Topology of the Benevolent Hero

The pac­ca (green) char­ac­ter type

The pac­cha char­ac­ter (pac­ca, which stands for ‘green’ in Malay­alam) is the Kathakali green hero  whose make-up col­or sym­bol­izes an ide­al degree of achieve­ment in the human nature, accord­ing to the Indi­an ear­ly trea­tis­es on aes­thet­ics. It has its name (nāma in san­skrit) writ­ten on the fore­head. Lotus eyes and dew­drop lip cor­ners accen­tu­ate his soft nature. A three-lay­er paper frame mount­ed on rice paste runs on the jaw from the ears to the chin in order to accen­tu­ate the facial expres­sion, which is per­formed through the use of the facial mus­cles. Heroes from the Indi­an Epics, like the Pan­dawa broth­ers, includ­ing Arju­na, or kings like Nala, belong to this set of char­ac­ters. Because the Kathakali func­tion is to con­vey the nar­ra­tive of Epics, char­ac­ters like Achilles in The Ili­ad have recent­ly been includ­ed in the Kathakali pac­cha vesham.