Kalamezuthu is art written at the convergence of visual and performing arts, in a marriage of linear and plastic, iconic and aniconic, organic and inorganic, human and non human, sacred and profane forms. Roopakkalam and Amoorthakkalam, the shadowy world of spirits and the sunbathed world of the living are brought in communion in a space, vibrating in the flickering light and shadow of lamps.
A sequence of avahana, invocation, aradhana, adoration and udhvasana, destruction, is executed, in tune with the biological cycle of life, death, rebirth, creation, preservation and destruction. Concentric square or circular diagrams are created and erased on the floor, from beginning through the waning day, to represent mythopoetic presence of deities and unite with them. The dancing worshippers are painted, attired and decorated like the deities drawn on the ground. The divine forms are diagrammatically organized in superimposed, overlapping, concentric, lotiform or ophidian circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, spirals and multi pointed stars. The geometricity is integrated and enhanced by billowing robes, grass skirts, polycephalous snake hoods, halos, flaring crowns, layered headgears and out turned horns. The vegetal colours symbolize the five elements of life and nature, the three parapsychological gunas or qualities. The exorcist, magical, fertility rituals, orchestrated by dhyanaslokas or meditative chants and mudras, hand gestures, epitomize the ascent of consciousness through five stages of successive refinement to the immersive bliss of anandamayakosha.
Kolam designs are drawn to a golden ratio and measured in a multiplicity of minute mathematical units. They generate vibrations of rhythm animating the Gods and Goddesses, heroes and heroines through their heroic exploits in the conquest of evil. Kali, Kanni, Yakshi, Cherumba, Chudalabhadra, Parava Chamundi, Kirata, Ganapathi, Bhairava, Shiva, Veerabhadra, Garuda, Saraswati, Rukhmini, Anjaneya, Vethala, Bhutas are full of the surge and sway of arrested movement in the drawings. The snake is everywhere, in foot rings, armpits, breast plates, knotted designs, entangled with floral, faunal and human frames.
The space encompassed by the Kalamezuthu ritual art is used for training in Kalari martial art, balikarma sacrifice, sympathetic magic and propitiatory rites. It is performed in trance with bare body, knee length shirt, mask like face, decorative striations in belly, flambeau in hands, long nails, glowing gimlet eyes. It connects the tribal with the Brahminical world in a philosophical, psychosomatic ritual of becoming what we already are, divine. Emanating from the elements, dhuli shilpa, the art of earth and dust, it is given back to its constituent elements. Ephemeral though it is, the repertoire of designs and meanings is assembled in this art with meticulous care. It is being harnessed by the Lalit Kala Akademi to enrich contemporary art. The Akademi proposes to provide it with access to current technology and materials for innovative experimentation within the framework of its own discourse.
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