Festivals of Kerala

That the foundations of Indian culture were deeply embedded in Dravidian culture is now an incontrovertible fact. Dravidian culture is one Of the most ancient cultures of the world. Those cultures, slightly contemporaneous to one another, slowly started fading out. However, the primordial Dravidian culture continues to thrive without losing its quintessence despite the apparent changes in systems of dress and address.

Dravidian University was established in 1997 to mirror the real and rich picture of Dravidian culture not only in its linguistic, literary, cultural and philosophical facets but in science and technological angles also.

The main objectives of Dravidian University are to augment the common weal and social well being of the communities of marginal languages and to build bridges among the Southern states. While working on each language separately in varied areas, it aims at a synthesis and a discovery of the common heritage through Comparative Studies.

Prasardnga (Publications wing) and Anus jana (Translation Bureau) are the two most significant wings of the University from out of its several on going progressive activities.

Festivals are the landmarks of the human gratitude to nature and also the celebration of the Culturo-Historical events. They are the expressions of simple joy and gracious participation contentment and reverence. They reflect our reverence to the cultural heroes of the by gone ages and express the philosophy of the celebration of life.

Festivals of Kerala deals with the representative festivals celebrated by various social groups in Kerala. Most of these festivals are related to the agricultural life which is slowly getting replaced by the modern life. The author brings out not only the important features of the festival but also narrates the process of its transformation.

Festivals are important for maintaining a social structure, where different social units interact with one another. Even when they are centred around metaphysical and religious elements, most of them create a domain of secular and social interaction. In the feudal society, the festivals played an important role in distributing the wealth and creating a sense of egalitarianism.

Dravidian University has chalked out a programme of publishing monographs on all the major and minor tribes of the Dravidian family of languages and the four Dravidian states highlighting their socio- cultural aspects. Establishing museums for each of them and preparing grammars and comprehensive descriptive lexicons is another ambitious project of the University. All this is going to materialise with the proposed centre for Preservation of Endangered Dravidian Languages.

The present monograph takes a glance at the various festivals celebrated in Kerala. The glossary, index and bibliography appended may help the scholars to gather a lot more information. We expect that this monograph may be well received by our readers.