Puppetry in Assam

by Gitali Saikia | 2018 | 39,831 words

This represents a methodological study of Puppetry in Assam, which forms a major part of their ancient traditions and folk dramas. The art of puppetry has close relation with Assamese culture and society. Even though the availability of local literature is limited, there are many books on Indian puppetry....

Puppetry as a Folk Drama

Puppetry is one of the ancient forms of drama.Before discussing puppetry, we should take note of the meaning of the puppet. The English word puppet is derived from the Latin word “pupa” which means a doll.The Assamese word “putola” and Sanskrit word Puttalika is equivalent to the English term puppet. The art of puppetry on the other hand is a form of dramatic expression represent by particular puppets.

History of puppets is very old.

“From evidences culled from various ancient civilization scholars have come to the point that puppets are almost as old as civilization itself. Whatever the nature of the original puppet shows, the art of puppetry has been a popular form of entertainment throughout the history in different parts of the world, particularly from medieval times.”[1]

In the initial period, puppetry had close intimacy with religion rather than entertainment. Among different evidences about the long history of puppetry, the most popular evidence is ancient Egyptian practice of displaying moving figures of the Gods in holly processions.

Puppet shows were often performed in Christian churches for illiterate people to describe complex scripture stories.

“For more than three hundred years, puppeteers in Poland have created religious shows.”[2]

The connection of puppetry with religion is supported by numerous writings of researchers and scholars of world. Gradually the art of puppetry came out from the periphery of religious rites as it began to enchant people with its superb manipulative skills and made its place among performing arts. Demand for puppet shows increased among various age groups of people as form of entertainment and as a tool of imparting education. Almost in every countries of the world, the art of puppetry is considered as integral part of their culture.European along with East Asian and western countries have glorious history of puppetry. Director Peter Bruke referred Puppet theatre as “Rough theatre”.

Many scholars, after researching on puppetry, hold the opinion that puppetry as an art originated in China.They introduced shadow drama to the world.

On the otherhand, a good number of scholars opines that India is the birth place of the art of puppetry and from India puppetry migrated to other Asian countries.

“It seems almost certain that puppetry originated in India and spread from there throughout the ancient world.Communication between India and other Asian regions began when Indian merchants were lured by the prospects of trade to venture into Indochina and Malaysia.Immigrants to the settlements that developed along the trade routes bought a culture and literature that were strongly influenced by religion.Local traditions in Burma, Siam, Malaya, Java, Bali,and several parts of Indochina disappeared in wave after wave of such cultural conquests. Most shadow puppet performance in several Asian countries were based on the two Indian epic poems,the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. On the other hand, significant regional differences in the crafting of puppets, manipulation techniques, and styles of presentation suggest that puppetry may have had several origins.(Rubin,Don 1998:40-42)”[3] .

Puppetry is also called the mother of Indian drama.

“Notwithstanding the controversy over the puppets being the possible source of origin of drama in India, there is no doubt that the puppets have great antiquity and the tradition continues unbroken.”[4]

Among various folk drama prevailed in India, puppetry has occupying an important place.According to noted folklorist Nabin Chandra Sharma,Puppetry is the oldest form of folk drama.

The features, which established puppetry as folk drama, are-

1. The exact time and place of the existence of puppetry is not known. Different scholars have different views regarding the birthplace and time of the existence of puppetry. No one can demand authority over folk art. Puppetry is also not exception of it. Thus, puppetry is a folk drama.

2. One of the important features of folk drama is that, it always starts with some preliminaries and invocatory songs. This phase is known as Purvaranga. Puppetry also starts with Purvaranga including invocatory songs and homage to lord Ganesha or in some cases lord Shiva or goddess Saraswati. These rituals are strictly follows in religious puppetry.In case of secular puppetry some puppet troupe starts their show with a dance drama while some other directly starts their drama without any preliminary.

3. Like other forms of folk dramas, puppetry also has close relation with rituals. Written evidence of using puppetry for religious purpose can find in writings of scholars from different countries.Puppet shows were most popular in churches of England.Stories of complex scriptures were performed by puppets for illiterate people gatherd in church. In China, Shadow puppets have very important place in religious festivals. Shadow puppet performance is integral part of religious holidays, birthdays of deities, celebration of agricultural festivals for good harvest and so on.In Indonesia, Islamic saints were used shadow puppetry to teach their religion. James Frazer, the famous folklorist of nineteenth century had strongly advocate the believe that folk drama was arose out of rituals. Thus, these examples indicate that the art of puppetry is a folk drama.

4. Generally folk dramas are based on epics, myth and legend.In India the Mahabharat and the Ramayana is the main source of theme of folk dramas.

“The Ramayana & Mahabharata still hold an unshakeable grip on the whole of greater India, particularly in their dance–dramas. Culturally, just as Homer is familiar in all countries of Europe and America as much as he is in Greece,these two epics belong now to a large part of Asia.”[5]

Puppet plays enacted stories from Epics, myth, legend and so on. The Ramayana is one of the most important source of themes of puppetry.

“In the spread and popularity of the Ramayana through the oral tradition, puppets have played an important role.It is interesting to note that the two main elements of the epic tradition namely recitation and storytelling are also the main features of the art of puppetry and their performance structure has a strong preference of story telling.

