The Kathakali Explorer

Book excerpt: The Kathakali Explorer is about the work and life of two ethnologists who traveled extensively in the colonial India and documented various aspects of the Indian arts, languages and the South-Indian literature, and the people’s way of life. They authored the first monograph ever written on the Kathakali dance theater of Kerala following a whole-night performance they attended in Kottayam (Kerala) on January 14, 1916. This document is translated in the book with an introduction and annotations, followed by a travelogue kept by the two researchers about their life and work in India, the people they befriended on their tireless journey all the way from South India to Kashmir. About the publication of the monograph by A. Merwart in 1926 It (the monograph) reveals the outstanding fact that ethno-choreography came into being even before 1933, the publication date of Curt Sachs’ ‘Weltgeschlchte des Tanzes.’ The author (Merwart) describes the Kathakali dance drama in detail… He relates the drama to the culture in an authoritative manner. KURATH Gertrude P. (1963). Ethnomusicology 7(2): 141 – 142. The monograph assuredly stands out as a landmark in the entire range of substantive literature on Kathakali. KHOKAR M. (1997). Sruti (148, Jan.1997): 19 – 22.