Vintage Kathakali Crown in Treasure Box

A good 72 years have passed after Kathakali witnessed an unusual incident: a master publicly gifted a headgear of the tradition to his performer-son. Poomully Sankunni Nair was 67 years old when the actor-dancer of the classical theatre symbolically placed an ornamental ‘Kireedam’ round the clothed scalp of Kottakkal Appu Nair at an open venue in central Kerala. Of late, Appu Nair’s son M. Muraleedharan is particularly sentimental while recounting the 1953 incident at the feudal mansion of Poomully near Pattambi.

Twelve years after that passing-of-legacy ceremony, Sankunni Nair passed away in 1965. “I was seven years old that time,” recalls Muraleedharan, settled in a double-storeyed house at the family’s ancestral village of Vavanoor, not far from Poomully, in the western belt of Palakkad district. A quarter century later, in 1990, Appu Nair died aged 67.

100 year old Kathakali headgear

The progeny has yet to get a Kathakali artiste thence. Yet each member of the Mangatt household is increasingly aware of the value of the vintage headgear which features only natural materials. “Of late, I tend to open the wooden box and gaze at the kireedam(and its entailing paraphernalia) more often than before,” says Muraleedharan. “My grandfather had ordered to get it done. Say, 100 years ago. We don’t know the artisan’s name. Unavailability of such details doesn’t make the kireedam any less precious.”

Muraleedharan, along with his three siblings, grew up in a small town 50 kilometres north of Vavanoor. That was Kottakkal, where he went on to become an officer in the vehicles department at the illustrious Arya Vaidya Sala. The 1902-launched establishment, chiefly known for its hospital that banks on indigenous medicines, has a renowned Kathakali school, too. Named PSV Natyasangham, the 1939-floated troupe employed Appu Nair as a teacher-performer for 36 years till his retirement in 1982.

Appu, whose original name was Sankunni Nair (Junior), joined the Natyasangham in 1945 along with his close relative Gopi Nair, also from Vavanoor. The next year, both were absorbed as tutors at PSV, having been chiefly mentored by maestro Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair, known for his much-researched colouring of pivotal Kathakali characters in the body-centric Kalluvazhi style. Appu and his uncle Gopi (though the latter was younger by three years) had already undergone a good amount of training from Sankunni Nair (1886-1965).

Mangatt Kaliyogam

Sankunni Nair primarily worked with a nascent school-cum-troupe at Poomully Mana that housed influential Namboodiri Brahmins who wielded control over vast swathes of land across the region. Sankunni was 15 when Poomully Kathakali Yogam was formed in 1901. The teenager got enrolled in it as an actor-dancer and rose as a specialist in female-roles. Simultaneously, he ran a shop at Vavanoor. Material prosperity, along with artistic inclination, led Sankunni Nair to start a Kaliyogam of his own. Thus, in 1939, the Mangatt troupe was formed with his son Appu and brother-in-law Gopi besides nephew Narayanan Nair among the first batch of students. Soon, the school had weighty instructors such as Kadambur Gopalan Nair and Kavungal Chathunni Panikkar, besides a good team of Chenda and Maddalam percussionists along with greenroom artistes.

After five years of grooming at the Kaliyogam that functioned from a small room adjacent the gate of Kunnath Mangatt, both Appu and Gopi were enrolled into Natyasangham. The next year, 1945, they became teachers in the Kottakkal troupe. Both gained a name at PSV. If Appu Nair died in 1990, Gopi Nair’s end came in September 2023 at the age of 97.

The duo’s Kathakali profile contrasts with a general feature of their times. Post-Independence India (from 1947) and new-born Kerala (formed in 1956) continued to suffer from immense poverty. Typically, students of an art sensed a means to be away from their starving homes. But Appu and Gopi of the rich Mangatt family didn’t claim stipends from Natyasangham. Instead, the two paid fees to study.

“We’re lucky that way,” sums up Muraleedharan, along with guest Vettathil Sudhakaran, son of late Gopi Nair, from the vicinity. They catch yet another glimpse of the crown made of polished stones, peacock-featherstems and the shiny cover of beetles. Sankunni Nair had ordered for it during his days with the Poomully Kaliyogam, which is non-existent now. Mangatt troupe has wound up too. Appu Nair’s great-grandchildren are not old enough to realise the value of these histories. But the adult members of the Mangatt family are determined not to let the contemporary cultural world ignore their unique legacy.