| Among the folks of Kanyakumari district it is a tradition to sing bow-songs on the days of temple festivals in villages. Bow-songs have been performed in the premises of temples as a sacrifice to propitiate the small deities and they seem to be the most flourishing folk performing art in this district. By this art, stories of small deities are narrated before the effigies of the deities till some one devotee belonging to that village gets into frenzy to perform a frenzied dance called Samiyattam in front of the people crowded during the festival. Bow-songs related to the life of heroes, love stories, historical events and stories of epics and puranas, which were once very common in the society, are of rare occurrence today because of the effects of modernization. This paper portrays the historical changes in the tradition of bow-songs in Kanyakumari district. |