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Rajhastani
Puppets- Performances
Performers
once traveled village-to-village entertaining their rural
audiences with stories of heroes and heroines, such as Dhola-Maru.
Shortly after sundown, the puppeteers would begin with several
songs to announce the start of the show, and then they would
conduct their kathputli play for two or three hours depending
on the audience’s interest. At various points in the
performance, the Bhats would offer praises of the villagers
and the gods to solicit donations of foodstuffs and money.
On the following day, they would depart and begin the process
again.
Now,
partially because of new forms of entertainment like television
and film, puppet shows have declined in popularity. These
days many puppeteers have become involved with cultural
preservation organizations which allow the puppeteers to
travel in India and abroad demonstrating their art. Some
puppeteers have also been hired by non-governmental organizations
to use their puppetry skills for rural educational programs,
like water conservation and pre-natal care. By packaging
their messages as folk performances, development agencies
hope to render the audiences receptive to their new programs.
The
Open Hand Theater in Syracuse, New York is dedicated to
puppet performances and puppet display and has a yearly
exhibition on Puppet Arts from Rajasthan, India
Relationship
between the puppets and puppeteers
According
to traditional thought among the Bhats, the Kathputhlies
are not merely “wooden dolls” as their name
implies, but rather, they are seen as manifestations of
the bhawani or the goddess. Hence they are treated much
like the murtis or sacred images of temples and shrines.
According to tradition, the puppets are not to be sold,
rather they are passed down through the male line. Each
succeeding puppeteer places a new set of clothes over those
made by his ancestors to mark the transfer, and thus, over
time, numerous layers of clothing accumulate on the Kathputhlies.
Because of its sacred status, the Bhats cannot simply discard
a puppet if it breaks. Thus they ceremoniously place the
puppet in a river, and the kathputli is “allowed to
flow with the stream back to its celestial home”
A
puppet show
|
A
boy performing a puppet show: |
 Prem
Bhat and his family at their camp in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
|
A
traditional lag kathputli that depicts a court dancer
known as Anarkali
|
Mohan
Bhat displays his famous Samp Jogi or snake charmer
marionette
|
A
group of Bhats selling their Kathputhlies at the
fort in Image courtesy Bhanwar Gopal
|
Harji
Bhat displays his puppets at a hotel Jaisalmer,
Rajasthan in downtown Jaipur, Rajasthan.
|
 Artists
singing modified folk songs to start the show. |
Kanhaya
Lal Bhat and Gita Devi demonstrate a traditional
show for a visitors at the Shipgram Culture and
Crafts village in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
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