Manathana Pothi, Neela Karinkali Theyyam | Kadachira , Kannur | Kerala

Hope you have enjoyed the last post about Pudhiyarambam theyyam, Udinur since it was unique among all others. On the night before this theyyam, we had rushed Kadachira by bus and it was a quite bumpy ride to reach there. Once we got down, we were not able to find any prominent path to reach the temple. After enquiring the locals, there was a small lane nearby main road that leads to the temple which is located in the middle of coconut tree farm. I recalled that day was very hot and humid which engulfed enough energy from our body. It was first sight to see few men who dressed like God were blessing people. Old, Young, Ladies were among them in the queues to get blessed. Usually, this kind of blessing happens only after the performance and so we presumed that it was over. Fortunately, we were lucky to witness another performance within next one hour. It was exciting moment since it was the first time to witness such kind of rituals in my lifetime. We observed that there was a small tent nearby temple where makeup session happens. I recollected that people used to get makeup in such luxury room with complete air conditioned to avoid sweating and tiredness. I felt so amazing to see such rich artists in four walls made of bamboo sticks and cloths under the hot sun.

 I was just watching what exactly they were doing on the floor and noted the way of choosing amazing colors, dress and miscellaneous for makeup. I assumed that it would take 3 hours to finish them off but they had done and dusted within one hour. I admit that it was such exhaustive and worth spending moment to frame them in a different angle. Two persons adorned themselves as goddess Bhagavathi and they were precisely called as twin sisters or Manathana pothi Theyyam since their actions were congruent. I observed time had clocked to rush the stage to get occupied because enough crowd was approaching even, a small and narrowly opened stage near the temple.

I figured that chendai drummer had started beating and followed by a dance. They had gone through trance for a while and observed that it lasted for few seconds. Moreover, they were brewing up their expression while dancing, jumping on stools. I tried my little knowledge to frame something in a fraction of seconds to freeze the moments. Suddenly, they marched towards temple for further rituals. Hundreds of devotees surrounded again and witnessed another set of the round in which they squirreled around the temple but performance was almost over. I remembered that we were exhausted to the core that we started craving for drinking water somewhere. Finally we quenched our thirst mentally and physically after walking for a while in main road. I admit that another feather of experience was encountered. Please find the images below.

All the pictures in this post are copyrighted. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval.