Daily Archives: February 10, 2019

Kathakali loses a path-breaker

Arts,Culture & Entertainment

Chavara Parukutty, who fought heavy odds to be a top performer, is no more

Chavara Parukutty, one of the first women to break into the male bastion of Kathakali, passed away here on Thursday following a prolonged illness. The veteran artiste was 75.

A woman who challenged the status quo in art much before the world caught up, Chavara Parukutty had to navigate her way through the barriers of caste and patriarchy in a career spanning six decades. At a time Kerala’s signature dance drama was still attached to the strings of aristocracy, she bravely forayed into a field that held no promises for a women. And Parukutty not only chose an art form which allowed little scope for a woman to have a successful career, but made great strides in that paving the way for many others.

Coming from a modest goldsmith family, classical dance was totally inaccessible to Parukutty as a child. She, along with a friend, used to stand outside the local dance troupe Leelamani Nrithakalalayam and observe the artists dance. Later, the wide-eyed girl was made a member of the group. She was drawn to Kathakali soon, but the only women who took any interest in the complex art were from elite families and for them it was more of a recreational activity. It took Parukutty some time to find her first guru Muthuvilakkad Gopala Panicker and then started a lonely expedition to a male-dominated terrain.

Parukutty made her debut during her pre-university years and in the initial years she was relegated to irrelevant roles as the art circuit tried to exclude her. Though she joined Poruvazhi Sreekrishnavilasm Kaliyogam and started doing major roles, festival brochures carried her name in the smallest font and sometimes even missed it.

But she eventually emerged from the shadows and made her way to the top, often sharing the stage with doyens like Kalamandalam Gopi. She could definitely save herself from being a name lost in obscurity, but stardom and glory always evaded her. While male artists of the same stature roamed the world, foreign stages remained out-of-reach for her and no major honour came her way.

Undaunted

It wasn’t an easy journey as a women artiste and single mother, but even deteriorating health or her lonely last days couldn’t break her spirit. Parukutty, the consummate artiste she was, lived for her art and even on her deathbed she must have dreamt of noting but the next arangu.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Navamy Sudhesh / Kollam – February 09th, 2019

Experts visit excavation site at Edayaranmula

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives & Environment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Heritage: Noted curator M. L. Johny, inspecting a terracotta figurine unearthed from the Pampa river banks at Edayaranmula during his visit to the temporary museum set up by the Archaeology Department at Aranmula on Friday.  

Inspect terracotta pieces, including male and female figurines

Noted curator M. L. Johny, accompanied by Antony Kaaral from the Government Fine Arts College in Thiruvananthapuram, visited the excavation site of the Archaeology Department on the banks of river Pampa at Edayaranmula on Friday.

They also visited the temporary museum set up by the Kerala State Archaeology Department at Aranmula where the terracotta figurines unearthed from Edyaranmula have been kept.

Excavation

The Archaeology Department had launched excavation on the banks of river Pampa at Edayaranmula near Aranmula in December last, exploring traces of a vibrant ancient Pampa Valley civilization in the area following the sighting of a few terracotta artefacts there, earlier, in September.

Rajeev Puliyoor, Malayalam teacher at the Mahatma Gandhi University B.Ed Centre at Elanthoor who has been doing research on the ‘Pampa Valley Civilization,’ and K.P. Sreeranganathan, photographer turned historian, also accompanied the two artistes.

The unearthed terracotta pieces include male and female figurines, snake heads, bust of a man and a twin female terracotta statue.

Mr. Puliyoor said renowned historians M.R.Raghava Warrier and M.G.S.Narayanan, were of the view that the terracotta artefacts unearthed from the banks of river Pampa appeared to be centuries old. Prof Warrier had visited the site twice, earlier, he said.

Mr Puliyoor stressed the need for an exhaustive study and excavation in the Pampa river basin in the wake of the unearthing of ancient terracotta artefacts from the river banks.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Pathanathitta – February 08th, 2019

Manjanikkara church festival begins with flag hoisting

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Travel, World Opinion

CEREMONIAL START : The ceremonial flag being hoisted at the Omalloor Cross, near Manjanikkara, marking the beginning of the 87h feast of St. Elias-III, popularly known as Manjanikkara Perunaal, on Sunday.  

Archbishop of Sweden will be the Patriarchal delegate

The annual Manajanikkara church festival (Perunaal) and 87th feast of Syrian Patriarch St Elias-III began with the Kodiyettu ceremony at the Mor Ignatius Diara Church at Manjanikkara and at the Omalloor Cross at Omalloor, near here, on Sunday.

The Patriarchal Flag was hoisted on the diara premises and at all the churches attached to the Jacobite Syrian Church on Sunday.

Kuriakose Mar Savarios, Knanaya Archbishop, hoisted the Patriarchal Flag at the diara cathedral in the presence of diara chief Geevarghese Mar Athanaseus.

Archbishop of Sweden Mor Diascorus Benyamin Athas will be the Patriarchal delegate to this year’s Manjanikkara Perunal. The Patriarchal delegate and Catholicos Baselius Thomas-I will be the chief guests at the annual Church festival.

Mathews Mar Theodoseus Metropolitan of the Kollam diocese of the Jacobite Syrian Church will inaugurate the religious convention at 7 p.m. on Monday.

Public reception

A rousing reception would be accorded to all Manjanikkara-bound pilgrimage processions coming from different parts of the State on their arrival at Omalloor Cross on Friday afternoon.

The Patriarchal delegate will inaugurate a public meeting to be held on the diara premises in connection with the public reception to various pilgrimage processions to the saint’s tomb, later, at 6 p.m.

The Catholicos will preside over the meeting. All bishops attached to the Jacobite Syrian Church and various socio-political leaders will also address the meet.

The Patriarchal delegate will lead the holy Tri-mass to be held at the diara cathedral at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Pathanamthitta – February 04th, 2019