Sometime in the 16th Century, a group of people from Bellary in Karnataka, migrated to Tamil Nadu. They brought with them something precious: their song and dance. “Devarattalu, their folk dance form, then spread across Tamil Nadu, eventually becoming devarattam,” says K Nellai Manikandan, who has been performing the dance form from the time he was ten years old. “It is essentially moving the body to the rhythms of the urumi, a percussion instrument,” he explains. Manikandan will be in the city on September 30 to hold a workshop on the dance form.
The 48-year-old, who lives in Chennai, is from Zamin Kodangipatti in Thoothukudi. He is now training children in schools and colleges in silambam and folk arts, and also teaches devarattam to theatre actors to incorporate its steps to help them move their body with fluidity on stage. Manikandan studied Folklore at the Government Music College in Chennai and travels across Tamil Nadu to popularise the dance form that was once on the brink of extinction.
Devarattam, which literally translates to ‘dance of the gods’, is closely associated with the everyday lives of the Kambalathu Naickers of Tamil Nadu. “They dance to the accompaniment of the urumi to celebrate births and other festive occasions in their lives,” explains Manikandan adding that near Salem, there is documentation of them dancing at a death ritual too. “The dance form is now popular because of the efforts of brothers Kumara Raman and Kannan Kumar who took it to other parts of the State around 1984,” he adds.
