The Tamil Nadu government has decided to launch diploma courses on villupattu and folk music at the Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts University. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has also indicated the government’s plan (to start the courses).
Responding to the request of carnatic vocalist and Magsaysay Award winner T.M. Krishna to launch courses to teach such music, Mr. Stalin said in a Facebook post that it would be considered.
“There are a lot of differences between carnatic music and folk music. The government should launch a graduate course to teach folk art forms, including parai aatam and koothu. If carnatic music is important, other forms of music are equally important too,” Mr. Krishna had said at the convocation of the university recently.
K. Manivasan, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments Department, said that the government had decided to launch diploma courses in villupattu and folk music. He said 20 students would be admitted to each course (villupattu and folk music) and the government had allotted ₹45 lakh for the purpose. “This is the first time that folk art forms are [going] to be formally taught in a university. We are in the final stage of launching the courses and the orders will be issued soon,” he added.
Folklorist A.K. Perumal, who studied villupattu or bow song for his doctoral thesis, said the earliest reference to villupattu could be found in Mukkoodal Pallu, a literary work of the 18th Century. “Viralividu Thoothu, another minor literary work also talks about spending money on villupattu and kaniyaan koothu. The art must have existed 500 years ago...,” he said.
Stuart Blackburn, western Tamil scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London too has done extensive research on villupattu and written a book, Song of Birth and Death.Mr. Perumal further said that around 120 villupattu troupes were in Kanniyakumari, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Virudhunagar districts. “Around 160 stories are performed through villupattu during kodai (annual festival of folk deities) and the earliest text on the story of Sudalai Madan, the deity of graveyar was published in 1896,” he said.
