Kerala - Kochi   

A doleful tale from this reader of Blaveli

A NEAR-EXTINCT ART: Reading the Blaveli is a folk art barely managing to keep itself alive. — Photo: K.K. Mustafah

Opening a scroll, he starts narrating a story, showing pictures on the canvas-like cloth.

Crude forms of animals, people and others string together the tale.

For K.K. Haridas, reading the Blaveli is no longer an occupation. It is a folk art that he has managed to keep alive, unwittingly.

The art, which was, earlier, believed to usher in prosperity to houses where its performance was held as well as to the reader, seems to be going through hard times.

Just a few readings are held now, with hardly any household engaging a Blaveli reader.

Hence, the readings, a round-the-year occupation of the Veerashaiva community in the past, are held only for a month now. The Malayalam month of Karkkidakom, supposed to be spent in rejuvenating health and spirituality, is what Haridas considers best for taking the folk art to town.

The scroll can be made bigger too, with more description, but the animals and people need to be drawn in the same format, he says.

Taking a stick to point out the figures on the scroll, Haridas goes about telling the story about the commitment of a pious and rich landlord, and how the man of his word is tested by the divine.

For Haridas, Blaveli reading has given him much: a nice, little house, two sons who have come up in life and so on.

"I have always gone one step up in life and have never asked for more," he says, believing that it is the rendering of the Blaveli that has brought him whatever he has.

He does not know much about his community, the members of which, he believes, are descendants of Basaveshwara, a 12th Century social reformer from northern Karnataka, who had probably come to Kerala.

"If I were more literate, probably, I would have known more," Haridas says. "We are supposed to follow a strict life of piety and rituals, but the lifestyle and occupations taken up by many in the community does not allow everyone to stick to the rigours it demands."

The community has taken up various jobs for survival and has come down from the standing it enjoyed earlier, perhaps, he says.

A couple of thousands of people of the community live in Ernakalum district, and fewer than 30 of them know how to read the Blaveli, he says.

But even those who know the art hesitate to practise it, since those who have taken to more lucrative professions look down upon the art.

While the art occupies him for just a month of the year, he earns his bread by selling bangles, toys and other fancy items at temple festivals.

He had learned the art early, going to houses of the landed rich with his uncles.

He started going on his own from the age of 15. It used to give us the day's meal and the remuneration in cash and kind would be savings, he says.

Hailing from Pattimattom, Haridas manages to go to more than 50 houses during Karkkidakom.

Reading the Blaveli actually makes me keep in touch with so many people from so many walks of life, he says.

However, the art form is not likely to keep in touch with people if there are not many who can take it forward.

Shyama Rajagopal

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