Velakali

Brightly dressed dancers wielding swords and shields depict a fight sequence between the Pandavas and Kauravas during the course of the dance.

One such legend talks of the sage Narada witnessing Lord Krishna and his friends staging a mock battle on the banks of the Kalindi using the stalks and leaves of the water lily as swords and shields.

Narada then requested the sage Villumangalam to capture the martial vigour of the mock fight in a ritualistic performance for Krishna.

Since the annexation of Ambalappuzha into Travancore, Velakali has marked the commencement of the annual Painkuni festival at Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple, Trivandrum.

[4][5] During a Velakali performance huge effigies representing the Pandavas are put up during the festival at the eastern entrance of the Padmanabhaswamy temple.

[6] According to Alf Hiltebeitel, Velakali performances in central Travancore are reenactments of supposedly historical battles rather than the Mahabharata war and are intertwined with rituals of patayani.