Paolo Pacciolla

Here I start sharing my experiences. I do it from Kerala, the beautiful green land which has been hosting me for the last few years, showing her numerous faces and contrasts. A land of fascinating and extremely interesting arts and ritual performances. A land of Brahmanical temples and non-Brahmanical shrines whose rituals involve different kinds of priests and rituals along with a variety of performing arts and musical instruments.

I reached Kerala after twenty years of study and fieldwork in Northern India and Orissa, where I first landed in India. My main interest was the pakhavaj, the medieval most important version of the ancient mridanga, the drum described in the Natyasastra (2^nd BCE-4^th CE), the Sanskrit treatise on theatre and associated arts, and represented in a number of bas reliefs.

In this blog I will share experiences and thoughts I had during my travels in the arts, culture and living in India.   

Photos by Paolo Pacciolla