TRIPUNITHURA: Mundembilly Maraath is an ancient family of temple percussionists rooted in Sree Ritupoornathrayeesha temple. Great grand ancestor of present generation, Mundembilly Krishnamarar had led a legendary life with an expertise in almost all temple percussions including edakka, chenda, thimila and other membranophones used in routine temple rituals. Kottarathil Sankunni, in his famous literary work Aithihyamala, had described in detail about the mystic life of Mundembilly Krishnamaarar.In the present generation of this ancient Marar family, Balakrishna Marar, the eldest male member of the family, is an expert in all kinds of unique temple percussion ensembles including Marappaani, Thimila Paani, Kottipaadi Seva, and other rarest percussion ensembles. Considering all the contributions of Balakrishna Marar, ‘Akhila Kerala Marar Kshema Sabha’ has selected him as this year’s ‘Kshethra Kalacharya’.Artist K K Marar handed over the honour in a function held at Kannur on Sunday.Balakrsihna Marar started his artistic life as the traditional Sabandhi Marar( percussionist in charge of all routine rituals of the temple) of Sree Poornathrayeesha Temple. The title was ancestrally handed over to him.“Though the popular traditional percussion ensembles like melams and thayambaka are quite easy to perform as a stage art, the ritualistic percussion ensembles demand a deep knowledge in temple rituals like brahma kalasham, thathwa kalasham, sree boothabali, ulsava bali and other routine rituals”, Balakrishna Marar said. “Mara paani and thimila paani are the most intricate percussion ensembles, inevitable for special occasions like festival and other rare occasions”, he said. Interestingly in both these percussion ensembles ‘silence’ plays a pivotal role than the thunderous percussion beats, he said. Moreover there are no notations for this intricate thala conglomeration, he says. We have to learn all these intricacies just by observing our masters. “The presence of a Marar is an inevitable part of all temple rituals, starting from the ‘palli unarthal’ (awakening the presiding deity) to the athaazha shiveli’(the night procession to conclude the day long rituals)”, he said.To pursue carnatic music, Balarishna Marar RLV College of Music in the late 1960s. “Legendary play back singer K.J.Yesudas was my classmate”, Marar recalled his music college days.Though he had got a deep knowledge in Carnatic Music, Marar never adulterated the traditional ‘sopana sangeetham’ by mixing it with carnatic music. He knows the traditional ‘kottipaadi seva’ of all deities including Lord Shiva, Lord Ayyappa and of course Lord Sree Poornathryeesha.All rituals in the temple are closely related to time bound ragas, he said. The rag ‘bhoopaalam’ is used for the ‘palli unarthal’, the first temple ritual, he says. ‘Palli unarthal’ is a unique practice of awakening the presiding deity with the holy sounding of conch, ‘nadaswaram’ and ‘thavil’. Following this all the temple rituals conducted by the main priest including the ‘usha pooja’, ‘ethrutha pooja’, ‘nivedyam’, ‘pantheeradi pooja’, ‘ucha pooja’, ‘deeparadhana’, ‘athaazha shiveli’ and special rituals like ‘ulsava bali’ demands the presence of Marar.“For ‘ethrutha pooja’ and ‘athazha pooja’, ‘sopaana sangeetham’ is performed by keeping sruthi and rhythm on edakka, he said. Here also the raagas used are entirely different, say ‘vasantham’, ‘kedaaram’, ‘saatta’, ‘sankaraabharanam’, ‘surutti’ and others,” he said.‘Akhila Kerala Marar Kshema Sabha’ decided to honour the maestero with the Kalacharya Puraskaram as a mark to approve the strenuous effort taken by Marar to preserve this traditional percussion ensemble and popularize it among the youth generation.
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