Book Description The music, dance, makeup, and colorful costumes displayed during the religious rituals of the Kerala people are vibrantly exhibited in this collection of photographs taken during moments of great celebration. Kerala's history as the first Indian state to come into contact with Christians and Muslims brings a complicated texture to their religious tradition, which has been influenced by Western contact but still maintains ancestral vestiges such as the Dravid costumes. The balance between good and evil, light and dark, beauty and ugliness, and fire and water are among the tensions that emerge in these photographs.