Reflection and Aruḷ

Abstract

This essay focuses on the role of Lord Śiva, the deity who is the main subject of the Mattavilāsam, a three-day Kūṭiyāṭṭam masterpiece that also explores the origin of this art form; but also on Śiva as the crypto-identity of Vasantaka, the clown narrator of Mantrāṅkam. Hemdat Salay shows how through the performance of these two texts, the deity is made present in visible form on stage. The call to Śiva is the aruḷ driving the plot and the play, meaning the active and full presence of the deity in his complete, multifaceted, and contradictory form. In this case, the comic and ridiculous nature of the clown fully expresses the always playful deity and enables them to meet and unite.