India - ban on cow slaughter: Silencing The Temple Drums (Minu Ittyipe)

Outlookindia.com
Web | March 26, 2015


Opinion
Silencing The Temple Drums
If the ban on cow slaughter is enforced, it will import foreign sounds into the hallowed temple precincts of Kerala.
Minu Ittyipe


The round leather heads of the chenda (percussion instrument) twist and dry in the laundry-on-a-line in Vellarakaddu village near Thrissur, Kerala. Below the leather heads (vattoms), the fresh cow skins straight from the abattoir are stretched and nailed to the ground to dry in the morning sun. The smell of the drying skin rides the breeze and hovers over the workspace where the chenda and edakka are being crafted.

Some of Kerala's finest percussion instruments — chenda, edakka, udduku — are made right here using the tender hide of cows for drum heads. The primordial sounds of these ancient instruments that propitiate the Gods in the temples of Kerala cannot be replicated by the use of any other synthetic material on the heads. In a strange subverted manner, if the ban on cow slaughter is enforced, it will import foreign sounds into the hallowed temple precincts of Kerala.

Under the canopy of a blue plastic tent, in front of V K Raghavan's house, three men labour at cleaning the skin of the dry hides, carefully measuring the thickness between their fingers. The eight families of leather-smiths (roughly translated from thokkal kollan) claim they have been living in this area for over 350 years. They have been creating the chenda, eddaka, udduku to perfection without the use of any chemicals (madalam and mridangam are made in Palakkad). 10 hollow wooden polished bodies wait to be fitted with heads. We are told it is for Malayalam actor Jayaram who is donating them to the central jail in Kannur.

The orders for instruments have been coming thick and fast in the last few years, and the families cannot keep up with the demand. Heard about the ban on cow slaughter? Raghavan dismisses the politics being played out in far away Maharashtra or Gujarat. "Ban on cow slaughter cannot be enforced here in Kerala," shrugs Raghavan. "The three of us make around 25 chendas in a month but it is not enough. My cousins, who are my neighbours, too, are burdened with orders. People come from all over the state to buy these and we take two to three days to make one instrument. Synthetic material has been tried instead of cow hide but it sounds like the flat beat of western drums. Only leather can produce such warm echoing tones and only leather is allowed in the temples!"
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From time immemorial these percussion drums have used leather heads and the ban on cow slaughter if enforced in Kerala can have harshest reprisal on the art and cultural scene of Kerala. It will no doubt mute these instruments forever. Imagine the temple festivities of the Thrissur Pooram without the celestial beats of the panchavadyam or the chenda melam (collective rendering of the chenda)! More than 3000 percussion artistes congregate at the Thrissur Pooram grounds to set the rhythm of the nine-day celebrations of this temple festival playing continuously day and night. The daily chenda melam of the Guruvayur temple or the udukku Ayappan pattu (songs) of the Sabarimala temple are integral to the rituals of these famous temples.

Every temple in Kerala, big or small, employs at least one percussion artist. From the time the temple doors open, the different percussion instruments intimates the devotees and elaborates on the different kinds of poojas, marriage, death, festivities and everything auspicious through their beats. Sivamani, the famed percussion artist, associates the sound of these instruments with divinity. "As soon as I play the chenda I connect it with my guru, the sound of the chenda is deeply religious to me. The use of synthetic material can completely change the sound of these instruments."

Recently, the Prime Minister's Office had sought the opinion of the Law Ministry to push the ban on cow slaughter in all the states in the steps of Gujarat and Maharashtra who have enforced the ban. However, the chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, says the ban is not practical in the state of Kerala. Under his watch this will not happen, "It is difficult to implement the ban here." But the BJP national executive member Sobha Surendran is adamant that the ban should be enforced in Kerala too. "The primary reason to enforce the ban on cow slaughter is the need to preserve nature. Besides that, we need to be concerned about the health of the future generations for beef consumption is bad for their health. Even for the sake of art we cannot allow the slaughter of cows anywhere. It cannot be allowed here too."

Prakasan Pazhambalacode, 49, chenda and edakka artist who has played at the Thrissur Pooram for 16 years is apprehensive the ban will be enforced in Kerala. He thinks the ban would kill the art and music of Kerala. "Kerala should be exempted from the ban. There are over 15 lakh percussion artists and over 150 different kinds of percussion instruments (from the tribals in the forests to the artists in the temples use these instruments) in Kerala. This ban on cow slaughter is going to render so many artists jobless. No other state is so rich in culture. The politicians who decide on these matters do not know how deeply entwined the percussion instruments are with the temple rituals. These percussion instruments cannot use any other form of leather — it has to be the cow hide from the abdomen to get the right tone. The younger the cow the better the effect. For the edakka and udukku, the very fine skin of the stomach is used to make the vattom (head). I am not recommending senseless killing of any animal but this is part of the temple rituals and we have to accept it. No synthetic fibre can replace this."

It is not just the temples that are going to reverberate with change but Kerala's famed art forms Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Krishnattam etc too will be affected. Mattanoor Sanakaran kutty, padma sri recipient and a traditional chenda player from Marar, points out that chenda, an accompaniment to the art form kathakali, creates the mood and tone through its play: the sound of thunder, the gentleness of rain, roar of lion are all created by this one instrument. "It is so beautiful. No other instrument in the world can match the symphony of the chenda vadhyam."

Pazhambalacode explains that there is purification ritual before the instrument is used in the temples. "For the people of Kerala the resounding beat of the percussion runs through their veins and they cannot accept a festivity without these instruments. This ban is also going to rob of us of our livelihood. My family has been percussion artists for generations. We don't know any other work." Sivamani laments that if the music of the chenda, eddaka, udduku, madalam etc.. is going to be killed then we should all go vegetarian. "Why stop with this let them ban all meat and leather products." While Sankarankutty thinks that change is inevitable. "If it is banned then we have to go in search of another material but it will not be the same." But Sankaran kutty reassures himself that perhaps this will not happen in his lifetime.