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Arayar Natanam
Arayar Natanam is enacted in December-January in Shrirangam and other
Shri Vaishnava temples by groups of musicians and a dancer who are engaged
to recite the sacred hymns called the Thiruvaimozhi.
This class of choirists called Arayar or Chanters are
on the temple staff receiving allowances and perquisites. They wear a
uniform which includes a Kireetam or special conical cap as their badge
during the chanting. While chanting the hymns, they also use a pair of
cymbals made of bell-metal. One of them assumes the postures. In between
their recitations, they utter the glory of the presiding deity by singing
Kondattam.
The Araya's practice a certain esoteric system of dance
wherein the postures are conventional and present situations associated
with lord Krishna's Juvenile Pranks.
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