Tappeta Gullu

Understand

Where Tappeta Gullu comes from

Tappeta Gullu is the drum-and-ritual-dance of the Gond and Golla fisherman communities of the Krishna-Guntur coast of Andhra Pradesh, performed at the major festival of Bonalu and at the village-procession of the deity. The dance is associated with the mediumistic possession of the female performer (the potter or the fisher-community woman) by the village goddess (the Bonam) — the form is a ritual possession-trance dance of the coastal Andhra. The dance is documented as one of the most distinctive festivals of coastal Andhra (Bonalu being the larger state festival of the Telugu lands celebrated at Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar and the coastal districts of Andhra). The dance is performed by the women of the community and is marked by a particular form of drumming on the tappeta (a kettle-drum).

How it's practiced

Tappeta Gullu is performed by women of the Gandla community in a circling formation around the tappeta-drum, with the dancing pattern following the tempo of the central drum. The dance includes the state of possession by the village deity and is performed in the courtyard of the deity's shrine. The accompanying music is the tappeta (a large kettle-drum), the dhol and the small cymbal. Costume is the colourful everyday coastal Andhra dress — the sari of the women, with the heavy silver jewellery of the community and the regional belt (the vaaki). Performances run for several hours, with the trance-trance peaking at the climactic moment of the goddess's possession.