(viii)
different seedlings. Tiraupati yammen temple patronizes Terukkuttu, reading of paratam etc whereas cutalaimatan temple feeds kaniyan Attam, Villuppattu etc. The temple of Murukan invites kāvați Attam and the Mariyamman temple needs karaka Aṭṭam. Everywhere art pleases the people and draws them to assemble in thousands.
Folk arts give pleasure for both the artists and the attendents, What the artists want to reveal would reach the people without fail. They are received with great appeal. The mutual understanding between the artist and the people is unquestionable and so the acceptance of the art is infallible. Nothing seems strange but everything appears artistic and attractive. Some of the imaginations are illusionary. Falsehood prevails and fantastic ideas leap but all are accepted with consious concordance. Anything grotesque and ludicrous in the folkarts is nothing to find fault with but something to be relished and enjoyed. There is nothing to curtail the free-play, of the folk-artist and there is nothing to prevent the free enjoyment of the folk audience. So everything is free and fair in the folk-arts. Real fentertainment is the only criterion and real enjoyment is the only residuary value of the folk-arts.
Social and religious themes are categorical in classifying them into two which may further be subdivided according to their form and function. If any one of the arts wants to instruct the folks, their services are accepted with greater pleasure. The effects of instruction can be seen as it reverberates in many tounges. If not it has to be taken as thrown out into oblivion. Sometimes obscene elements occupy the scene of action which also would be accepted without any show of obnoxiousness.
Religion is given greater importance than anything else. The people ceremoniously conduct religious festivals and most of the folk-arts form part and parcel
