Daily News Online
SUNDAY OBSERVER - SILUMINA eMobile Adz    

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Home

 | SHARE MARKET  | EXCHANGE RATE  | TRADING  | OTHER PUBLICATIONS   | ARCHIVES | 

dailynews
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Those Tamil street dances

Therukoothu was practised by the ancient Tamils mainly for entertainment purposes. In simple words Therukoothu comprises dance, drama, music and dialogue.

As many other traditional dance forms, males are the main members of this street play. Even the female role was played by the males. Theru means street, koothu means folk dance. Hence Therukoothu means street dance. Numerous street dance dramas were known as Therukoothu. These plays were based on Puranic or Ithikasa themes (epics). Therukoothu is often regarded as one of the oldest open-air dance dramas in Tamil cultural tradition. During the early days this particular dance was practised by the common masses for the mental relaxation or just to pass off the time. The theme of the stories were imparted to some basic truths or to some basic philosophy.

Labour community

A Therukoothu performance

Aesthetic essence, value and religious affiliations are interwoven or bound together in this particular oldest dance drama. Originally, this particular dance form originated among the farmers community and later it was passed on to the labourer community and to the ordinary masses. Even this art form was quite popular among the common masses in some remote villages. Like all other traditional art forms this ancient art form also started with the religious performances.

Some of the historical evidence proved that this particular variety of dance drama originated specially during the period of the 10th century A.D. In those days each temple was attached to one theatre or another. Special performances took place during the special temple festivals.

Each temple had a theatre or a stage for this performance. During the regime of Raja Raja Chola-1, numerous Raja Raja Nadakams (drama based dances) were composed during that time. Those dramas were based on Raja Raja’s victory over the other lands including the neighbouring countries and about the Thanjai Bragatheeswarar temple which was built by the great Emperor. Even some of the dance dramas themes revealed the endowment given to the artistes and actors by the state during the Raja Raja Chola’s period.

High pitch

Even now the folk dance dramas of the Tamils are generally referred to as Therukoothu. The Instruments mainly used for Therukoothu were harmonium, Mirdangam and flute. The songs were sung in a very high pitch. The labour class was the main actors and audience for Therukoothu. The labourers after their day long hard work and for their mental relaxation, they involved in the Therukoothu dance drama.

Normally this tradional folk dance drama started around at 10 P.M. It continued till the early hours of the following day. In earlier days it was believed that this particular dance drama was introduced in the society mainly to invoke rain to the village. Normally Therukoothu was held somewhere else in the village or in front of the village temple within the temple premises. The villagers bore the total cost of the Therukoothu dance drama .Some of the most popular Therukoothu dance dramas were Madurai Veeran, Kathavarayan, Ramayanam, Harischandran, Nallathangal, Valli Thirumanam, Pavalakkodi and Arjunan penance.

It is generally said that the Therukoothu was one of the main sources for the development of Tamil classical dance form in the Tamil culture. Due to the arrival of cinema and modern electronic mass media this particular art form lost its vitality in the modern metropolitan areas.Yet it is popular among the rural masses.

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK |

www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
www.army.lk
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk

| News | Editorial | Business | Features | Political | Security | Sport | World | Letters | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2013 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor