Kerala Kalamandalam

To preserve, promote and develop the classical performing arts of Kerala through systematic training, research, documentation and performance, and to make these traditions accessible to future generations and international audiences.

Deemed university for Kerala's performing arts, training students in Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Mohiniyattam and other classical forms since 1930. The primary institutional force behind the survival and internationalisation of Kerala's classical performing arts.

Kerala Kalamandalam was established on 1 April 1930 at Cheruthuruthy on the banks of the Bharathapuzha river by Mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon, widely considered Kerala's greatest modern poet, who had become alarmed at the decline of Kathakali as the traditional system of royal patronage collapsed. His founding vision was to create a residential gurukul where the knowledge of master artists could be systematically transmitted to a new generation of students outside the patronage system. The institution was initially supported by donations from individuals including the poet himself, the Zamorin of Kozhikode and eventually the Government of Travancore. Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair and later Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair became the iconic teachers whose teaching shaped the modern Kathakali tradition. The institution was taken over by the Government of Kerala in 1958 and received the status of a Deemed University under the UGC in 2006, making it one of India's first universities dedicated exclusively to the performing arts. The institution later expanded its curriculum beyond Kathakali to include Koodiyattam (the UNESCO-recognised Sanskrit theatre tradition), Mohiniyattam, Thullal, percussion instruments including Chenda and Mridangam, and eventually Nangiarkoothu (the solo form of Koodiyattam performed by women of the Nambiar community). Its international touring programme has brought Kerala's classical arts to festival stages across Europe, the United States, Japan and Southeast Asia.