Kottarakkara - Etymology

Etymology

Kottarakkara, a compound word made up of the words Kottaram, meaning "palace", and kara meaning "land", literally means "land of palaces". The area which had several palaces was thus named "Kottarakkara."

Kathakali traced its origin to the ritualistic (tantric) period of the Vedic Age and connected its growth from the popular, folk dance dramas.It was believed that Kathakali was conceived from Krishnanattam, the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by the Samoothirippadu (Samoothiri, Swamy Thirumulpad or Zamorin) of Calicut. The legend is as follows: Once Kottarakkara Thampuran the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by the tone of the Krishnanattam requested the Samoothirippadu for the loan of a troupe of performers on the eve of some festive occasion. Due to internal feuds and political rivalry between them, the Samoothirippadu refused to send the performers and insulted with the remarks: “It is useless to depute the troupe, because Kottarakkara Thespian’s court would be neither able to appreciate nor understand anything of the highly artistic Krishnanattam and the high standard of the performance”. Here the political rivalry between the two chieftains leads to the art rivalry. So Kottarakkara Thampuran initiated a parallel mode of entertainment, which he called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha, and yet later into Kathakali. While Krishnanattam is based on the stories of Lord Krishna’s activities, Ramanaattam described the complete story of Lord Raman. Krishnanattam was written in Sanskrit, “the language of the Gods”. Ramanaattam was in Malayalam, the language of the people. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called Manipravalam), has also helped the literature of Kathakali become more understandable for the average audience. By the end of the seventeenth century, the finished product of Ramanaattam was placed before the world under the title Kathakali.