THE HISTORY OF THE THEATRE MOVEMENT

IN KERALA – A FEMINIST READING

It is most vital to have a knowledge of the living conditions of the

Malayalee women during the period of genesis of theatre in Kerala, for without

it, the history of the feminist theatre movement would be deemed incomplete.

In those days, did Malayalee women get an opportunity to come to the forefront

of the public domain as a writer, director as actor? Was she bold enough to

unchain her body and mind for such a theatrical performance? Several socio-

economic factors related to the Malayalee women at the fag end of the

nineteenth century, including her body language, manner of dressing and

education, play a crucial role in deciding her involvement in the theatre.

The outstanding factor that captures the attention of anyone who

analyses the state of women in Kerala during the nineteenth century, is the fact

that the most rigid rules of aristocracy were dependent for women. There were

several unwritten rules regarding the code of conduct of women belonging to

different castes of the society. Some of them including a woman not being

supposed to be seen by any other man except her husband, not expected to let

her hair loose etc., were as stringent as those imposed during the menstrual

period.”1

Caste was the crucial factor in deciding the dress code of women in

society. An Ezhava woman was not allowed to wear a mundu which reached

below here knees while a Nair woman was permitted to wear a mundu

(Achipudava) that went below her knees. None of the Hindu women, except

Antharjanams who travelled outside in Khosha, were allowed to cover the

upper part of the body above the waist. History has recorded the great revolt

that erupted when certain converted Channar women of Southern Travancore

attempted to cover the upper part of their body.”2

The author of Kochi Rajyacharitram has remarked that it is indeed

shameful for Maharaja Ramavarma to have issued a proclamation demanding

that Nair women should remove their blouses in order to enter temples, at the

outset of the twentieth century, when it was widely perceived to be disgraceful

for women to travel outside without covering their bosom.3

There are several instances of women who dared to break these laws

beings subjugated to severe torture.

“The upper castes were so outraged by a Channar Woman’s daring act

of walking through the streets of Kayamkulam with a piece of cloth covering her

bosom that they forcibly removed it and attached a tender coconut fruit to her

nipples.”4 “A commotion is said to have erupted when a group of Nair men

forced an Ezhava woman to remove her mundu for having dared to wear it,

reaching below her knees.”5

C. Kesavan reminisces regarding the events following the Travancore

Diwan, Sir T. Madhavarayar’s order prohibiting the lower caste women’s

attempts to imitate the upper caste women’s right of covering their bosom.

These included the challenging of this order by the Madras Governor Sir

Charles Treveleyan and the subsequent developments thus:

“The gist of it was that the mighty British empire was ruled by a woman

who would never pardon the insult heaped upon the womanhood of her sisters,

a fact to be borne in mind by the ruler of Travancore. A threat was also raised

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that if the need arose the problem would be resolved with the bayonet …

subsequently a proclamation was issued granting freedom to wear any dress to

anyone… As a mark of celebration of the freedom of women, one of my

maternal ancestors even distributed dhotis among Ezhava women to cover

their bosom.”6 The use of blouse to cover the breasts was frowned upon still

further as blouse was considered alien to the culture of Kerala and looked upon

as a symbol of religious conversion.

The act of wearing blouse was considered as a sign of haughtiness and

a part of dressing up. In his autobiography Jeevithasamaram, C. Kesavan has

narrated how his mother was scolded by her mother-in-law when she wore a

blouse for the first time. It also mirrors the contempt for female artists.

“Where the hell are you going capering?”7 “. . . Remove it . . . You

voluptuous dancer, dressed like a non-Hindu woman in a blouse.”8

The underlying suggestion evidently remains that singing and dancing

were all the hereditary occupation of prostitutes. Malayalam Theatre took

shape in a social environment where the identity of a dancer was deemed unfit

for women belonging to aristocratic families. The Kerala society of those times

placed severe constrains on the Malayalee woman’s manner of dressing,

behaviour and the public space where she could freely move about, which

forced her to seek solace in folk and classical art forms to express herself. But

as a part of the new identity which she seemed to have acquired towards the

end of the nineteenth century, the Kerala woman seemed to be losing out even

on these. It was not substituted with the new stage arts. There were numerous

women who were exceptionally gifted in language, literature and the Puranas

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but none of them were educated in the present day sense. In his article entitled

“The most important Incident of my Life.”9 C.V.Kunjiraman speaks of a young,

scholarly lady who taught him to read and explain the meaning of the

Ramayana ,four or five years before he turned fifteen, praising her expertise to

render verses of the epic in different ragas. He also dwells at length on the skill

of a great aunt of his, born at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to read

and write.

“. . . There is a widespread misconception that school education

commenced only recently, especially with regard to Ezhava women. My great

aunt was a real exception who, as long as her eye-sight was sound, used to

read the Ramayana late into the evening as long as there was sufficient light.”9.

The social identity of women at the time when the theatre was taking

shape in Kerala encompassed all the above cited complexities. Therefore

there were several conditions that were both conducive and non-conducive for

women to become a part of the staging and acting of plays in those days which

are to be borne in mind while analyzing the early stages of the women’s

theatre movement.

