Puppetry in India (Introduction)

The tradition of the art of puppetry is prevalent in almost all the countries of the world.The uniqueness in structure and diversity in themes in different countries have been creating quriosity among researchers of the field of social science.

The art of puppetry has a unique place in Indian culture. Many Scholars, after researching the origin of puppetry have revealed that Asian country India is the birthplace of the art of puppetry.

The terracotta dolls found in the excavation of Indus civilisation by archeologist proves the existence of puppetry since the beginning of civilization.

“Dating back to 2500 B.C, the ancient civilisation of Harappa and Mohenjodaro spread over thousands of kilometers,left for us a variety of archeological relics which included a terracotta bull with a detachable head that could be manipulated by a string-thus achiving limited animation. Another figure found is a terracotta monkey that slides up and down a stick created a vertical movement.”^[1]

Thus, it indicates that string puppetry has a long tradition in India and it is the oldest form of puppetry.

The earliest reference of puppetry in India is recorded in the epic Mahabharata.

“There are metaphorical references to the puppets in the two epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.There is also a mention of puppets in early Buddhist texts. The two epics, Buddhist text and early early works like Kamsutra and Arthsashtra are full of terms denoting their puppets, and there are metaphorical references to puppets.”^[2]

Great grammarian Patanjali and Panini refered to puppetry to illustrate the rules of grammer. Dramatist Kalidasa had also mentioned about the art of puppetry in his Sanskrit drama.There are references of existence of puppetry in Jumbudweep in the rock inscriptions of Ashoka era.Jambudweep was the ancient name of India.These are the evidences which says that puppetry has a deep root in Indian culture and society. India has four types of puppets. They are–string puppet,glove puppet,shadow puppet and rod puppet. All of them are discussed below-

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

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

[2]:

Ghosh Shampa,Banerjee Utpal k.: Indian Puppets,p:14