Prahallada Nataka
Folk Arts | Ganjam, Odisha
Ganjam’s Prahallada Nataka has long been one of my most adored folk forms of Odisha, even though I have never myself had the fortune to see its performance physically. The spectacular Prahallada Nataka is a traditional folk-theatre from Odisha which enacts the tale of Vishnu’s man-lion ‘Nrusingha’ form.
This small (subtitled) clip I made shows how the actor playing Nrusingha might turn uncontrollably violent when the god ‘enters’ his body. This possessed behaviour is called kālisi, probably from the word ‘Kali’ for the goddess. Actors may be prepared for this to different levels but no actor is able to contain Nrusingha’s force. Modern day kalisi is milder. This would happen in the earlier days only to the most talented and knowledgeable artists. Nowadays, most of them are half-baked.
In these performances, the mask is key; it is ceremonially worshipped the night before. If it is not, Nrusingha will not ‘come’ it is said. Also depends on the actor’s purity; Nrusingha is said to not manifest entirely when the actor is not pure enough to be his ‘container’.
They originally used iron-claws for the Nrusingha actor, but it is said that one time the actor was so highly ‘possessed’ that he actually tore apart and killed the Hiranyakasipu actor on stage. He remembered nothing after his mask was removed. Since then, the iron claws have never been used again and there are always 5–6 people ready to hold back the Nrusingha actor to prevent mishaps.
The psychology angle
I was fortunate enough to have the psychology angle cleared up by a professional. Here’s his response-
Also notice how Nrusingha immediately calms down from his frantic violent movements the minute Prahallada’s song starts. I find it rather clever that the story we listen already has Prahallada’s song as a check mechanism in case the trance gets out of hand. :)
Music
Folk or Classical?
This is an art that is equally classical as it is folk. You can see the lengthened gamakas, that is a Dakhini Odissi feature. It is shrill and intentionally so; these troupes often have 2 people singing at 2 scales. Each song in fact has raga and tala prescribed and they even do aalapas and gamakas. I have tried in vain to recreate their gamakas many times; that simply won’t fit within whatever I know until now.
Mukha-bina
The shehnai-like wind instrument is the mukha-bina and it is a compulsory element of Prahallada-Nataka. It makes this form distinct.
The above video is from a 1985 recording and hence, might be of very low quality. For some good-quality photographs of Prahallada Nataka, browse through Ramesh Lalwani’s Flickr.
Some of the ideas expressed above have been elaborately described by the very few researchers who have given Prahallada Nataka the rigorous scholarly attention it deserves. The foremost of them in my opinion are Late Surendra Balabantaray and John Emigh.
What I have written is from my interaction with artists of Prahallada Nataka and people who have seen it being performed and from the works of the aforesaid researchers.
