The Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarchi Munnetra Sangam is a grassroots organization that promotes the cultural and economic rights of professional Kattaikkuttu performers. It was established in 1990 by a group of seventeen performers belonging to different Kattaikkuttu theatre companies. At present the Sangam has more than two hundred members who live in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu and the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The Kattaikkuttu Sangam runs the Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School, which provides professional Kattaikkuttu training to underprivileged, rural children in combination with basic education. The Sangam provides a framework within which performers can discuss their professional demands and aspirations. It produces new plays, organizes theatre and other creative workshops, in addition to an annual Kattaikkuttu Festival.
The Kattaikkuttu Sangam is the organizer of the Kuttu Festival 2005 through which it wants to celebrate, together with other performers and its regular audiences, the fact that the organization exists fifteen years. For this special occasion a group of thirty-five performers who act in the nine different Kattaikkuttu performances put up by the Sangam, in addition to co-organizing the event. They special performance group represents actors and musicians drawn from two important Kattaikkuttu styles, that from around Kanchipuram-Cheyyar and that found in the Gingee-Vilupuram area.
2 hours Drupada, the King of the Panchalas, enters. He laments that he has not been able yet to fulfil his vow made earlier to marry his daughter Draupadi to Arjuna. He has heard the news that Duryodhana has burnt down the palace of lacquer in which the Pandavas were staying and he does not know whether they are dead or alive. Drupada summons his astrologer who assures him that the Pandavas and their mother Kunti have escaped alive. Thereupon Vyasa (the author of the Mahabharata) arrives. He informs Drupada that — if he wants his daughter to be married to Arjuna — he should organize a 'self-choice marriage' (svayamvara), challenging the kings of all the fifty-five countries to bend a mighty bow in return for the right to marry Draupadi. Letters of invitation are sent out to all kings and a group of wrestlers is ordered to fetch the bow from the Himalayas..
Draupadi is inconsolable because she believes that her beloved Arjuna has perished in the fire. She tells her girl-friends that, if she cannot marry Arjuna, she will take her own life. Drupada consoles his daughter and tells her about the impending svayamvara. Upon Draupadi's question how he can be so sure that she will get married to Arjuna he assures her that only Arjuna (and Karna) can bend the bow. The bow arrives and is planted at the front left corner of the stage (from the audience's point of view) where it will remain for the entire Mahabharata festival.
The Pandavas learn about the svayamvara from Vyasa and set out to attend the ceremony disguised as Brahmans. The invited kings assemble at Drupada's court and the latter sends his son Dhrstadyumna to fetch his sister and accompany her to the assembly. Draupadi's girl-friends introduce the assembled suitors to Draupadi one by one, praising their qualities, but she is not interested in anyone of them. Then Dhrstadyumna seats his sister right under the bow. One by one the kings, including Duryodhana, try their hands at the bow and fail. During their attempts they boast about their prowess and their readiness to marry the girl while pulling the string that has been attached to the top of the bow trying to bend it. Karna comes close but fails, too, because Krishna secretly severs the bow string, knocking Karna to the ground.
Arjuna enters and asks Dhrstadyumna whether also a Brahman can try. He is told to go ahead, bends the bow and ties the rope around its stem. Guessing who he is, Draupadi gets up to garland him. Dhrstadyumna intervenes and tells Arjuna he can have his sister only when he successfully shoots the 'fish contraption'. This test involves the shooting through the eye of a fish, which has been suspended at the top of the bow, while the marksman aims at the shape of the fish reflected in a vessel of water below the bow. Of course, Arjuna passes the test. The four other Pandavas appear and the marriage takes place. Stirred up by Duryodhana and Karna, who feel that the Brahman's victory is an insult to the Ksatriyas, the kings present attack the disguised Pandavas. The latter defeat them and take Draupadi to their mother, Kunti. Arjuna tells her that he has brought a kanni, a 'girl'. Kunti, apparently having heard him say kani ('fruit'), tells Arjuna that he shall share this fruit equally with his other four brothers. Thus Draupadi becomes the common wife of the five the Pandavas.
Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarchi Munnetra Sangam & Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School
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