The woman who makes Theyyam costumes in a ritual art long reserved for men

In the Theyyam season in north Kerala, a woman artisan from Kannayi Mukkottu, near Payyannur, spends her days making the costumes and ornaments worn by the performers, a craft she learned from her father.

Theyyam, the ritual art form of north Malabar, is performed in sacred groves and family shrines from about October to May. The performers, traditionally men from particular communities, become the deity for the duration of the ritual, in towering headdresses, painted faces and elaborate costumes of palm fronds, cloth and metal.

The costumes and ornaments are themselves part of the ritual and are made by hand, often by families who have done the work for generations, and the craft has been almost entirely a male preserve. She now sustains it as a specialised and highly regarded artisan.

Her story is part of a slow change in Kerala’s ritual arts, where women are taking on roles behind the scenes, even as performance itself remains a male tradition.