A guest being welcomed at Aranmula shall be in for a surprise, the hosts shall take them along singing in a chorus. They clap hands, sway in a slow grace and sing lyrics that are known to all. For the people living on the banks of the river Pampa singing Vanchi Pattu is no luxury to be indulged at leisure. They sing praying, eating, welcoming a guest, at marriages, you name it and they do it. Vanchi Pattu, word coming from Vanchi or boat, boat song, is with a fast pace and seen by the outside world at boat races. It is so common in the Aranmula area that most of the auspicious occasions the men sing in unison, they kind of start singing whenever the situation demands, just give a trigger and the chorus begins.
It is mostly songs from’Kuchela Vritham’ that they sing. They take an appropriate couplet from the book, suitable for the occasion. There are also other works including Ramayana, written in Vanchi Pattu style by unknown authors. Welcoming the guest one shall hear couplets from epic stories that celebrate the gods, the guests shall be flattered hearing it.
It says:
‘Vanna Neram Ethirettu
Anandamode Pooja Cheythu
Vannathin Karanamellam Arulicheythen
‘Thei thei … thaka thei thei thom …’
It says that the guest after arrival was worshipped with bliss, then told about the purpose of the visit. There are similar lines used for various other occasions. At times they also innovate. At marriages the groom is welcomed by Vanchi Pattu. That is all apart from the singing seen at the boat races. In the ritual boat, Thiruvona Thoni, it is the Lord’s praise that is the theme. At the boat race each time they throw the oar the music gives the harmony. The men folk in Aranmula region grow up with songs, they learn them at an young age. Break out singing at short notice, that all of them, together. To take a sequence:
Main singer sings: ‘Paranja thangane thanney …’ when the oarsmen completes the rest: ‘Thei thei … thaka thei thei thom …’ This repeats with the singer changing the lines, the boat moves fast when the pace of the singer goes up, so also down. It works as a device of timing, the precise coordinated movements that one sees in the boat races are made possible by the singing. They row in rhythm of the pattu. Standing on the platform in the middle of the boat the main singer leads the Vanchipattu.
A few singers will be with the main leader while others will stand at the middle between the oarsmen. The singers lead what the oarsmen keep repeating and they move the oars in circles according to its rhythm. There are also songs that are romantic, those that make fun of people, and other assorted varieties. It is a temple centred culture that thrived in Aranmula where everyone, without exceptions sang and danced. The women had their own graceful songs and dances, like Thiruvathirakali and those in farm lands sang Njattu Pattu. While planting paddy seedlings, njaru nadeel, they sang their own songs to make work a pleasure. Perhaps some time in between the social divisions and prejudices crept in and the latter got lowered in status but remained, what is presently getting promoted. The earth people are once again singing and the chorus and the earth goddess rejoices. Thus songs and dances are part of everyone at Aranmula, it is an apex agrarian culture with a fair element of warrior traits.
The boats, excellent naval architecture from antiquity, were also once meant to ferry warriors. And this could be a reason why people say that the banks of the river Pampa here, there is an atmosphere of peace, a meditative quality. The harmony of man and nature remains, despite odds they withstood. And by default it is also a shared culture across Kerala in the native culture. What, perhaps, also keeps Kerala green.
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