Syllabus Section: Society/ Art and Culture

Why in News?

Travel restrictions during the state-wide lockdown leaves puppetry community with fears of financial strain like last year.

About:

Problems Puppeteers are Facing:

• The second wave of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has robbed Odisha’s puppeteer community of a chance of revival. 
• The puppet artists and ventriloquists are invited to perform in religious gatherings, weddings and other ceremonies across the state. But such gatherings were banned since the onset of the pandemic.
• The state has around 5,000 puppeteers, mainly concentrated in Kendrapara, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Angul and Dhenkanal districts

• Four forms of puppetry are usually practiced in Odisha: Glove (sakhikundhei), shadow (ravanachhaya), rod (kathikundehi) and string (gopalilakundhei). 

Glove Puppet(sakhikundhei):

• The string puppets of Orissa are known as Kundhei.
• Made of light wood, the Orissa puppets have no legs but wear long flowing skirts.
• They have more joints and are, therefore, more versatile, articulate and easy to manipulate.
• The puppeteers often hold a wooden prop, triangular in shape, to which strings are attached for manipulation.
• The costumes of Kundhei resemble those worn by actors of the Jatra traditional theatre.
• The music is drawn from the popular tunes of the region and is sometimes influenced by the music of Odissi dance.

Shadow Puppets (RavanaChhaya):

• Shadow puppets are flat figures.
• They are cut out of leather, which has been treated to make it translucent.
• Shadow puppets are pressed against the screen with a strong source of light behind it.
• The manipulation between the light and the screen make silhouettes or colourful shadows, as the case may be, for the viewers who sit in front of the screen.
• This tradition of shadow puppets survives in Orissa. Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Rod Puppets (kathikundehi):

• Rod puppets are an extension of glove-puppets, but often much larger and supported and manipulated by rods from below.
• This form of puppetry now is found mostly in West Bengal and Orissa. 

String Puppets(gopalilakundhei):

• India has a rich and ancient tradition of string puppets or marionettes.
• Marionettes having jointed limbs controlled by strings allow far greater flexibility and are, therefore, the most articulate of the puppets.
• Rajasthan, Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are some of the regions where this form of puppetry has flourished.