Rooted in a long-standing performance practice from Tamil Nadu, Kattaikkuttu combines storytelling, music, costume, and movement to create powerful, all-night performances drawn largely from epic narratives like the Mahabharata. Founded in 1990 by actor, director and playwright Perungattur P. Rajagopal, together with theatre scholar Dr. Hanne M. de Bruin and 15 actors and musicians representing different theatre companies and theatre styles, the Kattaikkuttu Sangam is a not-for-profit initiative that aims to uphold the prestige and quality of the Kattaikkuttu theatre. The Sangam is a member-based association run for and by professional Kattaikkuttu performers.
The preservation and transmission of Kuttu has always been a primary focus of the Kattaikkuttu Sangam. Between 2002 and 2020, the Sangam ran a Gurukulam that combined formal education with Kuttu training. The Gurukulam closed down in 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the Sangam has envisioned itself as an indigenous knowledge centre that preserves and shares Kattaikkuttu’s rich, sensorial, yet often unspoken knowledge and practices with a broader audience, while also establishing a professional Kattaikkuttu training course. This vision has been realised through the launch of a Diploma course for people aged 18 and above who wish to study Kuttu in depth. The programme is designed for theatre artists and performers interested in exploring Kuttu, while also providing fellowships for students who wish to pursue Kattaikkuttu professionally and are in need of financial support.
With the number of senior, traditionally trained performers diminishing quickly, the transfer of Kattaikkuttu’s knowledge is under threat. Furthermore, unlike prominent South Indian traditions such as Kutiyattam, Kathakali, and Yakshagana; Kattaikkuttu remains under-researched and largely absent from mainstream performing arts archives. Hence, through recent funding and collaborations, the Sangam has launched a project to build a Kattaikkuttu Digital Repository and Archive.
This initiative establishes an online, living repository for Kattaikkuttu. The project bridges the theatre’s vibrant present—featuring its current performers, audiences, and live contexts—with efforts to recover aspects of its undocumented history. A core component is a knowledge repository section dedicated to documenting Kattaikkuttu’s holistic pedagogy and multi-media knowledge transfer. Traditionally passed down through generations of performers, this knowledge has lived through practice rather than formal documentation. The archive further reflects an effort to support that tradition of knowledge transmission while also making it accessible in new ways. By bringing together older manuscripts, performance recordings, and visual materials, the collection offers insight into the stories, music, emotional depth, and artistic choices that shape Kattaikkuttu.
Today, the repository and archive are growing into a performance resource and study centre, with a focus on expanding access and outreach so that this living tradition can continue to be learned, shared, and reinterpreted by future generations. The Sangam also remains open to artists, curators, researchers, archivists, designers, photographers and so on, to practice their art, add to our knowledge, and spread the word! We believe that all art forms count equally and should be inclusive and accessible to all.
Year of accreditation: 2026
Main domain(s) of the ngo’s activities: Oral traditions and expressions, Performing arts
Main safeguarding measures: a) identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making), c) promotion, enhancement, d) transmission, (non-) formal education
Main country where the NGO works: India
