Elements of Religious theatre in Kerala combine various types of features in Kerala entertainment. The purely religious variety may be better termed the Bhagavti mela Cult variety, because in all these the glorification of the Bhagavathi is the main object. It has also been mentioned that in many of these varieties, the Komaram plays a very important part. He is a personage connected with almost all important Bhagavati shrines in our parts. His other name is Veliccapatu, and he is looked upon as the earthly representative of the Goddess and when he is possessed, he is generally accorded all the honours given to the deity herself. The Komaram identifies himself with the Goddess and thus becomes in fact by enthusiasm literally filled with the Goddess. Herein is found in short a very crude kind of Goddess impersonation on the part of the worshipper. The performance is conducted by day in some varieties, while many of them are held during night, sometimes lit up by the moonlight but always by lamps and torches. Further, the main centre of interest is not so much the representation, as the Bhagavati shrine or the figure drawn of the Goddess in relief-painting in some prominent place. Furthermore, there is absolutely no effort made at any scenic effect, while the place and time are denoted by mere words or proper gestures. Thus it will be seen that Bhagavati cult dances, music and acting are entirely a religious function and a religious act, with the requisite religious solemnity pervading the whole performance, but with this difference, namely that the audience is bent upon enjoying it. It is also interesting to point out that the songs, the dances and rude pantomime acting; all these are hung on to a tragic story, the destruction of Darika by goddess Kali.

Thus there is the simple act of worship, broadening into a drama. There is also the process of the humanization of Gods. And last, but not least, comes the mythological nature of the subject which hangs on to a tragic story and which has special reference to national cults and cult-acts. An intensive study of these from a comparative point of view is sure to yield some useful results which may throw some more light on the problem of the origin of theatrical representations.

In Kali`s destruction of Darika one is tempted to find not a nature or vegetation myth. This can be associated with Hero-worshipping the hero or heroine who rescued the place from the oppression of a wicked demon. When, however, it is remembered that Kali fights her battle with sword and shield and Darika with sticks, it is tempting enough to search for in this the pre-historic clash between the earlier wood age and the later Iron Age.