DR
S. V. JOGA RAO, M. A., Ph. D.
The
Puppet-show is the first kind of drama or cinema that man has ever known. The
craze of the common man for tales gradually gave rise to several kinds of
story-telling through musical setting, the puppet-show and, afterwards, the
drama. Once upon a time, a typical tradition of story-telling, namely, Akhyanaka was in vogue in our country (Vide Kadambari Purvabhaga).
I hold that this Akhyanaka was the precursor of the
puppet-play. A large canvas on which the important events of a story are well
painted is kept on a dais facing the audience. Perhaps this might be the same
as the Akhyanakapata mentioned by Vatsyayana.
Bhojadeva observes in his Sringaraprakasa
as follows:
“Akhyanaka sanjnantarlabhate
yadabhinayan pathan gayan grandhika ekah kathyati govindavadavahite
sadasi.”
The
story is narrated by an exponent accompanied by music and dance. These story-tellers are called Chaitrikas; Grandhikas or Sowbhikas. Abhinava Gupta in his commentary on Bharata’s Natya Sastra says: “tatrapi natyachayatmakataiva natyasyaiva hyami bhaganis pandascitra putrika pustaprabhrtayo granthikadiparikalpita
saksatkara kalpapratyaya sampadah.”
The
stories, on account of the skill of the narrators, are felt by the audience as
eventful spectacles. This kind of story-telling by showing only
painted pictures is an elementary stage; by moving dolls is the next; and men’s
taking to acting instead of the dolls (thereby giving a vent to the story to
cut through its way straight, of its own accord,) is the later developed stage.
For
long, the puppet-show has been thriving in our country as the most popular
amusement of the common folk and a superb art form. In fact, some scholars like
A. B. Keith hold that it has paved the way for the drama to come into being.
The word Sutradhara in the Sanskrit plays, which
stands for a director but actually means a string-holder, suits the puppet-show
better, as the whole show runs by the pulling of strings. It might have been
symbolically employed by the Sanskrit dramatists in their works and it, no
doubt, suggests the earlier concept.
In
the Sanskrit Mahabharata a certain thing called ‘Rupopajivanam’
is mentioned and Nilakantha Pandita,
a commentator, elucidates as follows:
“Rupopajivanam jalamandapiketi
dakshinatyesu prasiddham, yatra sukshma vastram
vyavadhaya charmamayairakaraih
rajamatyadinam caryam pradarsate.”
This
means that Rupopajivana has become famous in South
India under the name Jalamandapika, the performance
of which involves the actions of the kings, ministers and the like presented by
leather puppets on a fine piece of cloth. This is undoubtedly the shadow- play.
Here it is interesting to note that the word Rupopajivanam
stands quite significant of its name, which means a kind of play that depends
upon costume. And it stands as an apt epithet to the puppet-play that paved the
way for the ‘Rupaka’ (Drama) itself. (The Sanskrit
dramatists define Rupaka as ‘Ruparopadrupakam’,
which means that the drama is a result of the costumatic
representation.)
There
are conclusive proofs, already established by researches, to show that the
Histrionic art in
This
art spread to other countries also as early as 10th century A. D. This has been
flourishing in Southern China, especially in the Fukin
province, since the reign of the kings of the Sang dynasty (A. D. 960-1279),
and dramatic pieces with Buddhist and Folk tales as themes, couched in pleasant
musical setting, supplied the background to the puppet-shows 1. An
age-long tradition of these has been established in islands like Java also.
There the shadow-play is called Wayang Purva and the Marionette-show is called Wayang
Klitic. 2 It is a matter of pride for us
that our own Mahabharata and Ramayana supplied themes for them.
Today the puppet-show holds its sway throughout the world.
The
countryside of Andhra has long been a home of the puppet-shows. Many a Telugu
work like Kumarasambhava of Nannechoda (11 c.), Uttara
Harivamsa of Nachana Somanatha (14 c.), Ranganadharamayana
(13 c.), Palanati vira
charita (15 c), Sambhopakhyana
(16 c), Panchaliparinaya (16 c.)
mentioned these shows. In the Panditaradhya
charitra of Palkuriki Somanadha, mention has been made to the effect that these
shows were put on boards at night times during Sivaratri
festival at shrines like Srisaila and tales from our
epics like the Mahabharata formed the themes.
Invariably
in every puppet-show there is an elaborate theme, often an old legend from the
mythological lore. The play of the puppets goes on, while the performers
narrate the story in verse and song and in tunes appropriate to the movements
of the puppets. Literary necessity naturally comes in, but pure prose is not of
any interest in these shows. Usually in every country, compositions exuberant
of song, set to dramatic sequence, are used for these shows. Operas are used in
the West for supplying the background. The Puppet Book edited by Mr. L. V. Wall
makes the following observations:
“Musical
plays and operas, if specially arranged, can be given by puppets. One advantage
of opera on the puppet stage is that the conventional gestures of the singers
are well within the capacity of the puppet but besides there is the possible
influence any production might have towards increasing interest in the opera” 3
Javanese
use certain compositions called ‘Lakans’ in the place
of operas.4 In Sanskrit, the chayanataka
is believed to have been used for puppet-plays. Dutaingada
of Subhata (A. D. 1172), Rama-bhyudaya, Pandavabhyudaya and
Subhadraparinaya of Vyasaramadeva
(A. D. 1402-15) are some of the famous chayanatakas.
