the origins of Kathakali dance date back to the late 16th and early 17th century in India.

At
that time, it was given its present name and took on its modern-day characteristics.
However, its roots go back much further into ancient folk arts and classical dances in Kerala.
These ancient folk dances were performed at religious festivals by actors wearing colorful
headdresses, costumes, and elaborate, even ornate, headpieces.

Kathakali shares similarities with all other forms of dance in India. It blends music,
choreography, hand gestures, and vocal narratives to tell stories. The stories are told by
three groups of performers: the actors (who do not speak), the percussionists, and the
vocalists. Traditionally, the actors were all males, but that has evolved so that both men and
women can perform the Kathakali dance.

Sacred theatre had now reached the doors of one of the most powerful forms of story-telling in world theatre.

Kathakali unlocked the mystery of the Sanskrit poems and made them accessible to the wider community.

In the mid 17th century improvements to the performing style of Kathakali were made by Vettathu Raja living north east of Kochi. He introduced several important developments to Kathakali:

1: Two singers to invoke harmony - Pooni Karan and Sindi Karana.

2: The chengila [cymbols] to provide the Tala - beat.

3: The Chenda - a powerful drum originally used in temple rituals and to accompany the Thol Pava Kuttu puppets.

4: The Thiranukuu - a method of introducing the characters in the play from behind a satin curtain, called a Tereshiela, held at the front of the stage.

The King of Kottarakara also made significant changes to Kathakali by introducing Malayalam into the Sanskrit singing and presenting the plays in the temple forecourt so that the local people could

experience them.

Kathakali had now reached the local people and became their doorway into the sacred stories of Hinduism.

The Kottayam King of north Kerala wrote four magnificent stories that became the basis of Kathakali and a requirement of a Kathakali actor to master .