Pudhiaramban Theyyam | Udinur Kasargod | Kerala

Theyyam refers to “GOD” and it’s a kind of worship where a man appears dons the guise of god and placates the god through possessed dancing. It’s very popular in North Kerala, Thulu region as well and People seek to bless from them. Theyyam has wild classifications in which each theyyam is very unique and performs in remote villages of Kannur, Kasargod districts in odd hours. It is considered to be thousand years old rituals and people from hill areas have a cult of Theyyam. When I heard about this festival a few years back, I had been planning for the past two years to document this festival. I made myself free this month end and booked the tickets to reach Kannur.

After 15 hours long journey, our train halted in Kannur and my friend from Thrissur welcomed us. Since we did not have enough time to refresh, we decided to put our bag in old bus stand cloakroom. We rushed to hit kadachira by bus to witness one theyyam till noon and weather were not all pleasing because of the humid climate. As we planned to stay at Payyanur, we boarded the bus after a short lunch.  A short nap helped us to boost our energy since it was 45 km journey to reach there. After enquiring for the lodge, Auto driver dropped us in right place with a cheap ride. I am astonished to see how local auto drivers were treating people from other states. I never imagined such discipline they are following it! Kudos to malayali’s for keeping things in a structured way!

We had thought of having sleep in a lodge but time was running out. We hogged south Indian food in Bombay hotel to suit up our energy since we were heading to Udinur to document night Theyyam which lasted till next day early morning. After hitting Kasargod Bus, we are welcomed by a lady conductor with good gesture in night hours that had shown a kind of woman empowerment in kerala! Isn’t it good to see this kind of scenario? We were dropped somewhere very dark, creepy bus stop after 45 minutes bumpy bus ride and we walked down towards temple for a while. Another person from Udinur was introduced as a photographer and it was a great meet up. Once Supper was done at his house, we rushed to temple to document the backstage of “Pudhiaramban theyyam” and followed by possessed dancing near parakara. I had no idea what to be captured, how to be captured since it was very crowded and a lot of mess up.

It was very fierce full, fast and crazy which lead to an unpredictable situation and so I was not able to make things ready. Some lads were sitting on the compound wall to witness the entire show and some were blocking the pavement to take photographs through mobile. I felt like we were being harassed by cell phone photographers since they were not following basic ethics. A group of men was carrying choot( bundle of dried leaves with fire on the edge) and hitting the ground on every step which were creating more sparks. Meanwhile, Pudhiaramban was spurting on parallel to the flame from one end to another and it lasted more than half hour. I believe that it was the first time for me to witness such kind of rituals since its very unique and old. Seriously it was worth to experience such rituals though we were being roasted in a fire like Thandoori!.  Time almost clocked 2 am and it was all set to return lodge after the tiresome shoot! I should thank my udinur friends as well as my kerala friends for pulling exact details and helping us in many ways. Will share more experience on next post.

Please have a look at below images !