Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Songs play a significant role in ritual, not only in terms of organizing and structuring a ritual, but also in terms of manifesting the narrative world associated with it. Songs move from a world of their own to the ritual world by establishing a dynamic relationship between the two. This paper, by analysing thottam songs, which are sung on the occasion of theyyam (the prevalent form of ritual performance in north Malabar, Kerala) explores the ways in which the narrative world associated with a ritual moves into the ritual world, the nature of this movement, and the kind of relationship built between the two. Being a repository of the life history of the local heroes of the region, these songs contain the life story and heroic deeds of individuals who were born, lived, killed, and deified in the region. These songs name and summon the gods whose heroic death has made them powerful. The relationship of these songs with the ritual ensemble is not stagnant, but is vulnerable to one another. It has the potential to reconfigure the relations between narrative, ritual, and performance. Such an approach further complicates the idea of understanding a ritual as a compilation of “parts,” since the part itself often outlives the ritual. This triggers us to approach thottam not as a mere “musical part” of the ritual activity, but as a ritual activity in itself where the song carries meaning as it moves into performance through its oratorical power, structure, and form.