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Rhythm master: Narayanan Nambiar combines artistic excellence and scholarship.

Nambiar was born in the culturally rich Killikurissimangalam village of Palakkad district in May 1927 as son of the Koodiyattom colossus, Mani Madhava Chakyar, and Kunjimalu Nangiaramma. At a Sanskrit school, he was under the tutelage of scholars such as Pannisseri Sankaran Namboodiripad, Meledath Govindan Nambiar and Kizhiappad Sankaran Nair. Uncle Meledath Govindan Nambiar and Raman Nambiar initiated him into the family occupation of playing the mizhavu. Nambiar imbibed the conventional rituals associated with the playing of the mizhavu, the patakam and the stagecraft of plays. Nambiar has repeatedly remarked that his later day achievements in art and life rest on that solid foundation.

While introducing Koodiyattom as a curriculum at Kerala Kalamandalam, Painkulam Rama Chakyar had no second thoughts on the appropriate person to head its percussion-music component. Narayanan Nambiar joined the maestro in taking up the challenge of re-structuring the syllabi of Koodiyattom. Nambiar refined most of the vaytharis (syllables) for the kriyas of Kuttu, Koodiyattom and Nangiarkoothu. He rendered a rhythmic grace to the vaytharis of maravilkriya and converted the mizhavu occhapeduthal (playing of the mizhavu at the outset of Koodiyattom to create the right ambience) into Eka tala. In this way, even the minute elements of the audio-visuals of Koodiyattom came under the scrutiny and aesthetic re-interpretation of Nambiar.

The full-fledged Cholliyattam of Sanskrit plays at Kalamandalam was a direct inspiration of Kathakali. At the Cholliyattakkalari of Painkulam, Narayanan Nambiar spent years engaging himself in creative dialogues with the angika, vachika and satwika abhinayams. Sitting behind the actors, he imaginatively played on the mizhavu the picturesque scenes of mayilattam (peacock dance), playing of the veena and the mridangam, the lifting of the Kailasa mountain, ‘Parvathiviraham,’ ‘Sikhinisalabham,’ ‘Panchangavarnana,’ ‘Padappurappad’ et al.

Nambiar was perhaps the first percussionist in Koodiyattom and Nangiarkoothu to trace on the mizhavu the implicit tone and feel of sringara, veera, hasya, soka and raudra rasas. His playing of Dhruva and Lakshmi talas is unparalleled from a musical perspective. Incidentally, the timbre of Nambiar’s mizhavu attains a humorous tone when he plays for the inebriated Kapali in ‘Mattavilasom.’ The high, medium and low tones on the mizhavu linked to the contexts and characters of the Sanskrit plays such as ‘Dhananjayam,’ ‘Jatayuvadhom,’ ‘Bhagavadajjukam’ and the like are Nambiar’s contributions to the art. The music on his mizhavu is devoid of untimely beats and unnecessary frills.

The restricted leather-surface of the mizhavu allows only two sthanams (positions), ‘tha’ and ‘thom.’ Nambiar surpassed this constraint to a significant extent by playing the different segments of the thayambaka such as Pathikaalam, Kooru, Itavattom, Itanila and Irikita. Skilfully assisted by his disciples, Nambiar explored the potential of the mizhavu as a solo-percussion. While the first two segments reveal the dexterity of his fingers in creating melody, the latter symbolises an explosion of physical and mental energy.

Thorough in Sanskrit, Kavyas and the Natakas, Nambiar wrote ‘Sreekrishnacharitam Nangiaramma Kuttu’ and an authoritative text on the mizhavu. Rich in detail and precise in treatment, those books are immensely beneficial to students, teachers and research scholars of theatre and dance.

One does not usually come across more than a handful of practitioners in performing arts in whom artistic profundity and scholarship co-exist. Narayanan Nambiar undoubtedly belongs to that fast dwindling tribe of artistes.

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