Kathakali is the classical dance-drama of Kerala, created in the 17th century by combining the older Ramanattam form with elements of Krishnanattam, Kutiyattam and the martial art Kalaripayattu. The form is built on heavy makeup (vesham) that uses five major character categories, mime-based gestures drawn from Hastalakshana Deepika, and night-long performances of stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana. The conventional founder is Kottarakkara Thampuran, the 17th century ruler of the Kottarakkara principality in southern Kerala, who composed the eight Ramanattam plays around 1657. Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises Kathakali as one of the eight classical dance forms of India.
Origin: Ramanattam and the rivalry with Krishnanattam
The conventional account, recorded in Kerala traditional sources, places Kathakali’s emergence in a rivalry. The Zamorin of Calicut, Manavedan, had composed Krishnanattam, an eight-day dance-drama on the life of Krishna, around 1652–1655. The ruler of Kottarakkara, popularly known as Kottarakkara Thampuran, requested a Krishnanattam troupe for a family festival; the Zamorin refused, citing that the form was too sacred to travel. Kottarakkara Thampuran responded by composing Ramanattam, an eight-day Ramayana sequence in Malayalam (Krishnanattam was in Sanskrit), staging it in his own territory. Ramanattam, modified across the next century by the rulers of Kottayam, Vettath and Kaplingad, evolved into what is now called Kathakali.
The word kathakali combines katha (“story”) and kali (“play”), both Malayalam-Sanskrit. The Vettattu Thampuran of the early 18th century introduced Manipravalam (mixed Sanskrit-Malayalam) into the lyrics, broadening the audience.
The five categories of vesham
Kathakali’s signature is its makeup system, a code that tells the audience the moral character of the figure on stage before he opens his mouth. The five vesham types:
- Pacha (green): noble, divine, virtuous male characters. Rama, Krishna, Arjuna, Nala, Yudhishthira. The face is bright green with red lips, white chutti (a rice-paste ridge built outward from the jaw), and a tall ornate kireedam headgear.
- Kathi (knife): royal but flawed characters, arrogant or violent. Ravana, Duryodhana, Kichaka. The face is green with red curved knife-shape patterns across the cheeks, a white chutti, and two white knobs (called chuttipoovu) on the nose and forehead.
- Thadi (beard): three sub-types. Vella thadi (white beard) for Hanuman; Chuvanna thadi (red beard) for villainous demonic figures like Dussasana; Karutha thadi (black beard) for forest hunters and primitive characters.
- Kari (black): demonic female and primitive characters. Entirely black face and costume.
- Minukku (polished): gentle and spiritually refined characters. Women, sages, brahmins, messengers. Yellow-orange skin tones, light makeup, draped costume rather than the heavy skirt.
The pacha makeup alone takes three to four hours to apply before each performance, performed by a specialist chuttikkaran. The chutti ridge is built with rice paste and paper, dried in stages.
The gesture vocabulary: 24 hastas
Kathakali uses 24 root hand gestures (asamyutha mudras) catalogued in the Hastalakshana Deepika, a Kerala manual probably 14th to 15th century. Combined with the second hand, these yield several hundred composite gestures that translate as words. Because there is no dialogue in Kathakali (the vocalists sing the text from offstage and the actors mime), an actor effectively “speaks” each line of the lyric through hastas while the singers articulate the words. The training includes intensive eye exercises (navarasa drill, the nine emotional expressions), facial muscle conditioning, and Kalaripayattu-derived body strengthening.
Music and accompaniment
Two vocalists (the ponnani and shankidi) stand at the back of the stage, singing the entire libretto (called the attakkatha, “story for enacting”). The lead vocalist holds the chengila gong, the second the elathalam cymbals. The percussion ensemble:
- Chenda: the cylindrical drum struck with sticks, providing the male character percussion.
- Maddalam: the barrel drum, played with hands, providing the softer female character percussion.
