Arts and artisanal heritage

TheyyamRitual

The deity is not represented; the deity arrives. The performer sits while the face is painted over hours, the thottam pattu narrating the deity's origin is sung as the costume goes on, and at a fixed point he is handed a mirror. From the moment he sees the painted face in it he is addressed as the deity, and remains so until the costume comes off — speaking in the deity's voice, receiving petitions, giving blessings and settling disputes for households who in ordinary life rank far above the man inside the costume. Over four hundred distinct kolams are documented; many are deified humans, and a large number of those are people who were killed unjustly, including women.

Performed by: Hereditary performers of the Vannan, Malayan, Velan, Pulayan, Mavilan and Koppalan communities. Occasion: Kaliyattam nights at a kavu, from the tenth of Thulam to Edavam

ThirayattamRitual

The same ritual family as Theyyam, performed south of the Korapuzha under a different name, with a lighter costume, a heavier percussion accompaniment and its own set of deities. The change of name at a small river is the cleanest evidence that the north–south line inside this region is real.

Performed by: Specific performing communities of the Kozhikode and Malappuram belt. Occasion: Kavu festivals, December to May

PoorakkaliFolk

A circle dance round a lamp in eighteen sequences of increasing difficulty, danced by men in a bare torso and mundu, and led by a panikkar. It is unusual for having a scholastic component attached to it.

Performed by: Men, at Bhagavathi kavus of north Malabar. Occasion: The nine days of Pooram in Meenam (March–April)

KolkaliFolk

A circle of twelve or more strikes short sticks against each other on the beat, tightening the circle as the tempo doubles. The same form appears down the coast and inland under other names; here it is sung to Mappila verse.

Performed by: Mappila men, and Hindu troupes in the north. Occasion: Weddings and festivals

OppanaFolk

Song and clap around the seated bride, in Mappila Malayalam whose Arabic and Persian vocabulary sits openly on the surface. The bride does not dance; she is the still point the whole form is arranged around.

Performed by: Mappila women. Occasion: The night before a wedding

DuffmuttuFolk

Seated or standing rows strike the duff, a shallow frame drum, while singing devotional verse in praise of the Prophet and of saints. The drum is played with the whole hand and the rhythm is carried by the body rocking, not by a lead player.

Performed by: Mappila men. Occasion: Mosque festivals, nercha and weddings

Kalaripayattu, northern styleMartial

The vadakkan style begins with meithari — long, low body-conditioning sequences performed for months before any weapon is touched — and moves through kolthari with wooden weapons to ankathari with steel, ending with the urumi, a flexible sword that is dangerous mainly to the person holding it. Marma knowledge and a manual therapy tradition are taught in the same building by the same teacher, and the kalari has a guardian deity and a lamp at its western corner.

Performed by: Practitioners of both sexes, trained in a sunken kalari. Occasion: Training season through the monsoon, demonstrations year round

Mappila pattu

Song in Mappila Malayalam, written and transmitted in the Arabi-Malayalam script, organised by isal — named tunes that a poet writes to rather than inventing. The earliest surviving work is the Muhyiddin Mala, composed at Kozhikode in 1607, and the repertoire runs from devotional mala through kissapattu narrative and kalyanapattu wedding song to the padappattu battle ballads.

Thottam pattu

The song sung by the Theyyam performer, in a plain declarative Malayalam, narrating how a person became a deity. It is sung while the costume goes on, so the audience hears the biography before it sees the god.

Vadakkan pattukal

The northern ballads, sung in a driving repetitive metre — the Thacholi cycle around Othenan of Meppayil, and the Puthooram cycle around Aromal Chekavar and his sister Unniyarcha. They are the memory of a period when chieftains settled disputes by hiring trained fighters to duel in a kalari.

Adivasi song of the plateau

Paniya, Adiya and Kurumba communities keep separate song and ritual repertoires — the Adiya gadhika, a healing ritual with its own sung text, and the Paniya vattakali danced in a ring to a single drum. These are performed in languages that are not Malayalam and are not written.

Marathukali

Attached to Poorakkali: two panikkars from rival troupes debate points of grammar, scripture and logic in verse, in front of the assembled dancers, and the exchange can run most of a night. A dance festival with a viva voce examination inside it.

Kathaprasangam

A single narrator tells a story with sung interludes, standing at a lectern with a small ensemble. A twentieth-century form, carried across Malabar by the library and reading-room network, and used as readily for a novel or a political argument as for a myth.

Payyannur pavithra ring GI registered Kannur

A ring worn for rites for the ancestors, made by a handful of families in Payyannur and nowhere else. Registered as a geographical indication in 2010–11.

Material: Gold. Technique: A continuous knot worked into the band, made without solder at the crossing

Cannanore home furnishings GI registered Kannur

Furnishing cloth woven for export markets since the nineteenth century, when the Basel Mission industrialised weaving here. Registered as a geographical indication in 2009–10.

Material: Cotton yarn. Technique: Jacquard handloom weaving through weavers' cooperative societies

Beypore uru GI-worthy Kozhikode

Ocean-going wooden dhows built on a sandbank at the mouth of the Chaliyar, sold for centuries to Arab owners and still commissioned by Gulf buyers — now largely as heritage vessels and floating restaurants. The yards are among the last places on earth building ships of this size in wood.

Material: Teak, and coir rope for the fastenings in the older method. Technique: Built shell-first by a maistry working from remembered proportion rather than from drawings, then launched by khalasis using wooden levers, coir and a hundred men rather than a crane

Nilambur teak GI registered Malappuram

Timber from the Nilambur valley, prized for straight grain and a golden-brown colour, and the first forest produce anywhere in India to receive a geographical indication, registered in 2017–18.

Material: Teak. Technique: Plantation silviculture on a long rotation, on alluvial valley soil

Theyyam chamayam and mudi making GI-worthy Kannur and Kasaragod

The costume is built fresh for each kaliyattam by the men who will wear it, from material that is grown rather than bought, and dismantled afterwards. Nothing is stored between seasons except the knowledge.

Material: Areca sheath, bamboo, coconut frond, cloth, tinsel and mineral pigment. Technique: Frame building, cutting and painting, done by the performing families themselves

Kalari weapon forging Kozhikode and Kannur

A very small number of smiths still forge the flexible urumi blade to a temper that will coil round the waist and still hold an edge. Demand now comes from performance troupes rather than from fighters.

Material: Spring steel and wood. Technique: Hand forging of the urumi, the churika and training weapons