THE DRUMMERS AND DANCERS
It was in one of the villages that Reaching the Unreached (RTU) worked in, that we found a professional group of drummers. These drummers belonging to a particular caste group had once approached RTU for supporting a housing programme. They had been allotted land by the state government, about 3-5 cents (100 cents make an acre) but had no money to build a decent house. What they did have was small huts, the walls of which were made of mud and the roof was thatched. The 40 odd families there were all landless labourers. The only other skill they had was their drumming (with some playing other musical instruments to keep the drums company). Their income from drumming came during the brief festival season which normally was post the winter harvest in January and would go on till about May. Or else, they would once in a while, be invited for some political function or such other events.

The income from drumming was meager. A group of about a dozen drummers would make just about Rs. 500 for a performance. Incidentally, the drummers were also good dancers, and that is what added a certain charm to their drumming. They had a repository of synchronized steps which would change each time they changed the rhythm with which they beat their drums. Normally, a group of six men would stand facing another group of six men, rhythmically playing their drums. Gradually, they would move forward, cross each other, turn around and face each other again from their new positions. At times, they would form a circle with the main drummer getting into the middle. The patterns they made with their drumming was quite fascinating. As the drumming progressed, they would get into a frenzy with the drums reaching a crescendo, that would make the stiffest and lead footed among those in the crowd to get into the swing. Suddenly, they would bring down the pace of the drums, starting from a low pace and gradually build up. It was said that they had the stamina to dance all night, though I could not witness that. What I did see was their performance which lasted for about a couple of hours. Strangely, they seemed to be in a mood to go on and on, though the onlookers looked tired due to the occasional jig they got induced to performing with the beats of the drums.

Drumming was serious business for them, inspite of all the joy and frenzy with which they performed. The more the onlookers enjoyed their performance and broke into dancing, the more encouraged they would be. All they wanted in between was some bottles of the local soda or the ‘colour’, though it was often said that they would gulp down a few glasses of the local brew to give them the stamina to keep going. Most of the drummers were young men below thirty, though they were commanded by someone more senior, who was the one who sought drumming assignments, collected the cash and distributed. They all had a certain uniform which was white long sleeved shirt and white trousers, adorned by red and golden patterns. Their drums were also attractively coloured. The drummers of Singarakkottai – that is how they were referred to, named after the village where they lived. Though they were on the main state highway connecting the towns of Batlagundu and Dindigul, they were stricken by poverty, none of which was ofcourse evident when they performed.

They were once spotted by the local authorities to perform as part of the opening ceremonies for the Asian Games (Asiad) held in New Delhi in 1982. Though it was a decade since then, they could never stop sharing the excitement they had of traveling to Delhi, experiencing the different weather, culture and food there and the opportunity to meet ‘Amma’, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, who had hosted a reception for the performers from various states who had been mobilized to make the opening ceremony a memorable one. They had witnessed the dandia raas from Gujarat, the lavni from Maharasthra, the bhangra from Punjab, the bamboo dance from Manipur, the panchavadyam from Kerala. It was an amazing experience. They had mingled with these artistes inspite of their limitation of not knowing Hindi at all (thanks partly due to their lack of education and the fact that Hindi was barely spoken, taught or used in Tamil Nadu. Remember, this was well before the invasion of Bollywood and the saas-bahu soaps offered by a plethora of private television channels !). But what they discovered which intrigued them was though there seemed to be a wide appreciation of their art form, artistes like them lived in penury and were eking their livelihood through various other forms, mostly related to casual labour. In a way, they had felt a strange sense of oneness and solidarity with those artistes on discovering that most of them went through similar problems in life.

The Singarakkottai inauguration to mark the completion of the low-cost housing project for this community was therefore significantly different. In addition to everything else that we witnessed in other villages, there was this absolutely fascinating performance by the drummers, which led most of the guests to shed their stiffness and inhibitions of being ‘VIPs’ and get on with their dancing instead. It was a great sight. Being on the roadside, most passing vehicles halted to view this wonderful sight. It was like a festival bursting out in the countryside at a time when no festivities were scheduled, for it was neither a traditional festival season, nor was it a wedding season ! Since then, the Singarakkottai drummers were a regular group for all RTU celebrations. It was a special relationship that they built. Their popularity soared with each subsequent performance and we hoped this did, in some small way, help to hone their skills and induce them to invest in improving their skills further - and more importantly, to keep that art form alive !

The other performing art that we had got used was 'Oyilattam' performed by the villages of Dharmalingapuram, a small village of about 50 families of the Naicker caste situated on the main Batlagundu- Periyakulam road. I have written about this village elsewhere in this blog and hence will not go into the details here. But what we got to enjoy whenever there was any function in the village, mostly related to the events in the school, it was a treat watching their Oyilattam. It was performed by the men of the village. A couple of them would sing to which the rest of the men, about 6 to 8 in the age group of 16-40 would dance. Standing in a line, wearing white shirts and dhotis, with a red scarf tied around their waist and with ghunghroos tied at their ankles, they would sway with rhythmic synchronization, waving a handkerchief as their arms moved in tune with the dance steps. The Oyilattam, for them, was much more than a dance. It was a way for them to get together and reinforce the solidarity of their community, for which they were known. The songs often reflected various aspects of their culture, beliefs and ways of life.

What was common between the Singarakottai drummers and the Oyilattam of Dharmalingapuram was that these were performed exclusively by the men - and as with many other performing arts, these were as much a way of life as it was part of their culture and tradition. And both were suffering from the similar fate - a ebbing of interest in their respective art forms due to the onslaught of cinema and TV, forcing them to abandon this art and look for other means of livelihood !