli. On cue, two stage hands hold up a multicoloured rectangular curtain behind the lamp and in front of the musicians. Behind this curtain is the sacred space of the dance. Four female characters enter this space, touch the sacred ground and dance the thodayam behind the curtain. This is to invoke the blessings of Ganapati, Vishnu and Devi and is not meant to be watched by the audience. It is then that Krishna’s story begins.