Thiriuzhichil is a ritual mostly seen in the mid-region of Kerala conducted by the people belonging to the Pulluva community as an oblation to the Sun God who sustains life by offering light and heat..

Of Sun and Serpents

Divya Suresh

Pulluvas is a specific community in Kerala, who are said to possess the right to do all kinds of poojas related to serpent gods. The knowledge of the rites, songs and the pictures etched in the form of Kalams are passed through successive generations.
Thiriuzhichil is a traditional ritualistic art which sometimes form a part of bigger rituals like Aiyappanvilakku, Pallipana,Aiyappantheeyattu as well. The major difference that constitutes Thiriuzhichil in each of the above mentioned traditional performances is that the kalam(pictorial depiction of the deity) is different for each of these rituals, the images depicted in the kalam will be of the deity in whose honour the ritual is conducted. The instruments that the Pulluvas use for their poojas of the serpent gods are Pulluvakodam(a pot with strings attached) and elathalam(around pot like drum), where as in Aiyappanvilakku and Aiyappantheeyattu, the instruments used are chenda and edakka(two percussion instruments originated from Kerala). In a performance of Thiriuzhichil to the beats ofchenda and edakka, the prominence is for the footsteps in the dance. However the Pulluva instruments used for Thiriuzhichil create additional room for a show of the movement of body and that enhances this performance of Thiriuzhichil. Among the kalams,Naga kalam(Naga meaning snake)- the ones portraying serpents are made to honour living God of Serpent. Thiriuzhichil is a ritual mostly seen in the mid-region of Kerala conducted by the people belonging to the Pulluva community as an oblation to the Sun God who sustains life by offering light and heat. There is no separate or specific kalam for Thiriuzhichil. They carry out several rituals through these kalams to please several Gods and the special offering thus done to pleaseAgni(the God of fire) is specifically known as Thiriuzhichil. Among the five coloured powders obtained naturally, green is the one used to portray serpents as it is believed that Serpent Gods favour that colour. This green powder is made by mixing the powder of the dried leaves from four trees. However for Kalamezhuthu of the other deities, like Bhadrakaali, Vishnu in the ritual of Thottampaatu and Veerabhadran the green powder used is from the powdered leaves of the tree NanmeniWaga. In olden days healers had the practice of using Nanmeniwaga’s leaves to treat snake bites. So the use of specific substances to portray the entwined bodies of serpents and the dots in the kalam is also designed in such a way that it pleases these Gods.
Kalamezhuthu is usually done with five different coloured powders. The whole image is depicted on a bed on black powder, made of burnt rice husk. Other colours used are green, made by grinding the dried leaves of any one of the four different trees Ithil(Mabberely), Chendoori, Annakara and Manjadi. Turmeric powder for yellow, rice powder for white and a mix of turmeric and calcium carbonate forms the red coloured powder. The preparation of these colour powders are taken care by the women in the family generally. The Kalam created on the day of our documentation was an ‘Ashtanagakalam’ in honour of the eight living offspring of Kadru, out of the thousand children. Kadru is considered the daughter of Daksha, one of the four spiritual sons of Lord Brahma. In addition to different kind of Ashtanagakalams, prepared to appease the serpent gods, the images of the parents of serpents- Naga Yakshi and Naga King constitute some of the other kalams. Then there is another sort, called the Bhootakalam, which is done in honour of the ‘Bhoota’s or monsters which guard the treasures and the precious belongings of the serpents. Out of the kalams made to appease the serpent gods, the most important one is the ‘Ananthashayanamkalam’. The word ‘Ananthashayanam’ indicates the laid back, resting position of Lord Vishnu, on top of a bed formed by a huge coiled serpent.
The ritual doesn’t only involve kalamezhuthu and pooja, which is basically praying to appease the Serpent gods, but also a part of the literature from Mahabharatha(one of the two great Hindu scriptures) known as the stories of ‘Sarpa-satram’. These stories form the lyrics or text and are sung in various ragas like Sreeragam, Thodi, Sraveri, Kamboji, Vanduvarali, Chenchurutti by the members of the community of Pulluvas. However it is to be noted that they, as a community, are not trained in music.
