Ramayanam Koothu: Living Sanskrit theatre tradition of Kerala
The ritualistic theatre traditions of Kerala temples are thousands of years old. It is the oldest, unbroken, and a living tradition. These theatre systems are older than the Natya- shastra. Many conventions followed in the Natya-shastra are broken in the older theatre tradition of Kerala like Koodiyattam.
Ramayanam Koothu belongs to the oldest Sanskrit theatre traditions of Kerala prabandha koothu. In Prabandha koothu, a champu prabandham is taken and the slokas are sung with the accompaniment of Mizhavu and Talam. The meaning is then explained in Malayalam to the audience. Mocking the society or people around, including the audience is allowed in Koothu exposition. Koothu is held in Koothambalam (a special theatre in Kerala temples ). The start and end of the koothu have special rituals associated with it. Nowhere else is such ritualised drama tradition alive to this day.
In many temples of Kerala, Koothu was held for up to 41 days continuously thus educating people, scholarly Champus/prabandhams. Ramayanam champu is considered to be composed by Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri in Thrikandiyur Mahadeva temple in North Kerala for his friend and master dramatist Kuttancheri Iravi Chakyar. Chkayar requested Melpathur to compose Shurpanakha Pralapam, the speech by Shurpanakha after Lakshmana cut her nose. Bhattathiri composed the Prabandha without using Anu-nasika aksharams (which needs to use nose for pronouncing correctly ). The grand success of this prabandha resulted in Bhattathiri composing several other prabandhams for Kuttancheri Iravi Chakyars.
Ramayanam champu contains shlokas composed by pre-Bhattathiri scholars also, as scholarly Chakyar used/mixed other (then) well-known shlokas in rasa exposition. Some people consider that it was Bhattathiri himself who collected and edited the Ramayanam champu for his friend Chakyar. The Bhattathiri composed shlokas are tougher to understand than more popular shlokas mixed with it. This work is one of the earliest works of Melpathur. In this work, Melpathur describes himself as a brahmin-kid.
Rama Chakyar’s exposition of the champu can be seen in video links below this. Ramayanam koothu is widely organised during Karkidaka/Karka month, a month during which Ramayana recitation is done in every Hindu household in Kerala. 24 videos of Ramayana koothu are available here.
Apart from Ramayanam champu, close to 20–25 other champus of Melpathur are available with us today as passed on by scholarly koothu/koodiyattom masters. Many of these Champus is based on the southern recension Mahabharata. Some champus are composed based on various Puranas. Famed Ashtami prabandham champu describes the Ashtami festival of Vaikom Mahadeva Temple.
Mahabharatam champu: Mahabharatam champu was written by Melpathur during his old age. It describes the Mahabharata story completely from start to end. In this champu, (previously written by him in his younger days, for Iravi Chakyar) Mahabharata based champus have been used as such and newly composed verses have been incorporated to fill the missing story parts. thus creating a magnum opus in the scene of champu prabandhams.