The Ramayana is the main source for the story and textual material in all the puppet traditions.While the great Tamil Ramayana by Kamban(12th century) forms the main text for the Kerala shadow puppets, Ranganath’s Ramayan in Telugu (16th century) provides the textual material to the Andhra shadow puppets.It was especially written for the puppets. Oriya Vichitra Ramayana of Viswanath Kuntia is used in the shadow puppets of Orissa.”[6]

5. According to folklorist Roger Abraham,folk drama can also termed as “play activity”.

“Play activities call[S] for the establishment of a play world that is recognizably removed from the real world and yet in many ways similar to it.”[7]

Now a days puppet theatre is used in different aspects of society. Particularly,when it is used for children education or for their entertainment, they enters to a different world of imagination. Folk tales, fables etc. are are mainly performed for them where animals can talk,flowers can sing,trees can dance. It can help them learning. They returns to the real world when the show overs,but essence of the theme of drama remains in their mind.Thus puppetry sometimes can also called play activity.

6. Folk drama reflects society or it can be called as mirror to society. Culture, political atmosphere, social issues of society are reflected in folk drama.

However folk drama present these situations ridiculously or harmoniously.Folk drama is a strong medium of communication.

“The traditional forms of communication constitute a potentential source of conveying messages for economic and social development.Communities and individuals have utilized a wide range of media-local fairs, puppet shows, street theatre, folk songs and ballads for social purposes and as a support to local development schemes for health and family welfare campaigns, for creating political awareness.

In India,the most effective means of communication,specially in villages continue to be the traditional forms-folk theatre, folk tales, and of course, religious discourses.Folk forms which have been traditionally used as a means of disseminating information are diverse in nature and include different combination of drama,dance, song, mime, story telling and puppetry.”[8]

Puppetry is an effective medium of communication.

“The puppet performance have been an important tradional media and the puppeteer a most effective communicator both of the traditional lore and contemporary scenario.Some of the communicative means employed in puppet performances are icons, story, speech and music. It is because of this communicative power that puppets have not only survived the intrusion of the mass media in their world,but have meaningfuly supplemented its message and given it a more personalised character.Widespread and effective use of puppetry by the government publicity units has amply proved this.”[9] .

7. According to feature of folk dramas of India, the source of light is always traditional. Earthen lamp has been used in all folk theatre forms of India. In Assam, traditional torch made of bamboo tube and flamed by cotton soaked in mustard oil and Ariya and Mahata is used as source of light in folk drama.In performance of puppet show also, traditional source of lights are used. However, traditional Ariya and Mahata is substituted to electric colourful lights.

8. Sutradhar (who holds the string) is one of the important character of Folk drama.

He is the narrator and in fact it is said that folk-drama have borrowed concept of sutradhar from Puppetry.

“In many Sanskrit drama the word Sutradhar “string holder” denotes evidences and the identity of puppetry later this word has taken for the director or principal actor who hold the control and connection between the audience,artist and theme in the theatre.”[10]

9. Use of easily available materials for costume, makeup and decoration is one of the important features of folk drama.The puppets of different types are made of cloths, card boards, woods and so on which are easily available.

10. Like other forms of folk drama, use of folk musical instruments in performance of puppetry also establishes this art form as folk drama.

11.Generally colloquial languages are used in performance of folk drama. In case of puppetry also colloquial language or language of the people is used which creates intimacy among audience and performers.

12.Music is another feature of folk drama. Music draws from the folk musical tradition of the region, from where the puppet shows belongs.

13. Clown or stock characters are important part of performance of a folk drama. Puppetry, is also not exception. In Assam, Jakhar is the stock character used in puppetry. Jakhar enters into stage between the performance and exchange dialogues which are not relavent to the main drama but through his dialogue he send message to the society on various important issues.

14. Recitation and story telling are also the main features of folk drama.These features are prominent in the art of puppetry.

The above discussion on folk drama and its features have support that puppetry is a folk drama.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Datta Birendra Nath: Puppetry In Assam Past and Present,Northeastern Archival Centre for Traditional Art and Folklore, 1999.P:1

[2]:

anneneuberger.com

[3]:

Bhattacharjee Moushumi:The Indian Panorama, Ph D Thesis,Gauhati University,2015, p:45

[4]:

Awasthi Suresh: Performance Tradition in India, National Book Trust of India, New Delhi,2009, p:39

[5]:

Thomas Nelson &Sons: Theatre in the East,A survey of Asian Dance and Drama,The journal of Asian Studies, 1956,p:14

[6]:

Awasthi Suresh:Performance Tradition in India, National Book Trust of India, 2009,p:39

[7]:

Abraham,Roger D:Folk Drama.In Folklore and Folklife:An introduction.Edited by Richard M.Dorson.1972,P:352

[8]:

Aggarwala Vir Bala.V.S.Gupta: Handbook of Journalism and Mass Communication, Concept Publishing Company,New Delhi,2002, p:70

[9]:

theindiacrafthouse.blogspot.in/2012/01/puppetry-iindia-types-and-keyaspects.html

[10]:

theindiacrafthouse.blogspot.in/2017/09/puppetry -in–india-types-and–key-aspects.html

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