About
Welcome to the digital gallery of Kathakali. We are group 34 from University of Hong Kong showing you our efforts on the digital preservation of Kathakali.
What is this digital gallery about?
Kathakali is a traditional dance drama from Kerala. It was developed during mid 17th century. Although Kathakali appears to not have a tremendously long history, the dance drama in fact has many old-age origins. It emerged from Krishnanattan, another form of dance drama and temple art. Krishnanattan was created by Sri Manavedan Raja in Sanskrit language, in the Zamorin of Calicut during 1585-1658 AD.
The Kathakali performance integrates drumming, singing, cymbals, and dance marked by specific body stances, hand gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. The epic stories come from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavata Purana. There are four separate dramatic elements of Kathakali which are Aharyabhinaya (costume, makeup, and accessories), Vachikabhinaya (stage production and songs), Angikabhinaya (mudras/hand gestures) and Satvikabhinaya (the expression of psychic states associated with emotions). Our collections which you can explore will be based on these four dramatic elements.
Why preserve Kathakali through this digital gallery?
Kathakali is a well-known and celebrated dance drama in the South of India. Moreover, Kathakali is gaining global recognition through the popularity of Indian dance festivals worldwide as well as the development of training centres dedicated in Kathakali such as in Europe and the United States of America. We hope that through creating this digital gallery, users can have an easy accessibility and great convenience to explore, research and get inspired by Kathakali.
Lastly, enjoy browsing our digital gallery and may your browse be a fruitful one.