<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kathakalakshepam literally means narrating the stories of ancient text in a comprehensive manner to the common people. It is a form of discourse combining music and dramatic elements. The performer narrates, enacts and comments on episodes and themes from the mythological lore of India in a lucid manner. It demands theological and literary competence of the performer. Acquaintance with the epics, ancient texts, resourcefulness are imperative as also the ability to project the subject through the medium of music, spoken words and enactment.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->When I was in India last, I watched a few such performances on TV and also attended live versions (parts of Mahabharatam). The one on TV had a lady narrating the Kumarasambhavam in Tamil and Samskritam and then singing bits in Tamil and Samskritam. Magnificent. Will never forget.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->if you are looking for the origin of the term, its from Sanskrit.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->There are a great many Tamil words that are from Samskritam - even after that terrorist bishop Caldwell desecrated Tamil by purging it of some of its Samskritam-derived words.
Both the Tamil-Tamil words and the surviving Tamil-Samskrit words allow me to occassionally understand little bits of Telugu and Kannada. I understand some few words or statements of stories narrated in Samskritam - again, only because of Tamil. But I'm not as good in this as Telugu- and Kannada-speaking people are.
That's reminded me of something. When I was very little and I could hardly understand any language, my father used to tell me stories in Samskritam and Kannada and Tamil (since it didn't matter what language he chose anyway). I remember trying hard to understand him; they sounded very exciting. But I never knew what they were about at the time. Years afterwards, it turned out they were taken from the Puranas or were from the background history of local temples; and sometimes he had made up his own stories about animals and magical creatures. When I was older, it was usually only Tamil or he would translate any stories he told in Samskritam or Kannada back into Tamil.
My mother read stories out to us. And both of them (as well as other relatives) would sing to us - it was the only way to get children to go to sleep, after all. Very nice memories. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->if you are looking for the origin of the term, its from Sanskrit.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->There are a great many Tamil words that are from Samskritam - even after that terrorist bishop Caldwell desecrated Tamil by purging it of some of its Samskritam-derived words.
Both the Tamil-Tamil words and the surviving Tamil-Samskrit words allow me to occassionally understand little bits of Telugu and Kannada. I understand some few words or statements of stories narrated in Samskritam - again, only because of Tamil. But I'm not as good in this as Telugu- and Kannada-speaking people are.
That's reminded me of something. When I was very little and I could hardly understand any language, my father used to tell me stories in Samskritam and Kannada and Tamil (since it didn't matter what language he chose anyway). I remember trying hard to understand him; they sounded very exciting. But I never knew what they were about at the time. Years afterwards, it turned out they were taken from the Puranas or were from the background history of local temples; and sometimes he had made up his own stories about animals and magical creatures. When I was older, it was usually only Tamil or he would translate any stories he told in Samskritam or Kannada back into Tamil.
My mother read stories out to us. And both of them (as well as other relatives) would sing to us - it was the only way to get children to go to sleep, after all. Very nice memories. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->