Dance
Tamil is broadly classified into Iyal ‘prose’, Isai
‘poetry’ and Nadakam ‘drama’. Nattiyam or Kuthu is mainly concerned with dance.
The ancient Tamils had two kinds of Kuthu: (1) Vethiyal and (2) Podhuviyal.
Vethiyal is especially meant for royal families and Podhuviyal is meant for the
public. Later on this convention had disappeared. Since the kings had slowly
lost their power the arts patronized by them also gradually lost their glamour.
Thus the Vethiyal type of drama became extinct. The Silapathikaram furnishes the
legendary origin of dancing. The ancient Tamil country is the home of the
classical dance known as Bharata Natyam. Drama and dance gradually emerged as
two different branches. In1960s and 1970s cinema overshadowed drama. 
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