The lyrics or text of the songs, as much as believed to have originated from the stories in Mahabharatha, are notavailable in written literature. For centuries it has been passed down from generation to generation, among the people who belonged to the Pulluva community. It was only a few decades back an individual named PadikkaalathraKunjan Nair of Deshamangalam in Thrissur, started making note of these songs along with the details of the ragas in which these songs are sung. He used to have these Pulluva families sing for him at his house, while he documented these and then handed overto these families who requested for the notes. So basically he handed it out, his only copy, to whichever family asked and hence there was no single repository. There are about sixty four Pulluva families in Thrissur and thirty of them are still actively engaged in carrying out these rituals. These are the thirty families who have these notes, however not even a single family has in their possession the whole collection as it is scattered among many. The All India Pulluva Association that has been formed recently has decided to gather these parts of the collection of texts and publish it in to one book with the support of the Folklore Academy in Thrissur.
There are specific beats to which Thiriuzhichil is performed; Adantha, Chemba, Panchari, Ezhukolpanchari, Muthalam, Naleratti. These beats are produced using the percussion instruments, Pulluvakodam and elathalam, the artist steps to these beats with a fire torch in his hand. The priest does a pooja with the fire torch and hands it over to the Pulluva. He then salutes mother earth and then begins the performance of Thiriuzhichil. Once this is over, the drummers produce the beats of Adantha, Muthalam, Naleratti and the Pulluva performs to these beats in a way it most suits the arena as well as the audience. Thiriuzhichil concludes with a dance quite similar to a form known as ‘Thandava’. It is believed this fast paced and rigorous style of performance, known as ‘Thandava’, originated from the steps of Lord Shiva himself. After this is completed, especially when the performance takes place at homes, the hosts usually gift the performer with presents as a token of their appreciation and to ensure that Pulluva who performed this is content.
There are no mandates that only a specific person should perform in a specific shrine these days, mostly. However there are temples that insist that an individual belonging to the same locality should perform for the festive occasions there. In this particular shrine, the performers usually do the ritual of Kalamezhuthu for a period of eight days, on the eighth day they create a kalam of one hundred and eight serpents (known as AsthanagaKalam). This requires about five to six hours of time, for the five of them to make.
As much as performing Thiriuzhichil at secular arenas have helped promoting this art and hopefully will pave way to preserving it for the future generations, it is different from the Thiriuzhichil that takes place inside a place of worship or the ones carried out at houses for religious reasons. When the performance is done as an oblation to a deity the artistes involved observe several rituals and disciplines, to attain a level of spirituality. For example, the artistes fast the days leading up to the performance, abstain from consuming any kind of non-vegetarian food and so on. Whereas when they perform on stages the emphasis is on the art itself, rather than the rituals or the fasting, special prayers etc. They focus on the performance being visually appealing rather than the spiritual or religious aspects of it. They also conduct special prayers for Lord Ganesha, Goddess Saraswathi(the goddess of wisdom), the eight living offspring of Kadri- the Serpent Gods. Then they carry out the ritual of Kalamezhuthu and they pray for the arrival of the deity, prayers for Garuda(the Eagle god), Anali prayer for pleasing Goddess Bhadrakaali, when it is done at a temple. It is after all these prayers the ritual performance of Thiriuzhichil is carried out in honour of the Sun god who sustains us with the light and the heat. Once the Thiriuzhichil is completed mantras praising Lord Ganesha and Goddess Saraswathi are recited, then songs to appease the Serpent Gods are sung which leads up to the girl or girls(considered as female oracles) being seated in the centre of the Kalam with areca nut flowers in their hands. Eventually they go in to a state of trance and rub the Kalam off with the areca nut flowers and their long open hair.