Paper short abstract:

Ritual music and dance have traditionally framed worship in Hindu temples. 'MURAI' researches, documents and supports the Intangible Heritage of Tamil melakkarar. Their family repertoires, manuscripts, oral histories and contemporary praxes form its point of departure.

Paper long abstract:

* General appreciation of ritual music and dance has differed through the ages. In1947, three months after India's Independence, dance reached its lowest point when dedication of women and their performance in temples were forbidden by law. The Devadasi Act coincided with forceful transfer of this professional,female heritage to an amateur national and global stage. Such drastic disenfranchisement continues to affect the entire community of melakkarar. Today music for ritual dance can be heard only in temples but its accompanying dance is no longer to be seen.

* 'MURAI - the Right to Perform' aims to safeguard the heritage of musical and dance by melakkarar performing artists in several ways: firstly, by recording and editing their repertoire to enhance public awareness of the implicit force of music and dance in structuring Hindu rituals and Cosmologies.Secondly, by sharing these findings through lectures, workshops, conferences and other media. Thirdly, by experimental adapatations of melakkaraar music for dance in situ, where contemporary and hereditary artists meet, share and create a new relevance, vitality and sustained interest in the expertise and well-being of these professional communities.

* In collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, nomination of Melakkarar Performing Arts as Intangible Cultural Heritage is sought under terms of the ICH UNESCO Convention, 2003.