Puthumana_the Guruji of thidambu nritham

-Rameshan M P

Kanhangad town is a municipality in the northernmost district of Kerala, the place in which many great artists were born. Chemmattamvayal is a small village in the east side of the town in which many developments are still to come. Many do not know that a noteworthy revolution of thidambu nritham, from a less popular temple ritual to a worldwide dance form happened here from beginning to end with Puthumana Govindan Namboothiri. His name is mentioned always in Kerala, whenever and wherever there is a mention about temple dance. There were many generations of other arts such as Kathakali before who were methodically taught folk dances also in Malabar. The intent of these groups were to keep on the tradition and the popularity of those artists was restricted to those villages to name a few. Another reason was that the venues were few staged inside the temple boundaries. In the beginnings, puthumana was not given enough prospects and was heavily discriminated despite being an intellect and proficient in thidambu nritham. He became a thidambu nritham artist after in front of quite a number of bitter experiences.

Puthumana started learning fundamentals matching with learning and school incoming at 5. He was passionate right from start and in few months learned all verbal commands in thidambu nritham, which was very quick. Govindan namboothiri started to mimic thidambu nritham steps in the intervals and at home. He was also attracted to kathakali dance to watch in many stages. He had the tendency of presenting few movements he watched from temple to perform before classmates, such was his excitement for thidambu nritham. During school studies period only, puthumana was meticulous in thidambu nritham methods by observation learning. After finishing basic school, his financial condition at home was very poor and conditions in temples were also poor. Puthumana was characteristically trained in thidambu nritham and got opportunities to do it at temple surroundings, paid from few stages and non-paid from most of stages. He lived for thidambu nritham dance the last years and on no account sold his dance for making a living.

Puthumana is moving at the top of temple dance and is very dynamic in presenting thidambu nritham at temples. Many big artists of the 20th century in kathakali, ottanthullal, chakyarkoothu of kerala left this world, however, even today,  for puthumana’s thidambu nritham there will be very big crowd and rush the whole time. All the achievements by Puthumana Govindan Namboothiri came to him through customary practice and commitment. His every instant is with thidambu nritham. Today, Puthumana is a popular dancer in India by his own talents, without press on by any godfathers, without help of any group or troupe and without attending an established organization. He questions predisposition of artists to duplicate other different dance steps, whether kathakali or bharatnatyam. Puthumana took thidambu nritham in shoulders and simplified the conceptions for understanding of an ordinary viewer. Several footsteps have come into bud from him over these years which speculate spectators. Due to Puthumana’s involvement for over 55 years, spectators in temple and outer show interest to see it again. He shared the knowledge to all the generations of people in public stages. Thidambu nritham legend Puthumana Govindan Namboothiri’s contribution to Indian temple dance is also huge.