Mudiyettu, the ritual theatre performed in Bhagavati Kavus along three Kerala rivers

Background

UNESCO lists Mudiyettu, ritual theatre and dance drama of Kerala, as nomination file No. 00345. It was inscribed in 2010, at the fifth session of the Committee, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The entry records that performers purify themselves through fasting and prayer, then draw a huge image of the goddess Kali, called a kalam, on the temple floor with coloured powders. Mudiyettu is performed annually in Bhagavati Kavus, the temples of the goddess, in villages along the rivers Chalakkudy Puzha, Periyar and Moovattupuzha. UNESCO describes it as an important site for transmitting traditional values, ethics, moral codes and aesthetic norms to the next generation.