Signing Procedures
Signing Procedures
Most of the Kutiyattam signs are performed in three distinct stages.
1. Normally during the beginning step there is little or no physical movement.
2. A great deal of physical movement takes place during the second stage.
3. Finally, all movement ceases and the meaning of the sign is established.
The following is an example of this principal:
The sign for body is usually accompanied by a pattern of breathing which gives the gesture added strength and power. Notice that the signer takes a slow deep breath at the beginning. During the final stage, he keeps his chest expanded and exhales slowly until the gesture is finished. The sign may be enhanced still further if the actor were standing or moving.
Three body positions are commonly used when signing:
1. Sitting (Irunnattam)
2. Standing (Pathinjattam)
3. Moving about (Elakiyattam)
It is commonly thought that the signs in Kutiyattam should never be formed more than a few inches above the head or below the waist. In fact, Kutiyattam gesture patterns use considerably less space than do those of Kathakali, the more popular Kerala genre of performance.
Levels
As a general rule, most gestures are executed above the hips and below the face. The levels are:
1. Above the head
2. Forehead
3. Face
4. Neck
5. Armpit (i.e. mid-chest level)
6. Waist
7. Hips
8. Thighs
9. Knees
10. Lower legs
11. Ankles
Directional orientation
Signs also have a general directional orientation in relationship to the body. Assuming the point of view of a performer facing the spectators and taking the center of the chest as a fixed point of reference (i.e. center), gestures have the following directional orientation:
1. Up left
2. Up center
3. Up right
4. Left
5. Center
6. Right
7. Down left
8. Down center
9. Down right
For example, the up left position is roughly above and in front of the performer’s left shoulder, about the height of the forehead; the right position is below and forward of the right elbow, about hip height.
Relative Distance of the Gesture from the Body
Besides the general level and directional orientation, signs are formed close to or away from the body.
Positions of the Palm
Kutiyattam gesture-language depends principally on the orientation of the hands to the body and the hands to each other in space. There are seven positions of the hand, using the palm as a point of reference:
1. Up
2. Down
3. Facing the body (i.e. in)
4. Facing away from the body (i.e. out) – for example facing down left, down right, right, left, up right or up left
5. Facing each other
6. Together and/or touching each other
7. Above or below each other
Actions of the Palm
There are six possible actions of the hand:
1. Pushing the hand
2. Rotating the hand and forearm rapidly back and forth
3. Working the hand back and forth at the wrist
4. Swiveling the hand at the wrist, in either direction
5. Trembling the fingers
6. Temporarily immobilizing the hand – this action is performed beginning with the palms facing up to start with, swiveling at the wrist (the right swivels to the right, the left to the left) until they both face down, hands drop into a totally relaxed position, dangling from the wrists.
Special Patterns of Movement
Most signs may be conveniently grouped under one or the other of five movement patterns:
1. Dip out – this pattern is performed with either one or both hands. For example, the right hand dips from close right to out right.
2. Arc – performed by one or both hands moving in a vertical pattern generally in front of the body with the following variations: A. single arc – the right hand begins to the left of the body, arcs to the right above the head and ends at the right side. B. double arc – both hands begin at the waist center, rise to a position above the head center, separate and come down, the right hand to the right front and the left to the left. C. double overlapping arc – the hands overlap at the center of the waist, right in front of left. They rise to a point just above the head, separate and come down, right hand to the right front and left to the left.
3. Circle – the hands move in a vertical pattern in relationship to the torso. For example, the hands begin at the center of the waist, move left, up left, up center, up right, right, and end where they began, at the center of the waist. The sign for “shining” is signed in this manner.
4. Diagonal circle – the hands move in a horizontal pattern in relationship to the body. Beginning at the waist center, moving out together, first, out down left, out down center, out down right and back to their original starting position.
5. Backward wheel – although there are some variations to this basic action, the basic technique for the backward wheel is to begin with the hands at the center of the waist, move down, out, out center, out up-center and back to their original position, close to the body. The forward wheel has the reverse action of the backward wheel.
The Kutiyattam vocabulary is rich in nouns and adjectives, sparing with verbs, other than those of action, such as “go” and “come”. It contains adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns and case endings. There is even a gesture which indicates plurals.
Equipped with this extensive repertory, the actor can often reproduce an entire sentence in gesture without resorting to equivalent or substitute gestures.
Indeed, it is generally thought among local supporters that the gesture vocabulary of the Kutiyattam actor is far more extensive than that of performers of Kathakali or Krsnanattam, who often reproduce only bits and pieces of sentences in gesture in order to convey meaning.
