The Royal Temple Theater of Krishnattam by Martha Bush Ashton-Sikora et al. (review)

Very little has been written on krishnattam, a contemporary dance-drama form of kathakali and critical work examining the training and performance elements are certainly limited.¹ What is largely available are encyclopedia entries, online descriptive accounts, or newspaper articles. Therefore, this book, a revised second edition of Ashton-Sikora's 1993 book Krishnattam, is certainly welcomed.

The book has ten chapters, including Martha Ashton-Sikora's highly detailed introduction discussing her relationship with krishnattam, her experience of watching performances between 1970 and 1985, and her encounters with the actors, spectators, teachers, and scholars. This chapter, written in highly accessible language, not only opens an overview of the life and culture of Kerala in the 1970s and 1980s but also speaks about the religious and social significance of krishnattam for the people in north Kerala. Through her long years of fieldwork, which was aimed at fully documenting the genre, Ashton-Sikora "collected a great deal of information" (p. 20), which she shares through the book, which is understandably descriptive in nature, with occasional critical study on its performative aspects. The work is thorough in providing a mostly informed account of krishnattam through extensive field research, interviews with subject experts and teachers of the form, as well as her first-person perspectives. Chapter 2 opens a brief history of krishnattam. Although in need of unpacking some of the local cultural practices and vernacular terms referred to in the text, this section is a clear attempt to trace the historical and social milieus surrounding the genre's emergence and continuance. However, there is a factual error that is worth pointing out: the authors make reference to chakyar kuttu being performed in Sanskrit (p. 34); this is factually incorrect since a chakyar (a kutiyattam actor) speaks the local language of Malayalam when he performs chakyar kuttu (however, he speaks Sanskrit verses when performing kutiyattam). A short third chapter examines the survival of the form during 1915 and 1961, when royal patronage ceased and the era of temple patronage was inaugurated.

Chapters 4 and 5 document the recent history of krishnattam, the rede-signing of its costumes, makeup, choreography, hand gestures, facial expressions, lighting, audience space, and music. Most important, these two chapters trace the contributions of A. C. G. Raja, who was superintendent of the arts at the Guruvayur Krishna temple in Kerala between 1961 and 1983. It might have been much more appropriate to include a separate section critically studying Raja's contributions to krishnattam since it is highly apparent that Raja's artistic vision directly impacted the genre's renovation and sustenance. For instance, the authors mention the introduction of kathakali hand gestures (mudras) to krishnattam through a series of invited workshops by a senior kathakali actor, Pantalam Kerala Varma (the year is not given). However, there is no detail regarding the hand gestures that he introduced, the rationale behind his selection of hand gestures, the methods that he followed in training, or the employing of mudras in the performance. Deeper analysis of such aspects would have significantly contributed to the critical discourse on krishnattam.

Chapter 6 describes the training elements of krishnattam dancers, singers, and percussionists. It gives an account of the daily training routine for each of them, but it is unclear whether this exact pattern is followed today. The training routine for actors seems to follow the Kerala Kalamandalam (a world renowned arts academy in Kerala) training patterns for kathakali and kutiyattam in the 1970s and 1980s. But this system has since been revised in view of the formal school education that all students wish to undertake along with their arts training. I am unclear if that is also the case for contemporary krishnattam students too, and if so, what the total duration of months or years that they currently spend on their training is now. Furthermore, the authors state that "In about eight to ten years...