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Course10910650020 lectures

Performance Traditions of the Mahabharata in Tamil Nadu

Prof. Sashikanth Ananthachari and Prof. Rajesh Kumar · IIT Madras

Start with lecture 1 At NPTEL

About

In over 300 villages in Tamil Nadu, the Mahabharata is celebrated as a unique festival. The Epic is performed as village rituals, sung/narrated as a story, and enacted right through the night in a traditional masked theater form called the Koothu. It is an immersive experience of the Epic and entire villages relive the Epic for twenty days each year. Each family in the village contributes money for the festival making this possibly the oldest independent theater festival in the world currently.

Intended audience: Students of Performance studies, students of Religious studies, sociologists, Mahabharata scholars.

Lectures

Week 1

  1. A Brief Introduction to the Mahabharata YouTube
  2. A Brief Introduction to the Mahabharata Festivals of Tamil Nadu YouTube

Week 2

  1. The Idea of the Chariot YouTube
  2. The Custodians of the Festival YouTube

Week 3

  1. The Festivals as Total Theatre YouTube
  2. Potturaja and the Anti-War Nature of the Festival YouTube

Week 4

  1. Kelai Draupadai YouTube

Week 5

  1. A brief introduction to Koothu as a theatrical form YouTube
  2. Vil Valaippu, or The bending of the bow YouTube

Week 6

  1. The Marriage ritual of Draupadi YouTube
  2. Subhadra Kalyanam YouTube

Week 7

  1. Rajasuya Yaagam YouTube
  2. Draupadiyin Thugilum, Parandhamanin Arulum YouTube

Week 8

  1. Arjuna’s Tapas YouTube
  2. Kichaka Vadham YouTube

Week 9

  1. Krishnan Thoodu YouTube

Week 10

  1. Aravan Kalabali YouTube

Week 11

  1. Karna Moksham YouTube

Week 12

  1. Pathinettam Por or the Eighteenth Day’s War Dharumarin Pattabhishekam and Ashwamedha Yaagam YouTube
  2. Dharumarin Pattabhishekam and Ashwamedha Yaagam YouTube

Syllabus and materials

At NPTEL, as the course publishes them.

Credits and licence

Institution
IIT Madras
Department
Humanities and Social Sciences
Taught by
Prof. Sashikanth Ananthachari, Prof. Rajesh Kumar
Level
Undergraduate
Language
English
Subjects
Society and politics
Source
NPTEL
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA, as NPTEL states it. Non-commercial use only. NPTEL's terms
Attribution
NPTEL states: "Distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike / CC BY - NC - SA", beside a BY-NC-SA badge.
Who can watch
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