Wayanad: For the 22 tribal youths including eight women, it's been a dream travelling from town to town taking their music along across India.
The youngsters that make up Thudithalam - a 15-year-old music group - belong to the indigenous Paniya and Kattunaikka tribes of Wayanad. The young tribespeople have been on a quest to explore and propagate their musical roots for the last one and half decades.
Thudithalam the band came together in 2009 as the cultural voice of the indigenous communities of Wayanad.
‘Thudi' is a percussion instrument of the Paniyas and ‘thaalam' in Malayalam means rhythm. So Thudithalam is the rhythm of first inhabitants merging into the universal rhythm.
Apart from a few band members, most in the band have had an education: a teacher who's a postgraduate and a social worker with an MSW are part of the ensemble.
According to Ravi M R, PR person of the band, music helps the group liberate from the ‘self’, that in this instance is rooted in a troublesome past, and to conquer the world through music.
“In general, as a clan we may be dull often but music has an electric effect on our spirits as we start moving to the rhythm,” he said.
“In my childhood, I never dreamt of flying and travelling to big cities,” Ravi said.
“Even our dreams were so modest: limited to having good food, better place to sleep, opportunity to work daily to make ends meet and so forth. But see how music has changed our lives now: many of us travel by air to participate in programmes; our band travels from one city to another just as our music," Ravi told Onmanorama.
On the power of tribal music, Ravi said they are not 'exhibits' anymore: “We are in demand because of the impact of our cultural past alongside the yearning for the rhythms of jungle.”
Apart from traveling to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, the band has crisscrossed the nation performing in Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Thudithalam also represents the state in national programmes linked with tribal culture and folk art.
Besides the usual musical instruments, the band uses Thudi and Jodumara,the percussion instruments of Paniya and Kattunayikka communities respectively.
Beginning with 12 Chendas, perhaps the most popular percussion instrument of Kerala, gradually the band introduced other instruments.
“Music is there in our blood and spirit; in our customary rituals and traditions, music and dance are integral,” said Bindu G, the teacher from the Paniya community who's part of Thudithalam.
“Whether it is birth, death, harvest or planting, there is always music in our life,” she said. The band also performs ‘Kambalanatti’, a ritualistic art form.
“The collapse of the clan system hit our culture after the entry of settlers into the tribal lands amid increasing state intervention; through the band we try to inculcate pride among our youngsters. Showcasing our real art forms, we trumpet the grace of our culture to the outer world,” she added.
When queried what is the major element that keeps her close to the band apart from the monetary benefit, she said the opportunity to travel and moving through varied cultural and topographical spheres have helped her mould her character.
“Unlike other girls of her clan who married at a tender age, Bindu is pursuing studies and wants to travel with the band.
“Though we focus on traditional ‘folk songs’ in tune with the modern rhythm, we do sing the popular songs just to stress that we can also perform the songs of the times,”she said.
The ritualistic art forms like Kambalanatti the music dance performance during planting paddy, and Vattakkali, both from Paniya community are part of the performances. The cost of the band at present is Rs 30,000 plus travel and food.
“We would be getting just our wages for the amount, but without the entire team we will not be able to stage the ritualistic performances,” said Prajod CV of Irulam who works as a temporary social worker in the tribal department after completing his master's in social work.
“For a living, we engage in other jobs; music and travel are our passion, perhaps genetically imprinted in our DNA,” said Prajod who bagged the Yuvaprathibha Award of the department of cultural affairs of the state government last year.
Six others have received the diamond jubilee fellowship for young artists instituted by the state government which has ensured a monthly income for them.
According to Prajod, like many others in the community, these youngsters also would have been lost in the abyss of alcoholism if they had not turned to the spirit of music.
How the band came to be
A registered society of tribal youngsters, Thudithalam was conceptualised by Shreyas, an NGO under the Syro Malankara Catholic Diocese based in Sulthan Bathery.
Thudithalam's musical journey began in a tiny office; still, the team members depend on some of the houses of teammates for rehearsals and such as they have no space.
As there are members hailing from tribal hamlets in deep jungles of the district, the need of the band is a space where they could rehearse and stay as going back home late at night through forested zones would be too risky.
Fr Benny Edayath, former assistant director of Shreyas, had groomed the youngsters during the initial years of Thudithalam. Frv Benny expressed his joy that the band is an independent entity now.
“Fourteen years ago, all these youths were children in their adolescence; the band is part of the efforts to bring the children of tribal communities towards education focusing on their cultural strengths – music and dance,” he said.
“In those days, liquor consumption was a curse in tribal settlements; even children were not exempt,” Fr Benny said.
“Initiated by parents themselves to the world of intoxicants at early childhood, by adolescence these children would be addicts. They will be on the verge of death due to ill health in their youths," the priest said.
NABARD too had come up with a project for the promotion of tribal culture with which a few musical instruments were brought. “Now these youngsters themselves train the new members, expand the band and strengthen it by introducing new instruments,” he told Onmanorama.
