Performing Disfiguration: Staging of relationalities in Pottan Teyyam

Abstract

The paper will focus on Pottan Teyyam, a ritual healing performance practice in South-Indian state, Keralam, to analyze the complexities of what I call ‘performing disfiguration’. Pottan is one of the major figuration in the repertoire of extremely popular Teyyam practices. The performance is rich in its use of music, spectacle and movements and its significance lies in the fact that during its span a lower caste/untouchable transforms into god, often in a state of possession. The existing scholarship on Pottan Teyyam is focused on the binary of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ which forms the central focus of the caste system that gets criticized in the performance of Teyyam. These perspectives have been gleaned through a focus on the analysis of myth and tottam (songs), with a stress on transformation of a lower caste performer into a divine figure. This paper foregrounds disfiguration in performance as it stages the problematic situation of caste by reading the performance on the basis of relationalities between animal, gender and disability.

The word Pottan literally means ‘dumb’ or ‘mute’, and the performance links both negative senses of the word - a disability that indicates foolishness. Over the course of the performance, a single performer’s body gets transformed into three different characters: Pulamarutan enacts an animal trait, Pulapottan performs disability and Pulachamundi brings out the ‘primitive’ nature of a lower caste woman. During these distinct embodiments one can see the complex process of disfiguration manifested in the performance. The performer uses different mukhappala (masks) indicating the character and their lower caste identity. The mukhapala thus indicates the scarring undergone by the character. How does this scarring work in, what is otherwise seen as, a divine figure within the social realm? How can ‘performing’ disfiguration help us understand the complex interlinking of caste and disability? Further, how does disfiguration help reflect on deep-rooted stigmas with regards to caste, gender, disability?

Notes

1 Tottam is a form of oratory song and every caste group of North Malabar has its own folk songs. This region has the tradition of ballads narrating the stories of their local legends, of which Tottam forms an integral part.