Stories

Pūtana Mōkṣam

The Pūtana Mōkṣam story describes how the she-demon Pūtana attempts to kill the infant god Lord Kṛṣṇa at the behest of King Kamsa. Transformed into a beautiful woman she experiences a great number of - sometimes very humorously described - adventures while on her way to Krishna. On seeing the gorgeous child she initially hesitates - only to then follow through on her destined path and kill Krishna with poison. He suckles from her breast, first drinking the poison and continuing on to actually drain her of her life. Pūtana takes on the shape of a demon again and dies while trying to tear Krishna from her breast.

At the beginning of the text one can hear some lines in which social criticism is expressed. They relate to the mythological belief that we are currently in the Kaliyuga era. A sign of this can be seen in the fact that wickedness and evil keeps spreading throughout the world. Here I diverge from the original text by the poet Kunchan Nambiar. He describes the society of his age, the Kerala of the 18th century. Consequently, I tell of the "little instances" from Germany in the here and now.

Pūtana Mōkṣam belongs to the most popular stories in the world of Indian theatre and dance and can be admired in all kinds of performances on stage. Nambiar wrote them in the Śῑtankan Thullal style which I have been performing in my German version since May of 1996.