Replicating the indigenous spirit of India, the ‘Land of Festivals’ and a melting pot of many cultures, myths and traditions, Tulunadu and Malenadu region is also the land of diversity of faith and beliefs. The emotional quotient connects the spiritual facet, called ‘Bhoota Kola’, the aboriginal ritual practice that I have been covering for a decade.

In Tulu language, the meaning of ‘Bhoota’ is ‘spirit’ and ‘Kola’ is ‘play’. In the legacy of Indian ‘Little Tradition’, which is contrary to its nomenclature while having vast spectrum of local customs, rites, rituals, dialects, a few spirits, viz Panjurli, accompanied by his sister Varthe, Kalluri, Kalkuda, Kordhabbu, Guliga, Jarandaya, Bobbarya, are worshipped for protecting the village from calamities and making it prosperous. Involving dance, music, recital, and elaborate attire, a person from a specific clan acts as the medium for the spirit that invocates momentarily. The traditional performer of the Bhoota or Daiva usually wears a robe and a skirt of tender palm leaves which is simply inflammable and helps them to execute acts with fire. The area is spruced up with flowers, mainly jasmine, and also Crossandra.

My lens captures the world of Bhoota Kola that is intrinsic to the province located picturesquely between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. Bhoota Kola, and Theyyam and Thira of Northern part of Malabar in Kerala are considered sister rituals. The fulcrum of my shooting expedition was the conundrum of true faith, the timeless riddle: what is faith? What is coherent? By what means is it articulated? How is it appreciated? I tried to capture the limitations of my understanding on the esoteric subject of age-old practice. Despite differences in attire and face-painting, in the bordering regions of Kerala and Karnataka they often fuse together. Even the dialects of the myths intoned in the borders are a mix of Tulu and Malayalam languages.

It provides the photographers with an almost immeasurable variety of cultural experiences. The region served as the centre of learning for ages, as some of the world’s oldest civilizations originated here. So the photography of this discipline, born with a plethora of perceptions, must be measured out with the output of its own remarkable fidelity to the mystic spirituality. From its stunning variations of attire to its multiple cultures of aboriginal dance, Bhoota Kola is a sensory-rich experience to capture. More than just a hypnotic encounter, its many imaginative and cultural expressions are a reflection of the land, people, religion, and values of the region.

The territory of myths, rituals and deities is part of a contiguous topography and culture, is obviously a desired destination for any photographer. Frankly speaking, my photography that covered Bhoot Kola events was initiated with a good will of malapropism, as I thought of creating a metonymic depiction of the age-old tradition; but it surrogated with a surrealistic mythopoeia. Even now, during my recent visit, I comprehended that Bhoota Kola and Theyyam embed the daily lives of folks, across caste andclass divides. They believe that all positive and negative things in life are affected by the local deities, who are knotted to the land. The world of these deities thus always endures and emerges embodied in the kola during the ceremony.

Besides a yawning respect for long-lasting forms of conventional shooting, my dealings touted the rationality of subjective experience at Bhoota Kola; and it foreshadowed the idiosyncrasies of unique experience. My voyage to the event, I must say, is practical, yet vain; logical, yet free-wheeling. And it is not paradoxical but an absolute dichotomy expressed by photography influenced by surrealism.