Kerala

Cuisine

There is a very rich folk song tradition in Kerala. Farmers, peasants; ploughing or harvesting and the boat men plying the oars on the palm-fringed back waters,  forgot the tedium of toil by singing songs. Then the happiness of the harvest season, of the sacramental union of man and woman, of the advent of progeny also found expression in beautiful melodies.

Many classical composers also used this songs. Irayimmam Tampy, wrote a lyric for the melody of the traditional lullaby which is one of the most beautiful songs of this kind in Malayalam. Another lullaby melody was chosen by Cherrusseri in the fifteenth century to retell the Krishna story from the Bhagavatha in mellifluous verse in a Kavya of classical dimensions with forty-seven cantos. The boat song melody was used by Ramapurath Warrier in the eighteenth century for a fine narrative poem on the story of 'Kuchela' and by Kumaran Asan, for another narrative poem on the great compassion of the Buddha and the disciples who were inspired by him.

The Muslim arts forms reflect the day to day life of the community through the songs which are generally known as Mappila Pattukal. These songs represent a long tradition of a happy blending of Arab and local elements of music. The language used in these songs represents a mixture of Arab, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit and Kannada. It is believed that the rich literature of Mopla songs has a long history going back to 700 years. The oldest known Mopla songs were mostly devotional dealing with the life of religious people. The earlier songs were extremely lyrical, highly imaginative and humanistic and earthly. These songs sung in rituals, household ceremonies like marriage and as a vocal accompaniment for dances. Love, heroism and devotion to God are the basic sentiments in these songs. The working people among the Muslim sing these songs to minimise the monotony and weariness of labour. There are songs which prop esoteric appeal. The songs of an erotic nature known as 'kess' are considered to be later addition.

There were a lot of Christian songs in the pattu literature which were meant to propagate the Christian faith. One of the main songs deals with the life and deeds of St. Thomas. In the songs there is a touch of western music but the tunes are not all western. There is a very interesting blending of the folk tunes of Kerala. "Hitta Hinda Teyyakka Timrutai" forms the rhythmic basis for the lines. It is not the exact metre that is fixed by the meaningless syllables but only the pattern of rhythm. These songs were popular among the Christians converted from the lower castes of Hindu society whereas the aristocratic church songs, especially those sung in mass. It used to keep stronger ties with the Suriani music. But slowly these also came to be influenced by the folk tunes.

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