According to the American philosopher Charles S. Peirce, signs fall into three categories: icon, index and symbol. By far the more prevalent gestures in the language are symbols, i.e. those which are conventional or nonnatural and which depend for their meaning on an arbitrary rule. A sign such as “plural” carries no clue as to its meaning, even when the eyes and the body of the signer come into play.
Relatively few signs may be categorized as indexes – that is a sign whose specified character is causally dependent on the object to which it refers. Signs such as “you”, “s/he” and forms of address such as “you there” or “Hey, you” are indexes because they point to the person referred.
The following is one of them:
Signs classified as icons share properties with what they represent. A straight line on a map is an icon for a straight road, for example. A finger run across the throat to signify “having one’s throat cut” and the trigger finger movement represents a gun.
Another Kutiyattam gesture that is iconically coded and charged with cultural significance is that signifying “food.” During this process, the face expresses the pleasure of eating, reinforcing the connection between the action of the gesture and the head.
There is no attempt to depict eating realistically, that is, opening the mouth or moving the jaws as though chewing.
To the Kerala Hindu, the gesture and eye movements are sufficient to symbolically convey eating rice from a bowl or dish. Members of a knife and fork society might find the meaning of the gesture obscure, however.
One of the most widely recognized icons in Indian theatre and dance is that signifying “lotus”. In Kutiyattam the gesture is rendered almost exactly the same way as it is done in other art forms elsewhere in the country. The budding and opening of the petals of a sweet smelling lotus are accented by the actor’s stylized smile and rapidly fluttering eyebrows. Below you find the representation of “blue lotus”. It differs slightly from the representation of “lotus”.
Perhaps the previous illustrations are not as culture-bound as the following. The gesture for “questioning” may be performed in several different ways.
1. Both hands begin in hamsapaksha palms facing out, center of chest. Eyes focused on the lamp.
2. They slowly roll at the wrists and turn over so that they face up in ardhachandra. Eyes first look down and then up.
3. The action is punctuated by the hands which press down slightly before ceasing to move. The eyes look at the lamp.
In Kerala, it is common in casual conversation to see speakers who are questioning someone or something, turn the palms of one or the other hand over and form ardhachandra. This is usually accompanied by a quizzical expression on the face. To an uninitiated outsider, the Kutiyattam gesture, which is a conventionalized version of the natural (lokadarmi) gesture, may have no meaning.
The meaning of some gestures may shift during a performance. In the opening segment of Balacharita, the stage manager performs a segment of picking flowers as his character prepares the ritual items for worship. His right hand symbolizes the hand of the person picking the flower and also the flower itself. The left hand represents the vessel for gathering the flowers.
Later in the same scene, when the performer recites a Sanskrit verse, this same gesture is used to signify “white as milk.” Since the gestures for “white” and “milk” are not appropriate patterns of movement for the verse, the actor must use “flower picking” as the shortcut for expressing “white as milk” because white flowers are used for rituals.
Also in the same verse, the stage manager refers to the four ages of the world (yugas). Although there are gestures for numbers and for periods of time in Kutiyattam, the actors prefer to use gestures which have a different symbolic significance in the Hastalakshanadipika – four of the five Pandava warriors of Mahabharata fame, i.e. Yudisthira, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. The gesture for “Yudisthira”, eldest of the Pandava warriors is employed to convey the “first” (krita) age.
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The four Pandava warriors are used to symbolize the four ages of the world because they indicate the four brothers in order of their age and importance – Yudisthira being the first, Arjuna the second, and so forth. The spectators understand the context of the dramatic passage and thus the meaning of the gesture is clear.
Names of epic characters and gods, such as Rama, Ravana, Siva and Surya, are rendered by gestures which symbolize some attribute associated with them. The gesture for Rama, for example, literally means “carrier of the bow and arrow”.
The gesture for “Ravana”, the ten-headed King of Lanka and Rama’s arch rival, means literally, “the demon with the loud voice”, perhaps because the word “Ravana” means “roar” or “loud voiced one”. The performer first performs the gesture for “demon” and then he does the gesture for “loud”. When signing Ravana in kathakali the sign carries no implication of “loud”. The performer does the sign for “demon” and then a special sign denoting “Ravana”.
The god Siva is literally depicted as “the carrier of the ax and the deer”, a regional variation of the instruments normally associated with this deity elsewhere in India.
The gesture for Surya, the Sun god, depicts the rising of the sun and is accented by the trembling of the muscles below the eyes, which signifies the harshness of its bright rays.
The textual material above was first published in Kutiyattam: Sanskrit Theater of India (CD-ROM). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
