"In God’s Mirror: Theater as Prayer in Southern India"

New York, NY, October 18-- Pepita Seth, internationally acclaimed photographer of Theyyam rituals in southern India, shared her lifelong passion for this sacred art form in a recent lecture at Barnard as part of an exhibit of her work on display at the College.

The photographs by Seth were on display through Friday, Oct. 4 in Altschul Atrium.

Although Seth first experienced Theyyam in 1972—an experience which she describes as "remarkable and powerful"—her real connection with Theyyam began by accident in 1985. Seth was en route to Malabar, the northern region of Kerala. Her bus stopped just as the preliminary rituals of a rare Theyyam festival— performed only once every 65 years—were beginning. Seth had to request the permission of the chief Theyyam performer, a deity, to photograph the festival. She was allowed, and thus began her relationship with Theyyam. Since then, she has gone back for prolonged visits to the Malabar region of Kerala every year and has developed close friendships with the people of Kerala. Her relationship with them and with Theyyam, she said in a lecture on Oct. 2, "has been very much [one] of passion."

Seth’s photographs capture the myriad aspects of Theyyam, from the intimacy of preliminary ritual to the richness and beauty of the performance itself. For the people of northern Kerala, ritualism is their world. Theyyam, a word that derives from daivam, meaning "god," is practiced mostly within the lower castes of the region.

It is 2000-year-old ritual theater in which an artist becomes a divine being and is invested with that deity’s power. The gods and goddesses of Theyyam are not inanimate; rather, they are manifest in the possessed bodies of the ritual artists.

The Malayalam word for the ritual artists literally translates to "image man", and that is precisely what happens: through a man, the deity’s image comes to life. To make this happen, the ritual artist must undertake a journey from interior to outer consciousness, finally becoming the deity.

The preliminary ritual, or Thottam, tells the history of the god or goddess and takes place in the shrine. It is during this time that the artist receives the deity’s spirit. This ritual is rich with symbolism and tradition: only the artist’s family members are allowed to take part in the makeup and costuming of the artist, and the preparations take place only by candlelight.

The deity’s makeup is referred to as "body writing" and is believed to have magical and medicinal properties. No visible skin is left unpainted, and every design has a specific meaning. After the makeup is done, the artist begins to put on the elaborate, larger-than-life costume.

Though the artist’s helpers are family members, as the deity begins to emerge they show him increasing deference and respect. Likewise, the artist himself becomes increasingly silent, knowing that the god or goddess is taking over. The most sacred part of the costume is the headpiece, which, as in the case of the great goddess Muchilotu Bhagavathi, can weigh up to eighty pounds. The culmination of Thottam is the "showing of the face," when the artist looks in a hand mirror for the first time. Finally, the preliminary ritual is complete: the artist recognizes himself not as a human, but as a divine being.

After Thottam, the Theyyam festival takes place. Seth, who lived in Kerala for six years and still visits annually, has seen countless and various Theyyam performances. Each caste has its own set of gods and goddesses that its members are allowed to perform—from a few to as many as seventy-five. Each of these deities has his or her own personality and history, and it is through Theyyam that these are revealed to devotees. In Theyyam the deity interacts directly with the devotees, conferring blessings, answering questions, and receiving homage.

Seth is currently conducting six months of research in the Hindu temple of Guruvayur in Kerala, and is subsequently expected to return to Barnard to share her most recent work.

--Lea Mae Rice ‘05

Contact: Petra Tuomi, 212-854-7580