They Are Avvai Shanmugis-Kumudam feature February 1997

They are Avvai Shanmughis- Kumudam Feature 1997

by V. Chandrasekharan, Kumudam February 13, 1997

The editors from this popular Tamil magazine were curious about this tradition and the waves it was making during the 150^th Tyagaraja Aradhana at Thiruvaiyaru. This is a translation from the Tamil feature. Avvai Shanmughi is a reference to the actor Shanmugham who donned the role of Avvaiyar , the poetess who was a devotee of Murugan. The actor Kamal Hassan later made a Tamil film with this name and Chachi 420 in Hindi, where he transforms himself into a woman to take care of his children as their nanny.

It was an old-fashioned house. With a courtyard, a threshold. It was midday. In that longish room at least twenty men were engaged in a chat session , mouth full of betel leaves. Many of them were over thirty. After dozing for a short while, they told us, “Do come for the natakam at seven tonight.” Then they left in a hurry.

7p.m.

A great crowd had gathered at Panchanadiswarsar temple. The natakam began five minutes before time. Amidst the excitement, the characters were introduced. Kings and beautiful princesses walked around the stage with a spring in their step for the next four hours, leaving us amazed. All those attractive young girls were the young men with whom we had chatted that afternoon! They had transformed themselves completely into women in gait, costume and mannerisms. Acting female roles was something that came to them as inheritance ages ago, not just yesterday or today.

They are all members of Melattur Bhagavata Mela Natya Vidya Sangam. Today’s generation of artistes who have preserved the art of the ancient dance-drama tradition called Bhagavata Mela.

Melattur is a prosperous village about 17kms from Thanjavur. Dependent wholly on agriculture, the forty or so families here have been nurturing Bhagavata Mela from generation to generation. They are not doing this as a profession but with a determination not to allow this art to die. In today’s terms, they are paying a high price for this. But they are not prepared to worry about that.

They had recently come to Thiruvaiyaru to perform coinciding with the 150^th Aradhana celebrations of Sadguru Tyagaraja. As we entered the house they were staying in, they were hotly discussing the play “Rukmini Kalyanam” which was to be performed that night in the Thiruvaiyaru temple. Their hands and eyes were expressive, as though doing abhinaya even as they spoke.

“One section of scholars say that Bhagavata Mela originated from Andhra. We are doing research on this for several years now,” began Bharatam R. Mahalingam, one of the more important members, being Treasurer and Director of the Natya Vidya Sangam.

“ We have indications that this musical dance-drama existed since the ninth century. This art which is performed by men, that too Brahmins, was called Arya Koothu at that time. Assam, Kerala, Andhra each had its own tradition. In Tamil Nadu it developed into Bhagavata Mela. The plays we perform now were written by Venkatrama Sastri who lived around the year1800, says Mahalingam, outlining the history of Bhagavata Mela.

“In the beginning, we performed the natakams in the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Melattur every year in the month of May. In 1964, our Natya Vidya Sangam was registered as a society under the Societies Act. Do you know who helped us through the formalities and rendered great help? V. D. Swamy, actor Arvind Swamy’s father. He is from Melattur.  He would often say that we must not confine our art only to this village without exposing it to the outside world. He took us to Madras and made us perform in many sabhas. So we came out of Melattur to perform only after 1970.

Even today, they prefer to perform in temples. ”It is only in temples that we can expect devotion(Bhakti). We will not agree to perform in an auditorium with the audience eating popcorn and guzzling cold drinks as they watch. Even if there is such a necessity, we prefer an open -air theatre, says Indu Raman. She is the Chairman of the Natya Vidya Sangam. Born in Thanjavur and settled in Bombay. Indu Raman is the person who has become the patron of Bhagavata Mela after V.D. Swamy. In fact, she has become one with this ancient art.

They perform Venkatramier’s Prahlada, Harishchandra again and again and are very particular about not deviating even a little from their avowed resolution of performing only Melattur Venkatramier’s repertoire of ten compositions. Once on the stage they get into the skin of the character they play, sometimes resulting in uncontrollable incidents. On both sides! In our natakam Prahlada Charitram Narasimha does not kill Hiranyakashipu. Do you know why? Many years ago there was an incident.

It was the climax scene when Narasimha is to kill Hiranyakashipu. The actor became frenzied and began to really pound him. The audience further incited him shouting, “Kill him, don’t leave him” 

The actor died on the stage in a pool of blood. It is said that this incident left the region shocked. From that time, the slaying of Hiranyakashipu was never enacted. “Similarly, the crowds have reacted to the cruel villain and have tried to attack him. We have had to drag them away and consoled them, says Indu laughing.

Another significant fact about Bhagavata Mela is that the actors do not accept money as payment for performances. Only the musicians and instrumentalists are paid.  Most of the participants live in and around Thanjavur and Melattur. Those in medium jobs spend gift money in purchasing cosmetics and costumes for the natakams. All the forty families do not differentiate between home and the stage. “ Most of wedding saris have been given for the plays. My nose-ring and gold belt (odiyanam) were also gifted to them. Can you guess how many nine-yard saris I have torn to be used for costumes?” This by the wife of one of the actors who specialised in female roles.

Seventy-year old Venguduswamy, the make-up artiste, has been working for the Bhagavata Mela for over thirty years. His method of applying make-up is extraordinary. While it was said that it took five hours for Kamal Hassan to apply make-up for his role in Avvai Shanmugi, here it only takes one-and a half hours to get ready twenty actors. Of these five are female characters. Just imagine, he transformed a young man Gopi into Rukmini in twenty minutes.

In the midst of the program it was announced that a Chief Guest would honour the artistes. He garlanded all the actors and when he came to those in female costumes, he hesitated and was confused. He gave the garlands in their hands, and they accepted, smiling at the confusion.