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Monuments crumble, manuscripts get moth
eaten and traditional fine arts practised for centuries in temples are
being forgotten because of long years of neglect. No wonder that the
Arayer Sevai, a visual enactment of the passionate expression by
Vaishnavite saints which were an integral part of Vishnu worship 1000
years ago, is not confined to a handful of practitioners who themselves
are on the threshold of fading away.
Who were the arayers? What makes this
dramatic form so unusual in the landscape of Indian performance, ritual,
religion and theology? The word arayer itself means king. In Tamil, there
are two ways to pronounce the letter 'r'. Said without stress like
'arayer' it means king and with stress like 'rr' it means 'speaker' or
'narrator'. In both cases the word fits these temple servants who
dedicated their lives towards the worship and glory of Lord Vishnu
through song, dance and drama. Vaishnavite temples were the crucibles of
the three branches of learning 'iyal' (literature), 'isai' (music) and
'natakam' (drama). Arayer Sevai which means 'the service or offering of
the royal priests' falls under the category of drama.
The main text for these priestly actors
was an impressive volume of verses called the 'Divya Prabandham.' The
word means 'divine compilation.' The Prabandham was the cumulative result
of 12 saint-poets who lived between the 6th and 9th centuries in Tamil
country. These saint-poets were called 'alwars'. The word 'alwar' means
'deepest of the deep'; one who is immersed in the devotion of Lord
Vishnu/Narayana.
Between the 6th and 9th century, in the
Tamil speaking region of South India, these devotees of Vishnu (also
known as Tirumal, the dark one) changed and revitalized Hinduism. Along
with their counterparts, the Nayanmars, who were devotees of Siva, these
saint-poets wandered all over the Tamil countryside, inspiring and
converting kings, brahmans, and peasants, affirming in poetry the
holiness of hundreds of Tamil places dedicated to Vishnu and Siva. Their
pilgrimages, their legends and their hymns, which they sang by the
thousands literally mapped a sacred geography of the Tamil regions and
fashioned a communal self-image that cut across class and caste. They
composed the most important early Bhakti poetry in any Indian language.
This is particularly significant when practitioners of dance, dance
history and religious studies have a tendency to associate
Bhakti/devotional poetry with the later poets like Jayadeva of the 12th
century, Chaitanya in Bengal of the 15th century and Annamaya of the 14th
century. Even Tulsidas, Kabir, Meera who are popular choices for dancers
and singers came much later.
Through the poetry of the Prabandham,
composed by these 12 Tamil alwars Hindu philosophy spoke for the first
time in India, in a language other than Sanskrit. The imperial presence
of Sanskrit with its brahminical texts like the Vedas and the Upanishads
was the elitist presence against which Bhakti in Tamil defined itself.
Also Sanskrit in India of the 6th century was not a people's language, it
was not spoken as everyday tongue. Here was poetry, devotional poetry in
a people's first language. The concept of bhakti or devotional poetry as
we understand today arose, as suggested by scholars from the meshing of
Sanskrit mythology and the Tamil conception of women and kings.
Almost one thousand years after all the
4000 verses of the Prabandham were composed, a devotee called Natamuni
(10th century) gathered and ordered the compositions of the 12 alwars and
arranged for their recitation. First he only knew of 10 poems and when he
realised there were almost 4000, he travelled to the birthplace of
Nammalwar (Alwartirunagari near Tirunelveli) and tried to retrieve them.
Failing to do so, he meditated and received a vision of the poet
Nammalwar himself who revealed all the 1102 verses to him.
Legend goes that he received all the
4000 verses in this way.
In order to make the poetry meaningful
and alive to the general public, Natamuni arranged for them to be sung
and danced on special occasions of Lord Vishnu, particularly in the month
of Margazhi which is mid-December to mid-January
and in Panguni Chitra which is mid-March to mid-April the end of which
marks the Tamil New Year on 14th April.
Believing that the songs would live
only if many could chant and watch the most special poems danced with
gestures and movements, Natamuni is credited to have created a system of
ritual performance called Arayer Sevai. The word Arayer literally means
Lord or King. The Arayers of today are all direct descendants of
Natamuni's family lineage and the practice is held with the male members
of the family and not taught to the women. It is devoutly believed that
the inspiration for the music and the dance came from Lord Vishnu himself
and that it was He who ordained these arayers to perform this unique
service for His pleasure.
The movement structure of Arayer Sevai
is dependent on a regal stature, a stately walk and minute right hand and
left hand gestures which weave a complex imagery. The end of every phrase
or sentence is marked by a jerky flick of the hand. The feet stamp the
ground and the legs are always held in a unique half seated stance.
The costume worn by the arayers
consists of a cap which is a reproduction of the crown worn by Vishnu as
the temple idol. The garland and the cymbals the arayers carry were all
believed to have been given by Vishnu himself.
The arayers were exalted in the
hierarchy of temples. They were as important and sometimes even more highly
regarded than the priests themselves. Palm leaf manuscripts of temples
like Srirangam and Srivilliputur, state that the arayers were given
special treatment and medical care whenever they fell ill.
Today all Vishnu temples have the
bronze images of the 12 alwars as important figures in their shrines but
the art of 'arayer' exists only in four temples, three in Tamilnadu and
one in Karnataka. Melkottai in Karnataka does not perform the movements
and actions but only the recitation and chanting and commentary. The
three temples in Tamilnadu are Srirangam, Alwar Tirunagari and
Srivilliputtur.
The insistence on maintaining the
purity of their tradition is not augmented with a desire to perfect the
art of their ancestors rather than just going through the motions once or
twice a year. They refuse to teach, allow audio or video recordings of
their ritual and thus it will be but a matter of time when the practice
which is already a mere shadow of its former self is completely lost. I
was able to watch several hours of their performance since I was
considered a direct Vaishnav descendent of one of the famous families of
Thirukurungudi (the town of the famous arayer temple bell) and as such
allowing me to watch or allowing me to learn some of their movements was not
considered sacreligious to the high priest.
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