Friday, March 29, 2024
Tamilnadu

Arts


Dance

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.