B.3. Puppetry
Puppetry is one of the oldest forms of entertainment, offering a captivating experience as skilled puppeteers bring inanimate figures to life. Its simplicity and cost-effectiveness make it a popular choice for freelance performers and storytellers alike.
- Often hailed as one of the most ingenious human inventions, puppetry allows the artist full creative freedom in terms of design, color, and movement. This versatility has made it a beloved medium across generations.
- In India, puppetry has long served dual purposes—entertainment and education. Its roots run deep, with archaeological discoveries from Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa revealing puppets with movable limbs, proving that this expressive art form was already in practice during ancient times.
- Around 500 BC, some allusions to marionette theatre were discovered. Puppetry is mentioned in writing in both the Mahabharata and the Tamil epic Silappadikaram, both of which were composed between the first and second centuries BC.
- In Indian culture, puppetry has philosophical significance in addition to being an art form.
- Different regions of India have created a wide range of puppetry traditions, each with its own unique style of puppets. Folktales, myths, and local stories were incorporated. India’s puppetry can be essentially divided into four groups – namely string puppets, shadow puppets, glove puppets rod puppets.