MYTH AND PERFORMANCE: A POLYTHEISTIC STUDY OF ONAPPOTTAN

This paper titled “Myth and Performance: A Polytheistic Study of Onappottan” is a study on the performative perambulator Onappottan who is a regional version of a myth and the psycho social influences of the performance in a group psyche. Onappottan , who visits houses in association with the Onam season in Malabar (the northern part of Kerala) is a regional performance which is seen as a version of Mahabali, the king who is the causal character of the season in Kerala mythology. The paper tries to take a psychological mythical study about the performance. The archetypal image of the performance is analyzed and seen how the image in collective consciousness is brought to performance. The paper tries to study the point at where the performance takes the aura and stance of a deity and how it sheds the individuation. The methodology used is the Polytheistic Mythological Studies propounded by the acclaimed post Jungian psychoanalyst, James Hillman. Carl Jung talks about the universal images imprinted in human minds universally across cultures. It analyses how mythical performances transcends the rigidities of religion and regionalism and how it addresses humanity as such. The willing suspension of disbelief and the impersonation of the character happens literally in the context of a performance. Onappottan shows how the polytheistic concept of religion addresses the variances of psyches both in individual and group levels. Psychological Myth Studies researches the aetiology of performances, and the paper tries to trace out the latent performance objectives from the point collective polytheistic myth as propounded by James Hillman.