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Reviewed by:
  • Ritual Music and Hindu Rituals of Kerala
  • Ben Krakauer (bio)
Ritual Music and Hindu Rituals of Kerala. Rolf Killius. Foreword by Keith Howard. Delhi: B. R. Rhythms, 2006. viii + 135 pp., photos, charts, references cited, glossary, discography, appendix, index. ISBN: 81-88827-07-X (Hard-cover), $88.36.

In this book intended for both academic and lay readers, Rolf Killius describes kshetram vadyam, the ritual music performed at Hindu temples (kshetram) in Kerala. Killius’s data are derived from his work on the Traditional Music in India (TMI) project for the British Library Sound Archive, for which he and research assistant Jutta Winkler interviewed musicians and produced recordings of Kerala ritual music. Though not advertised as such, the book functions as a companion piece to the TMI audio archive available on the British Library website (British Library Archival Sound Recordings n.d.). The unique contribution of this book is its minute detail regarding the staging, musical structure, and instrumentation of less-studied musical genres of Kerala ritual music. [End Page 162]

Before delving into musical forms, Killius describes the two categories of Hindu ritual in Kerala: kavu and kshetram. Kavu rituals are usually conducted at village shrines, home shrines, or smaller temples and are officiated by “members of the Nayar and ‘lower’ Hindu castes” (16). Kshetram rituals, on the other hand, are held in temples and are officiated by Brahmins of the Namputiri caste. Interestingly, kshetram rituals feature music ensembles led by members of castes associated with kavu rituals. Killius explains that while music is essential for kshetram rituals, there is no textual prescription for exactly how the music should be played. Writing that “ritual and ritual music performances are a parallel activity,” he suggests that “at present the kshetram ritual is an amalgamation of the tantric temple ritual (conducted by Namputiri) and the kavu ritual (represented by ritual drummers)” (47). This is a bold and significant claim, and should provoke rigorous debate among scholars of Kerala temple music.

For much of the book, Killius describes the instruments, musical structures, and presentation of various genres of kshetram vadyam. He particularly focuses on the orchestral genres panchari melam and panchavadyam, the solo ensembles thayampaka, kombu pattu, and kuzhal pattu, and several “smaller ritualistic ensembles” (77), including pani and sopanam sangeetam. Much of his information is illustrated in charts. Some charts show the stage arrangements of instrumentalists in relation to the icon, priests, and elephants. Others focus on kshetram musical instruments, describing the playing technique and construction of various idiophones (ghana vadya), membranophones (avanaddha vadya), and aerophones (sushira vadya) and the musical genres in which each is found. Most of his charts, however, focus on the rhythmic structure of the music, including 13 pages in the appendix describing the patterns played by the large cymbal (ilathalam) in several pieces. In both prose and charts, Killius illustrates the talas within the layers (“kalam”) of each piece/genre (“melam”). He describes how each “melam is characterized by decreasing rhythmic units and steadily increasing speed” (58), and includes one dramatic example of an ancient panchavadyam form, in which the 1,792-beat cycle of the initial kalam contrasts with the 3-1/2-beat cycle of the final kalam (66).

Despite Killius’s attention to minute formal detail, his book has many shortcomings, both editorial and ethnographic. Some chapters are extremely short and lacking in depth, comprised primarily of pictures or charts. One such chart, a hand-drawn diagram of a temple complex, is erroneously printed in mirror image, so that the Eastern entrance appears to be a Western entrance, and the numbers printed within the diagram are difficult to decipher. Though Killius provides an entire chapter focused on musical performers of kshetram vadyam, he provides only minimal information regarding the communities to which they belong and the pragmatics of their professional lives. The reader is left wondering about the details of musical transmission, musical innovations over [End Page 163] time, and the aesthetic and daily professional experiences of the performers. As elsewhere in the book, the focus is on the formal ritual and musical traditions, rather than on the human participants.

Totaling 101 pages from introduction through conclusion, printed in large font...

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