Ramayanam Koothu : Living Sanskrit theatre tradition of Kerala
Ritualistic theatre tradition of Kerala temples are thousands of years old. It is the oldest, unbroken, and a living tradition. This 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 sang with accompaniment of Mizhavu and Talam. The meaning is then explained in malayalam to the audience. Mocking the society or people around, including audience is allowed in Koothu exposition. Koothu is held in koothampalam (special theatre in kerata temples ). The start and end of the koothu has special rituals associated with it. Nowhere else such ritualised drama tradition live to this day.
In many temples of Kerala, Koothu was held for upto 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 prbandha without using Anu-nasika aksharams (which needs nose for pronouncing correctly ). Grand success of this prbandha 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 campu for his friend chakyar. The battathiri composed shlokas are more tougher to understand, than more popular shlokas mixed to it. This work is one of the earliest work 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 in links below.
Ramayanam koothu 1
Ramayanam Day 23
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 are 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 has been incorporated to fill the missing story parts. thus creating a magnum opus in the scene of champu prabandhams.
Melpathur Narayana bhattathiri can be simply described as the emperor of champu sahitya.
Other Major Champu works of Melpathur
1 Vyasolpathi :
Vyasotpatti (23 shlokas /prose) is based on the the 63rd chapter of the southern recension of Mahabharata’s Adi Parva. There is another Vyasotpatti Prabandham from Purva Bharata Campu by Manaveda /Zamorin king of calicut .
2 Duta vakya :
Dutavakyam (total 132 shlokas) is based on the Udyoga Parva of the southern recension Mahabharata. Krishna meets Dhritarashtra as Yudhishthira’s emissary to avoid the Mahabharata war. The BORI edition of mahabharata produced by indologists ( which destroys the mahabharata culture present in this country as it will puncture many of their narratives ) dosnt include the traditionally passed on duta vakya episode. Melpathurs duta vakya is very comparable to Kunjan Nambiars earlier malayalam work pathinalu vrittam.
3 Nrgamoksham
Nrgamoksham deals with the story of King Nrga given in the 87th chapter of the 10th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavata Purana, chapters 53–54 of the Valmiki Ramayana’s Uttara Kanda and the 87th chapter of the Mahabharata’s Anushasana Parva. There are 64 shlokas in it.
4 Kaunteyashtakam
It is a small Prabandham of 8 shlokas, hence called ashtakam. describing the events during Sage Durvasa’s visit to the Pandavas during their exile. This ashtakam is based on the Mahabharata’s Vana Parva.
5 Tripuradahanam
This small prabandham contains 13 shlokas. The well known story of shiva is explained in various puranas as well as mahabharata. The following puranas describe this story : Vishnu Purana, Mahabharata, Harivansha, Bhagavata, Matsya Purana, Shivamahapurana and Lingapurana.
6 Kailasavarnnanam
Kailasavarnnanam consists of a long prose passage describing Kailasa (the abode of Lord Siva) in the fluent, scholarly, poetic, dramatic and inimitable style of Melputtur.
7 Rajasuya
This is a long prabandham of 206 shlokas about Yudhishtira performing the Rajasuya yajna and Krishna killing Shishupala from the Mahabharata. Melputtur’s technical knowledge of Rajasuya ritual is fully reflected in this scholarly composition.
8 Dakshayagam Prabandham
In 92 verses Melpattur describes the yajna conducted by Daksha without inviting Shiva. The story is adopted from Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata and Shiva Mahapuranam.
9 Panchalisvayamvaram
This Prabandham in 157 verses is based on the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata. Several verses in it clearly indicate that these were based on the Southern Recension of the Mahabharata.
10 Nalayani Charitam
This is based on the adi Parva of the Southern Recension of Mahabharata. This has 51 verses. The importance of Nalayanicaritam Prabandham is in understanding the meaning and significance of the three dice games in Mahabharata: between Nala and Pushkara (Vana Parva); Shiva and Parvati (Adi Parva-Pancendropakhyanam) and between Yudhishthira and Shakuni (Sabha Parva Dyutam) and the role of Draupadi in these plays.
11 Kucelopakhyanam
A small prabandham based on Bhagavata purana. It contains 49 verses.
12 Subhadraharanam
It is based on the Southern Recension of the Mahabharata, with 208 verses. A study of this Prabandham is greatly helpful in understanding the significance of the events in the Mahabharata leading to Subhadra’s abduction and the role of Krishna in these events.
Other notable works of Melpathur include :
13 sundopasunda-akhyanam 14 kiratam 15 matsyavataram 16 Nirunasikam 17 Rakshasolpathi 18 ahalya moksham 19 bala kandam 20 ashtami champu 21 svaha sudhakaram 22 koti viraham 23 syamantakam
some scholars has included 24 Gajendra moksham 24 rukmanga charitam 25 vamanavataram 26 parvati svayamvaram etc also as his work.
