This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Krishnattam does not select episodes from Krishna's life freely; it tells the whole of it, across a fixed sequence of eight plays composed as a single unit by Manaveda, the Zamorin ruler of Calicut, in his Sanskrit text Krishnageethi of 1654. The cycle runs from Avataram, Krishna's divine descent and birth, through Kaliyamardanam, his subduing of the serpent Kaliya, Rasakrida, his circle dance with the gopis, Kamsavadham, the killing of the tyrant Kamsa, Swayamvaram, his marriage, Banayuddham, a war fought on Shiva's own behalf, and Vividavadham, before closing with Swargarohanam, his ascension. Performed at the Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple, each play is understood locally to answer a distinct devotional need rather than simply to advance a narrative: the birth play is sought out by devotees praying for children, while the plays depicting Krishna's defeat of demons are invoked by those seeking protection from misfortune.
The temple stages the cycle nightly, with breaks only on Tuesdays and during the mid July to mid August period, as an offering performed after the temple's own daily rituals conclude rather than as a public spectacle scheduled around visitor convenience. According to the temple's own account, Manaveda composed the cycle after receiving a vision of Krishna, who gave him a peacock feather as a sign; that feather remains Krishnattam's living emblem, carried into the choreography and iconography of the performance nearly four centuries after the vision is said to have occurred.