Mathur, Palakkad

Mathur, Palakkad
—  village  —
Coordinates
Country	India
State	Kerala
District(s)	Palakkad
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Codes • Pincode • 678571 • Vehicle • KL-

Mathur is a village in Palakkad district of Kerala, south India. From Coyalmannam travelling towards Thiruvilwamala, you will find this small village before Kottayi (which is the birth place of the famed Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagawathar).

Mathur, the village is also unique because of its festival associated with a local temple called "Mathur Koothu". Koothu is a unique and rare art form practiced still.It is actually a form of shadow puppet show skillfully depicting the story of Ramayana over a span of two weeks ----

Mathur Koothu festival is an annual festival celebrated by ‘KaaLi kaavu’ a temple at Mathur ,Palakkad, Kerala. BhadraKaaLi is the deity in the temple. The idol is not sculpted into human figure and there is no roof above the idol. The idol is under a Ficus Bengalensis tree (“aal” in Malayalam, “aala maram” in Tamil). The idol is in the form of “vaal kannadi” – a circular disc with a handle - and it is consecrated with the presence of BadraKaaLi.

Legend has it that during Rama's war with Ravana (from the epic Ramayana), Goddess BhadraKaali was busy fighting off demons like Daarika and hence could not witness the war between Rama and Ravana. So the people of Mathur play out the war part of the Ramayana story in parts, every night continuously for about 14 nights, using leather puppets to shadow-play, so that the Goddess enjoys the story of Rama's war with Ravana. The story starts with "Sethu Bandana", the building of the bridge to SriLanka by the monkey army and ends with the coronation of Rama.

The lyrics used to sing out the story is taken from ‘Kamba Ramayana’ (Tamil version of Ramayana) and not the Malayalam version of Ezhuthachan’s Ramayana. This may be because the festival is older than the Malayalam version of Ramayana. The festival is in mid-April and the story ends on the last day’s major festival “SriRama Pattabhishekam” the coronation of Raama after he returns to Ayodhya after killing Ravana. The culmination festival “Koothabhishekam” is a major one with rows of elephants on procession, panchavaadyam, thaalapoli, vEla (people decking themselves up as mythological characters), vedikettu (fireworks), thaayambaka etc.

The stage on which the leather puppets are played out is called “Koothu maadam”. The lights behind the puppets are big clay wick-lamps filled with coconut oil (for maximum brightness). The puppets are hung on the white cloth in the front of the lamps so that their shadow is projected on the other side where viewers watch the show. Each night’s show is called a ‘kaLari’. Traditionally each days expenditure is borne by each of the Nair community families (tharavaadu) in Mathur. The performers are invited home to spend the day with the members of the designated family on the day of each KaLari. The performers consists of a team of musicians and the main singers. As part of that night’s puppet show, the performers sing out the glory of the family who were their hosts during the day and pray for their well being too.

It is said that the deity in Mathur KaaLi Kaavu is the same as in "Kadappurambathu Kaavu" in Ongallur, which is a village on the way to Pattambi from Palakkad. There used to be 41 day Koothu festival in that temple traditionally as told. But the original “Koothu Kavi”, the unique Tamil mixed lyrics used to tell the story was authored by one of the ancestors of “Kuruppath House” of Mathur. The original leather puppets (thOl paava) used in Kadappurambathu kaavu and also in Mathur KaaLi kaavu were crafted many years ago by an artisan of Mathur.