The term chayanataka is a typical Sanskrit synonym
for the English term, the shadow-play. The puppets are placed behind the
curtain and in front of the lamp. The audience actually catch
sight of the shadow alone. Hence the name. In the case
of marionette-shows, the wooden puppets have no curtain in front of them;
shadows have no place, but the advantage of the chayanataka
may be availed of even by them. In
In
fact some Telugu poets wrote Yakshaganas with the
purpose in view. Sriramanataka, a Yakshagana
composition by Maringantibhattaru Ramanujacharya
(A. D. 1850), has become famous as Bommalata
Ramayana. (Bommalata, in Telugu, means puppet-play.) Draupadii vastrapaharanamu, Simantini Parinayamu, Radha Krisna Samvadamu
by Chaturvedula Narasimha sastry, the Santa Veluru Kusalava nataka and Kota Venkatappayya sastry’s Banasura nataka were purposefully
composed, so as to be put on boards as regular plays by men and also to suit
the puppet stage. Stories like Lankadahana, Lakshmanamurcha, Ramavanavasa, Sitapaharana, Myravanacharita, Uttaragograhana, Kichakavadha and
the like are some more of the themes which have become popular.
There
are texts composed by the performers themselves. There is a palm-leaf manuscript
in the Govt. Oriental Manuscripts Library,
This
art gradually became a traditional family pursuit and several families of such
performers are found here and there in Andhra even today. The Rayalaseema or the Ceded Districts area in Andhra has been
the seat of this tradition, for a long time. Some such families enjoyed royal
patronage also to an extent and got villages as Inams. There lived a family in a village called Bommalata (virtually means puppet-play) in Rayalaseema where a number of poets flourished. One of
them, Bommalata Sambayya by
name, who is said to have lived in A. D. 1750 according to the Karnataka kavi charite, composed a
Yakshagana called Kiratarjuniya 5
in Telugu and two Yakshaganas called Kariyabantana vijaya and Sarangadhara charite in Kannada.
6
The
puppets are made of sheepskin or buffalo leather, wood or cardboard. A good
amount of artistic skill is involved in laying out the puppets from the raw
material, in observing colour values, in
painting them according to the different natures of the different characters,
and in applying plating for ornamentation. The play is often an open-air show
with little equipment. A small piece of barren ground with a
thatched roofing supported by four poles forms the place of performance;
white cloth curtain, a lamp, a ‘titti’ (blowing pipe)
or harmonium, a drum and cymbals are the other items. Only the facial
expressions are not possible but the performers
display a free movement of every other limb of the puppet and impress upon the
audience that it is a show of the diminutive man. The Dhalang
or the manipulator makes a brisk skipping from one tone to another to maintain
the natural variety of intonation and modulation of voices of the different
characters. Almost all the members of the performer’s family take part in the
conduct of the performance; particularly his wife takes the major role in the
play-back singing. The play-back is full of song and verse and a few prose
pieces are added here and there as connecting links. When dialogue takes its
direct course and the puppets, the representatives of the characters, stand
face to face, the performance strikes the keynote of the drama, nay, the actual
eventful course of the story itself. When Puranic
characters are introduced, the Amarakosa is often
quoted. It shows a certain amount of learning, at least on the part of the
forefathers of the present performers. People say the humming of the Mukhari Raga is a specialty about them. Certain funny
characters namely Gandholigadu, Ketigadu,
Juttupoligadu, Codigadu Allatappayya and Bangarakka have
been conventionally introduced purely for the sake of amusing the common folk.
Ever and anon, especially at times of tension and tedium, they appear on the
stage and serve feasts of fun, of course, usually, in a coarse and vulgar manner.
But the rustic audiences appreciate them very much. Simply on that account one
cannot disregard or ignore these puppet-shows as mere frivolities and nothing
else. One should not forget that these shows in ancient days kept the
illiterate masses in continuous touch with the tale and doctrine contained in
our great classics, thereby contributing to the well-being of the cultural
unity and heritage of our country.
Many
of the families devoted to this art-tradition in the Telugu country seem to
belong to a community called Are (This community is mentioned by Palkuriki Somanatha in his Panditarathyacharitra). Our elders tell us that, long ago,
these people migrated to Andhra from
Once
the cultured connoisseurs of the Andhra were very much fascinated by this art,
but today in Andhra it has almost become a vanishing art on account of the
vicissitudes of the modern taste and its fashionable counterpart, the
institution of the cinema. But even today this is flourishing in the Western
world and in
1
Vide p. 15 of Folk Arts of New China, The
Foreign Language Press publication,
2 Ref.
Sri M. S. Sarma’s article on the subject published in
the Andhra Patrica Pramadi
New Year’s Day Special Number.
3
Faber and Faber publication.
pp. 187-88
4 The
Mahabharata and the Wayang in Java by Dr. B.
R. Chatterjee.
5 G.
O. M. L. Telugu Mss. D. Nos. 1849-1851.
6
G. O. M. L. Kannada Mss. D. Nos. 1169, 1212, 1220.