Taking a legacy forward

Melattur is a little town in Tamil Nadu, tucked away in the interior part of the state. But once in a year, the town comes alive with colours, dance, theatre and music, thanks to the temple theatre tradition which dates back to over five centuries — the Melattur Bhagavata Mela, which still goes on in its undiluted format.

Asserting the pristine format, Melattur Bhagavata Mela Natya Vidya Sangam’s head Mahalingam R., who was in Hyderabad with his troupe for a performance, says that hardly anything has changed since the time he first set foot on stage in 1962.

“That’s apart from the technology and the clothes. Now,  we get stitched garments unlike those days, but the scripts and the portrayal remain untouched,” he says.

Mahalingam must have enacted the plays Prahalada Charitram, Kamsa Vadham, Satya Harischandra, Hari Hara Leela Vilasam and Sita Kalyanam so many times that he doesn’t need to practise anymore.

“My first play was Prahlada Charitram. I played Prahlada’s friend in 1962. Then I played Prahlada in 1964 and from 1967 to 1989, I played all the lead female roles,” he explains.

This temple art form was solely for men, so even female characters were portrayed by them. Mahalingam continued to play female roles till 1989 when he met with a serious accident and then, he confined to male roles.

Though the groups enact mythological stories which have its roots in Tamil Nadu, the script and songs are all in Telugu. The art form is said to have been practised initially by Telugu Brahmins who migrated from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu. This art form was practised by them and they received royal patronage from the temples.

When the British took over, the temple grants stopped and subsequently, the art form ended. In the 1930s, the Tamil Brahmins stepped in and took over.

However, the language remained the same.  Mahalingam’s uncle was the lead singer when the Tamilians took over. “I was trained from a very young age. Once, the play Satya Harischandra was extended over two days.

“I was playing Harischandra’s  wife and another actor was supposed to take over the role, but he fell ill and I continued playing his part as well. Improvising for four to five hours on stage was a huge challenge,” recalls Mahalingam, a retired village administrative officer.

Murali Rangarajan, a lead singer in the troupe, an  IIT alumnus and a PhD holder, says, “The traditional Telugu theatre format has two main parts — Purvaranga and Utaranga. The Purvaranga is the start of the show. The characters are introduced, and we always have the character of Lord Ganesha come on stage to bless the event. The Utaranga is the story-telling part of the show.”

The Bhagavata Mela tradition, initially allowed only Brahmin men to be part of the art, but with time, this was broken. Rangarajan, says “We need to look beyond caste and other barriers. The art is important and gradually, people from different backgrounds joined us.”

This group comprises artistes who come from different professions, “We have dentists, government officials and even bank officials. But that is proving to be difficult. Back in the day, people were part-time artistes, and that is how we all took up the art form, but now this is not the case. The 21st century asks for full-time artistes and that is posing a problem for the art form. But, we will take the art form ahead.”