In August, when the monsoons begin to abate, there’s feverish activity in the coastal villages of Kerala, that are home to the famous chundan vallam or snake boats.
The boats are repaired, oiled and decorated to participate in vallamkali or boat races, one of the main attractions of the harvest festival of Onam.
Boat racing is symbolic of the seafaring and martial traditions of the early inhabitants of Kerala. The chundan vallam is so called because it resembles a long snake. Its stern looks like the raised hood of a snake. More than 60 metres long, it can accommodate a hundred oarsmen, besides helmsmen and singers, who stand on a small platform in the centre of the boat. While the singers sing, drums beat and cymbals clang, the rowers on either side dip and flash their oars to the fast beat of the vanchipaatu (song of the boatmen) which goes Theyare theya theyare theya they they they they tho…….
The biggest and most popular of the boat races is the Nehru Trophy Boat Race. It is conducted on the second Saturday of August at Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha (or Allepey, a district, known as the ‘Venice of the East’ because of its lakes and lagoons).
The race was first held to commemorate Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to Kerala in 1952. Panditji was immensely pleased with the race arranged in his honour, and when he returned to Delhi, he got a silver trophy made in the shape of a chundan, and sent to the winners of the race.
The race lasts more than three hours. Thousands of people, tourists included, throng the specially erected floating platforms at the finishing point. Tickets are sold well in advance.