POETRY OF PAN-INDIAN PUPPETRY
By Utpal K. Banerjee

Any time in the day, it is a familiar sight in Rajasthan to see a cot put vertically side-wise, bamboos tied along to hang the puppets and a curtain (Tiwara), with serrated openings below, hung in front. The puppets begin to appear as water-carrier, court-dancer and so on: usually 32 in number, following the hoary tradition of “Battish Simhasan” of King Vikramaditya.

When the stories start unfolding, a few of them are built around Prithviraj Chauhan and his kidnapping of the daughter of Jai Singh (Sanjukta Haran). While Prithviraj was supposed to have been their patron in the days of yore, Amar Singh Rathod of Naugarh gave ample grants to the puppeteers nearer our times. Most stories today are, therefore, woven around Amar Singh Rathod and his royal court – with the lyrics sung in mellifluous music. String puppets (Kathputli) as above have been used by succeeding generations of the Bhat community in Rajasthan. Learning process in puppetry has been by direct observation and participation, and never by rote. The Bhavai dancers earlier had the tradition of sporting gloves (Lalua); using fingers to indicate hands and feet for expressing, say, hunger and a desire to eat.

In a wide-ranging discussion on the pan-Indian puppetry, Sampa Ghosh, the director of Shri Ram Puppet Repertory and an authority on the Indian scene, brought out the surprising fact that there are hardly any traditional puppets extant today in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Is it because of the frequent battles fought with enemies by the valiant inhabitants of these lands that they never could settle down for the delicate art of puppetry?

Puppetry in Gujarat

In the West Coast, Gujarat had many string and shadow puppeteers once upon a time, who have since migrated to Maharashtra. These two skills are now displayed by the Thakar community. Very few families have still retained the craft of puppet making. In the Goa-Maharashtra border, the town of Pinguli has an organisation showing cloth pictures (Chitrakathi) as shadow puppets, arranged through the dedication of Vasant Gangavane.

The puppet canvas is rich in variegated colours on the south of the Vindhyas. Karnataka has a large variety of string puppets (Gambe Atta), which use the same characters, as the celebrated Yakshagana folk-form from the stories of the epic Mahabharata and Puranas. The puppets have the same colourful costume of Yakshagana and the size of the character often varies according to his importance. Bhagavatar is the main singer. The manipulators wear anklets and kick the puppets from behind to make them dance.

Ravana in particular, has a dramatic existence in Karnataka. The entry of this string puppet is usually with two burning torches, with all other lights turned off. Gunpowder is sprayed from behind to generate copious fumes. The other Yakshagana character like Arjun, Krishna and Draupadi do appear to dance on string. The shadow puppets (Togalu Gombeatta), in comparison, are small and are made of leather. The smallest shadow puppets (Cikka) are fairly popular and widely seen.

Colour on White

In Andhra Pradesh, shadow puppets are in colour projected on a white screen. These are of large size and, against the flickering brass lamp-fire, create a good impact. The women are as common manipulators as men. In the Nellore district, the largest-sized puppets are even five feet or more, and are made of translucent deerskin, which cast enchanting colour-shadows. Holes are made to depict jewels and ornaments, and bifurcated bamboo sticks hold the puppet: with the legs and arms moved by stick. The surrounding scenery, with bows and arrows, are also colour-shadows. The stories in Andhra are drawn from Ramayana and Mahabharata. The festivals are occasions of more beautiful scenes, like Hanumana burning Lanka or Sita having her marriage (Swayamvar). The shadows are in profile although both eyes are shown to have a dramatic effect.

The Tamil Nadu shadow puppets are fairly similar to Andhra. They are shown during temple festivals and are often operated by the village headman (Pradhan) – with the firm belief that famines would be averted through the magic of puppetry. The scenery, stage-settings, directions to be faced by the puppets are all fixed following traditions and rituals. The Tamil Nadu String puppets (Bommalattam) are the only ones in the world where the heavy puppets are held by strings tied to an iron-ring worn by the manipulator around his head. The head-crown is covered with cloth and traditional families use them, keeping their hands free to manipulate the limbs of the puppets. It is interesting to note that France is imitating this style. The glove puppets, in comparison to the string ones, are not very popular and seen mostly in Tanjavur district, depicting the character of Kartikeya (Subramaniam).

Made of wood

In Kerala, the glove puppets (Pavakoothu) are made of wood and show face and hands of a character. The bare-bodied manipulators perform the puppet show (Pava Kathakali) in a sit down performance and are publicly seen. The music and stories resemble closely those for Kathakali. A particular favourite is the story of Bhima bringing flowers for Draupadi and being stopped on the way by Hanumana who cannot just be crossed over. A thoroughly shaken Bhima is finally told by Hanumana that all that was fun and test for the younger brother by the elder one! Shadow puppets in Kerala (Thol Pavakoothu) are especially prevalent in the Palghat district. There are interestingly no women puppeteers for the shadow puppets with usually only one hand shown. When the hand, made of leather, is worn out, it is copied and the size keeps increasing. The Natana Kairali is an important group organised by G.Venu where trainers are trained for continuing the tradition.

The traditions do continue and live on, through such innovative recent puppet-shows as Aladin presented by Calcutta Puppet Theatre and Ichchhapuran presented by Shri Ram Puppet repertory – directed by the pioneer Suresh Dutta and his disciple Sampa Ghosh. There is imaginative blending of live drama with rod puppetry and the Japanese Bunraku where puppeteers under black veils manipulate the characters in the full view of audience. While Aladin is the story from Arabian Nights, Ichchhapuran is based on a fantasy-poem by Rabindranath Tagore about an old man and his truant son exchanging their identity, with no end of trouble for both. Both the shows prove once again the essential poetry in the Indian puppetry.

[Published in Patriot newspaper, Delhi on 1st August 1988]