Early plays by women

It was in 1890 that Angjathavasam10, a play dealing with the Pandava’s

anonymous stay depicted in the Mahabharata, came out in Malayalam.

“Modelled after Sanskrit plays, it was written by Thankachi, the first woman

playwright in Malayalam. . .” as per records. Observers commented that the

play was confined just to be read and enjoyed by the literati, yet there were

certain gems hidden here and there in a work that was not altogether bad.11

4

Despite being equally known as the others dramatists of the period, her work

has never found a place in the annals of the theatre history of Kerala. Another

lady who wrote a drama after Kuttikunju Thankachi’s Angjathavasam was

Thottakkattu Ikkavamma, the author of Subhadrarjunam.

“Subhadrarjunam surely deserves a place of pride among the

independent language plays of the period. The Lords of Kodungalloor, who

were great poets, alone had written such plays till then. Kuttikunju Thankachi’s

Angjathavasam was the sole exception to this. Subhadrarjunam, published

towards the end of 1891, was the second play written by a woman.”12

Ikkavamma had firm faith that women had the same right and were as

capable as men to entertain and engage the attentions of the literati. When a

false rumour spread that her works were written by Mannadiar, Vidya Vinodini

of those times mentioned that she deserves to be called the

Thunchathezhuthachan of the female sex.”13 It will be impossible for any

reader of Subhadrarjunam to claim that she has no knowledge of the theatrical

art. The scattered observations regarding stage directions and acting found in

the play bear testimony to a very mature dramatic composition.

The famous scholar Karamana Keshava Shastrikal had translated this

play into Sanskrit at that period itself. The play’s popularity is evident from the

way in which it was written about and discussed in the newspapers and

periodicals of those days. Thottakkattu Ikkavamma was much influenced by

the transformations taking place in the theatre at that time and was more

involved with all these, than was possible for a woman of that period.

5

At around this time Kerala was gradually getting acquainted with Tamil

Musical plays. Simultaneously C. Achutamenon composed Sangeeta-

Naishadham, thirty four thousand copies of which were sold in 1892 itself, the

year of publication of the play. He undertook the composition of the play under

the active encouragement of his maternal sister Ikkavamma. Ikkavamma of

Thrissur Ramanchira Madham happened to watch Kerala Varma Valiya Koyi

Thampuran’s play Abhingjana Sakuntalam staged by Manomohanam company

and invited them over to Thrissur. This presentation was greatly influenced by

Tamil drama and had little musical merit in it. Her wish expressed to her

nephew that a play free from the effect of Tamil Theatre should be created,

sowed the seeds for Naishadham.”14

Apart from composing the play, Achutamenon also demonstrated his

histrionics by playing the part of the forest-dweller. When the play was staged

in Thrissur in 1892, Ikkavamma played the role of Nala and Ambadi Govinda

Menon acted as Damayanti.”15 This account will suffice to prove that

Ikkavamma was not only one of the earliest women to have mastered play

righting but also stage activities in the true spirit. On the basis of the

information available, she remains the first woman to have acted in a

Malayalam drama. Why did she not don the role of a woman? Did she

deliberately choose the guise of man to conceal her womanhood from the

society? From Ikkavamma, the lady who concealed her identity behind the

mask of a man, the theatrical history of Kerala marched forward to the world of

musical drama where male actors donned the role of women. Thus the advent

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of women added a new chapter to the stage language of musical drama in

Malayalam which forms a major phase in the history of the theatre in Kerala.

* * * * * * * * *

1. Bhaskaranunni. P, Pathombatham Noottandile Keralam. Kerala Sahitya

Academy, Thrissur, 1988.

2. Ibid.

3. Padmanabha Menon, K.P., Kochi Rajyacharitram.

4. Bhaskaranunni. P., Pathombatham Noottandile Keralam. Kerala Sahitya

Academy, Thrissur, 1988.

5. Arattupuzha Velayudha Panickker, P.O.Kunjupanikker, S.N.D.P. Yogam,

Kanakajubilee Smaraka Grantham, 1953.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Puthuppalli Raghavan (Ed.) C.V.Kunjuramante Thiranjedutha Krithikal,

Kaumudi Public Relations, Thiruvananthapuram, 2002.

10. Bhaskaran Nair, V., (Ed) Kuttikunju Thankachiyude Kritikal (1979), Kerala

Sahitya Academy, Thrissur.

11. Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, Kerala Sahityacharitram Vol.4 (1974) Kerala

University Publications Department, (1974), 273.

12. Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, Kerala Sahitya Charitram Vol.4 (1974) Kerala

University Publications Department, 681.

13. Thottakkattu Ikkavamma, Subhadrarjunam (1891). Prof. P. Sankaran

Nambiar Foundation, Thrissur, 2002.

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14. Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, Kerala Sahitya Charitram, Vol.4 (1974), Kerala

University Publications Department, 497.

15. Madavoor Bhasi, Malayala Nadaka Sarwaswam (1990). Chaitanya

Publications, Vattiyoorkkavu, Thiruvananthapuram.

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