An author explains the ancient art of theyyam

A writer who spent years studying theyyam is talking on Wednesday about the finer aspects of the sacred ritual. It is titled ‘The gods who come down from heaven — The theyyams of Malabar’.

Presented by author-photographer Pepita Seth, the 90-minute session will delve into the spiritual ritual.

Pepita penned down decades of her research on theyyam in her recently published book, ‘In God’s Mirror: The Theyyams of Malabar’. She will talk about what got her interested in the ritual, and provide a detailed explanation about its various aspects at the event.

It was the discovery of her great-grandfather’s diary in the attic of her UK home that pushed her to explore India. A soldier, he had documented about his regiment’s 1857 march from Calcutta to Lucknow in the diary. “I wanted to retrace the route (the Grand Trunk Road). My first trip was in 1970,” she recalls.

It was on this route that she came across an elephant. She was “obsessed with elephants as a child”, and after several conversations with people, learned about the traditions of Kerala, where elephants are a part of religious rituals and other activities. “This led to my trip there in 1972,” she adds. It was during another trip to Kerala that she read about theyyam, for the first time, in a magazine. “I was baffled by how it looked and wanted to learn more. I witnessed the ritual for the first time in 1984,” recalls the Padma Shri winner.She met several theyyam practitioners soon after. Some of them invited her to stay with them, to understand the nuances of the spiritual practice, which she did between 2006 and 2020.They suggested she write a book on the ritual to inform the world about how it “is not a dance or a performance but a sacred ritual”. “Lakshmanan (one of the practitioners) explained to me how the costumes were made by the performers themselves, and how they worked on the makeup,” she adds.

In the book, she discloses how theyyam practitioners “must be able to sing and perform, among other things”. “They bless people and even conduct exorcisms. They have to be masters of an extraordinary amount of esoteric stuff,” Pepita says.

April 17, 6.30 pm to 8 pm, Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. Entry free. For details or to RSVP, visit bangaloreinternationalcentre.org