The Caste-Masque ( Jathi Kummatty)

By Deepthy Krishna D

Beyond the line of eons

A page peeked

Like a glimmering shadow

A mud-soaked torso

Smelt of blood!

A squashed soul

Resistant to pulverise

The statue of Buddha!

Beyond leagues, the murmurs

Of half chopped tongues

Words spurt as ‘nanam monam’

Raised to the ground

Towering temples!

Gallows began reiterate

The story;

The story of me and you

Becoming mere rogues!

The story of shrivelling

From reign to rogue;

The story of masque

(Our Kummatty)

Reiterated in Bharani invectives!

The stories told by the spirits

Trapped in dykes!

Their story of brutal massacre!

Then the bells rang

Out of forbidden monasteries

Once demolished!

With pangs of motherhood

Nangeli’s breasts start lactating again!

The masque starts change the fig

He will born out

Of the land of Ezham

Chathan and Chirutha start smiling again!

Yeksha and Yekshini start dancing again!

The nightmares will lie to you

You seek the truth

‘The spirits are humans

They never bow down

Infront of feudal spirits

Like limpets defending

The murder, they clamped

To their ideals’-

The bitter truth will bite you

You will be left alone

Scoffed as a scoundrel

Neo modes of caste masques

Will play around taunting you

Your memories surpassing

the ‘temple ponds’ and sacred groves’

Reach the roots of Bodhi trees

And spread along its branches

The fallen chants in depths of bushes

Resonate the bell of death

The spell of apartheid!

The tactics of serfdom!

Footnote

Kummatty- folk art form performed by using facemask, narrating stories in Kerala

Nangeli- a low caste woman revolutionary who revolted against breast tax in ancient Travancore by chopping off her breasts.

Nanam monam- the Pali words taught to the beginners of learning traditionally in ancient times in Kerala based on Buddhist tradition that later got immersed under Brahminic Hinduism.

Ezham- another word for Srilanka, used in ancient times

Chathan and Chirutha- demigods of subalterns, an appropriated version of Bodhisatvas.

Yekshini/Yekshi- the appropriated version of Salapanjikas in Buddhism

By Deepthy Krishna D