- Idakka: the hourglass-shaped tension drum, used for the minukku characters.
The musical mode is the Sopanam tradition of Kerala temple music, distinct from Carnatic concert music; ragas like Padi, Indalam, Kambhoji and Ahari recur across the repertoire.
The performance frame: lamp, curtain, night
A traditional Kathakali performance begins around 9 PM and runs until dawn. A large brass oil lamp (nilavilakku) is lit centre-stage; this is the only light source in the original temple setting and the actor is expected to work within its halo. The handheld curtain (tirasseela), held by two attendants, is used for character entries and transformations: a major character is revealed in stages, first his crown above the curtain, then his eyes, then a sudden drop. The opening sequence (kelikottu drum invitation, todayam, vandanasloka) precedes any story content and serves to invoke the deity and warm up the percussionists.
For what it’s worth, on watching your first Kathakali
For what it’s worth, a first-time viewer benefits more from a curated two-hour demonstration than from sitting through a six-hour traditional staging. Kerala Kalamandalam, Margi (Thiruvananthapuram) and the Cochin Cultural Centre run programmes that show the makeup process, explain the navarasa drill on stage, then perform a single 60 to 90 minute episode (commonly Keechaka Vadham, Nala Charitam Day Two, or Bali Vadham). The full night-long form is intended for an audience already familiar with the story, which is a learnable but not overnight skill.
Where to study and where to watch
- Kerala Kalamandalam, Cheruthuruthy (Thrissur district): the principal training institution, founded in 1930 by the poet Vallathol Narayana Menon, now a deemed university. The campus offers structured programmes from school level to postgraduate research.
- Cochin Cultural Centre and Greenix Village Cochin (Fort Kochi): daily 90-minute curated shows with makeup demonstration, oriented to visitors.
- Margi, Thiruvananthapuram: a serious institution running monthly full performances and an annual festival each January.
- The Nataraja Akhada at Guruvayur Temple: annual Kathakali during the Ekadasi celebrations in November–December.
Common questions
Why are there no women on stage in traditional Kathakali?
Historically, all roles including the female minukku characters (Sita, Damayanti, Draupadi) were played by male actors trained from boyhood. Female training began at Kerala Kalamandalam in the 1970s and female performers are now established in the form, though the night-long traditional troupes still skew male. The female-only Tripunithura school and Margi’s women’s programme have changed the picture significantly over the last 30 years.
How is Kathakali different from Kutiyattam?
Kutiyattam is the older Kerala Sanskrit theatre, performed inside temple kuttambalam spaces, restricted to Chakyar performers, recognised by UNESCO in 2001. Kathakali borrowed Kutiyattam’s gesture grammar and developed it for a more public stage. Kutiyattam still uses Sanskrit dialogue; Kathakali uses sung Manipravalam with miming on stage. Both share the navarasa system and the chenda-maddalam ensemble.
What story should a first-time viewer attend?
Nala Charitam (the story of King Nala from the Mahabharata) is performed in four parts and is the most lyrical and accessible attakkatha. Keechaka Vadham (Bhima slays Keechaka) is shorter and dramatically intense. For a viewer who knows the Ramayana, Bali Vadham works well as a single-episode introduction. Reading a synopsis before the show is standard etiquette.
A limitation worth noting
The Kottarakkara Thampuran origin story is the conventional account preserved in Kerala oral tradition and in 19th to 20th century scholarship; some modern researchers have noted that earlier Kerala dance-drama forms (Mudiyettu, Theyyam, Kutiyattam, Krishnanattam) all contributed grammar, and the 17th century is the date of consolidation rather than invention. The clean Kottarakkara–Kottayam–Vettath–Kaplingad lineage is a useful pedagogical history; the actual lineage is more diffuse.
For further reading, the Kathakali entry on Wikipedia compiles textual sources, and the Kerala Tourism overview at keralatourism.org covers performance practice and where to see live shows.
