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Traditional puppetry, an integral part of Indian culture for centuries, is becoming a potent tool for spreading social awareness. A genre of folk art in India, puppetry traditionally drew its themes from myths, folklores and popular literature of the hinterland.
But the colourful theatre of talking
dolls that dates back to the ninth century BC is now spreading
relevant messages about health, education, equality and justice to the
masses. "Puppetry once had a distinct socio-political and
religious role in the country. Puppet theatres were mostly played out
in temples for specific ceremonies. Puppets also sang eulogies of
kings and told stories of great valor — for example — the kathputlis
(wooden dolls) of Rajasthan," says Anurupa Roy, a professional
puppeteer, who has studied Puppet Theater in Stockholm and
Italy. Roy, a puppet designer, has directed over 14 full-length plays
like The Twelfth Night, About Ram, Virus key Tamas ha
and The Kashmir Project. "The puppets now play a less
religious role. Puppetry is perceived more as a medium of children’s
entertainment and is being increasingly used in activism, therapy,
conflict resolution, community health interventions and education,
says the puppeteer. Traditional puppeteers are struggling to reinvent
themselves to suit the tastes of modern audience and are lobbying for
a more serious status to the art form. One of the pioneers of
puppetry in education is Meher Contractor, an early practitioner and
proponent of modern puppetry in India. Her experiments with puppetry
in classrooms have influenced many teachers and continue to do so even
today through her book, Dramatic Arts and Puppets. Puppetry in
school is used to tell stories, which have a moral, and children are
encouraged to ask questions. Ranjana Pandey, a senior puppeteer, who
heads a non-profit group, Jan Madhayam in New Delhi, stages puppet
shows for children with special needs. Her shows are two-pronged —
she initially uses the puppets to convey essential information about
ways to identify disabilities in special children. And then identifies
the families of the victims to link them with the services available
for the special children. The members of Dadi Pudumjee’s Ishara
Puppet Theater Trust and Varun Narain’s puppet theatre group use
puppets to talk about reproductive health, gender and sexuality. They
spread awareness about HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and related issues. Varun
Narain has also taken his puppets to nightclubs, bars and even the
ramps to reach out to new segments. A puppetry project in 2005,
supported by Women in Conflict Management and Peace Group, taught
women in Beejbehara, 40 km from Srinagar in Kashmir, to make their own
puppets and narrate their experiences of living in a conflict zone
through their dolls. The Indian tradition of puppetry is based on the
concept that earth is a stage for the gods to perform. In the Shrimad
Bhagavata, an ancient Indian scripture composed in the ninth
century, god has been referred to as the puppeteer with three strings
— representing sattvas, rajas and tamas or purity,
passion and darkness. "The story of Krishna’s childhood
mentions that with these strings, he manipulates each object in the
universe," says professor S.A. Krishnaiah, chief co-coordinator
and chief researcher in the folklore section of the Regional Resources
Center, Udipi. According to legendary Kannada puppeteer Kogga Kamath,
a traditional puppet is the embodiment of the three gods together-
Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. The central string represents Brahma,
the string for movement tied to the limbs of the puppets represents
Vishnu and the balance strings through the hands represent Shiva or
Maheshwara. Puppetry finds mention in the epic of Mahabharata
and in the works of Vedic grammarian Panini and yoga guru Patanjali. Traditional
Indian puppets are usually manipulated by strings and their movements
coordinated by puppeteers on the stage to the rhythm of their voices
and the arrangement of lights. These puppets are traditionally made of
wood, bark, cloth or leather. At least 10 states of India are home to
four major forms of puppetry. The country, says Pudumjee, has the
largest coloured shadow puppets in the world — the Tolu Bommalatta
of Andhra Pradesh, the glove puppet tradition of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh
and West Bengal, where the puppeteer performs in full view of the
audience. "We also have the kathputlis of Rajasthan, the only
string puppet in the world," says the veteran puppeteer. The
word "kathputli"- the unique string dolls of the desert
state - is derived from the word "kaath" or wood and "putli"
for toy. According to Puran Bhat, a traditional puppeteer from the
Nagaur region in Rajasthan, the first puppets made by his ancestors
were from corn. Subsequently, carpenters crafted the dolls from wood
— mostly bamboo. "Puppetry has been handed down the
generations. We were supported by the local kings," says Bhat,
whose community travelled across the country to stage puppet
shows. The puppeteers of Rajasthan were genealogists, who sang songs
about their ancestors while playing their dolls on the stage. The
kathputlis, which have travelled all over the world, winning acclaim,
is the most popular face of Indian puppets — and the country’s
most significant contribution to global puppetry. Puppets are known
by a variety of names in the country. "In Hindi, it is called Putin
or Pustule, while in Sanskrit, it is called panchalika
or puttikaa as well as putulika," says Pudumjee.
Across India, the dolls are christened putlin, bomlatta, gombeyata,
bhaulia, bomba and so on. The word puppet traces its roots from
the Latin term pupa or pupila, which means a little girl
or
a doll. Contemporary Indian puppetry, says Pudumjee, is drawing
influences from traditions in Europe, Russia and Japan to chart a more
innovative course. — IANS
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