The religious type is called Sakti Karakam. A small pot is filled with water and sealed with a coconut. Flower wreaths decorate it and a lime fruit is placed at the top of the Karakam. The temple priest or his nominee carries it with great ceremony and sentimental attachment since this is one of their hereditary privileges.

The professional type is known as Attak Karakam and is performed anywhere by anyone with necessary practice and skill. It is one of the Tamil Nadu's regular showpieces at the republic day floats in New Delhi every year.

The Attak Karakam or balancing of the pot on the head is accompanied by peculiar musical instruments called Pampadi, Urumi, Thavil, Nadaswaram and Thamukku which are among the distinctive components of Tamil music. The Karakam dancers wear a close fitting dress and look like warriors. They remind one of the Kudak-Koothu dancers described in the literary work, Chilappadikaram.

The word Karakam denotes a pot or kumbham filled with sacred water for purificatory purposes. During ordinary rituals all the seas of Varuna, the Lord of rains and the seven sacred rivers are supposed to be attracted and confined in the Karakam and released only when the final ablution is performed and the water is poured or sprinkled over the heads of the worshippers.

In Tirunelveli district, Karakam is also called Amman Kondadi or a way of eliciting the blessing of the goddess.

The Karakam dancer smears his bare body with holy ash and sandal paste and wears a short skirt. On his head, he balances a pot filled with uncooked rice, surmounted by a tall conical bamboo frame, covered with flowers. He starts from a holy spot or a square and goes to the temple in a procession. Dancing with quick steps, he brandishes a sword or a staff while two people beat the drum and blow on a long pipe. From a slow tempo, the dance rises to delirious frenzy, when the dancer becomes oblivious of himself. Though he tumbles and leaps, he somehow retains the pot on his head without touching it. Background music is provided by Nayyandi Melam.

Puravai Attam

Puravai Attam also known as Poikkal Kuthirai, is a dummy horse show. The dummy horse is made of jute, cardboard, paper, and glass. The show is performed by men as well as women.

The main attraction is the richly decorated cardboard horse. The dancer uses this as his dress. He gets into it through the holes made therein and looks as if he is riding on horse back. Wooden stilts are tied to the dancers feet and these can be successfully used only after months of experience. The purpose of using the stilts is to prevent the dancer from being harmed by snakes or scorpions.

This dance is performed by a pair of dancers impersonating a king and queen. Sometimes, they indulge in acrobatics and they entertain the folk for hours together.

The dummy-horse show is one of the chief attractions in the republic day festivities at New Delhi and folk artists are sent from Tamil Nadu every year to perform this show.

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.

Podikazhi Attam

Podikazhi Attam is a popular dance among the fishermen of the coastal villages near Pondichery during the festival of their favourite deity Muruga. Eight to sixteen men in their traditional costumes perform the dance to the accompaniment of drums, and music is performed mostly by women.

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