Ritual As A Performing Art A Sociological Analysis Of ‘Tukkam’ In Kerala

This paper tries to understand a ritual called tukkam in Manarkadu temple in Kerala. The temple is located in Kottayam district. It explains the social process of transformation of ritual and its practices. Narrating the ritual process of Manarkadu tukkam, the paper locate a local history of the ritual and its artistic performance. Further, it delineates the historical-social process of transformation of ritual to performing art. As a traditionally embedded ritual, tukkam has been shifted to as an art for which special training institutions are formed to teach the ritual to perform any place which is not a ritual space too. Thus, paper takes us to understand ritual on the one hand and the transformation to art on the other.