Telling Theyyam Forms Apart: Twelve You Are Likely to See

You watch three forms in one night and they blur together: red cloth, huge headdresses, fire, drums. Being able to name a Theyyam form changes the experience, because each one carries its own story and you start following what is happening rather than just looking at it.

Here are twelve Theyyam forms you are likely to see in north Malabar, grouped by what they have in common. Names, details and the exact look of a form vary between shrines and regions, so treat this as a guide for recognition rather than a fixed rulebook. When in doubt, ask someone at the kaavu. People are usually glad to explain. You will only meet these forms during the dry months when the season runs.

Deity forms you will meet most often

• Muthappan. The most widely worshipped form in the Kannur area, appearing as a pair, Thiruvappana and Vellattam. Compared with the huge festival kolams, the look is restrained. Toddy and fish are part of the offering tradition, which tells you a lot about who this deity belongs to.
• Vishnumoorthi. Linked to the Narasimha story. Fierce face paint, a tall headdress and, at many shrines, a fire sequence where the performer enters a heap of embers. Often one of the last forms of the night.
• Bhagavathi forms. A family of goddess forms rather than one, with red dominant, a broad circular or towering headdress, and a bearing that is regal rather than wild.
• Raktha Chamundi. A fierce goddess form, red from head to foot, associated with blood and battle. Movement is heavy and deliberate.

Fire forms

• Thee Chamundi. Enters and rolls through a bed of burning embers, repeatedly, supported by attendants. The most physically demanding thing many visitors will ever watch.
• Ottakolam. A single, unaccompanied form performed at certain shrines, with the strange stillness that comes from having no second figure on the ground.

Fire is not decoration in these forms. It is the point of the rite, and the crowd is moved back before it begins. Stay behind the line people put you behind.

Hero and ancestor forms

• Kathivanoor Veeran. The story of a young man who left home after a quarrel, married, and died in battle far away. The form carries weapons, and the performance includes moments of grief that are recognisably human rather than divine.
• Kandanar Kelan. A hero who died in a forest fire. The form involves fire, and the story is enacted in a way that follows a plot from beginning to end.
• Wayanadu Kulaven. A hunting and forest linked form, with a distinctive headdress and a story that travels between the highlands and the coast.
• Pottan Theyyam. The best known of the socially pointed forms. The story stages an argument about caste with a figure of authority, spoken aloud in front of everyone. Includes a fire sequence at many shrines.

Attendant and guardian forms

• Gulikan. A guardian associated with time and death, dark in colour, low and heavy in movement, often appearing to clear the ground before or alongside other forms.
• Kuttichathan. A quick, mischievous figure with a smaller headdress and darting movement, connected with household protection.

How to tell them apart quickly

Four things do most of the work.

• The headdress, or mudi. Height, shape and material differ sharply between forms. Some are taller than a house wall, some are a modest circle behind the head.
• Face paint. The pattern drawn on the face belongs to the form and is applied over hours before it appears.
• What the figure carries. A sword, a shield, a torch or nothing at all.
• Behaviour. Does the form speak to individual devotees, enter fire, dance in a fixed circuit, or act out a story with other performers.

A practical note for the night

Forms do not appear in a random order. Preliminary appearances, often called thottam or vellattam, come first, with the performer in partial costume singing the story of the deity. The full kolam of the same deity appears later. If you see a modest figure singing early in the evening and a towering one at two in the morning, you may be watching the same deity twice.

Get the running order from someone at the shrine when you arrive, note the two or three forms you most want to see, and sleep in between if you can. The night has its own shape, and the heaviest forms sit late in it.