Shadow play of leather puppets

Story telling has always been a part of humans since time immemorial. Starting from the cave paintings, man has always been interested in narrating and listening to stories. Mr. A. Selvaraja is one such inspiring person who comes from a family that holds a legacy of an ancient art, Leather puppets (or shadow puppets).

Thol bommalatam or shadow puppet is said to be one of the oldest crafts of India. Shadow puppets are flat colourful puppets, made from leather, which are operated against the rear of a tightly stretched white cloth. They are pressed against the cloth with strong source of light behind it and handled with thin bamboo sticks stuck to them. The arms have movable joints so that they can be moved in a specific way.The puppeteer holds the puppet by the lower end of the bamboo stick with one hand, and with a stick in the other hand, they manoeuver the puppet to perform the desired movements. It usually takes around 8 to 10 people to conduct the puppet show, a few for handling the puppets and the rest for playing music. His family has been a part of this art form for nearly a century. He was born into a family of puppeteers, where his ancestors are said to have been puppeteers at the court of the Sarafoji kings of Tanjore.



Preparing the leather puppets is a tedious process, that often takes a couple of days to make even the smallest of the lot. The puppets were considered to be a priced possession. Earlier, the puppets were made of deer skin and painted with natural organic dyes, which were considered to be the most valuable. The skin is treated in the sun for hours and the pulled and stretched. The process in repeated a couple of times until the leather becomes translucent so as to allow the light to pass through it.

Puppetry that started as a court entertainment exclusively for royalties, slowly started coming out for the view of general public. Ramayana was the first ever story to be performed on the shows. Later, different stories like Harichandra, Pragalath were performed at the cause of teaching morals to people especially children. When the British rule took over India, the puppeteers were left to fend for themselves. They started moving from place to place pitching tents in one village after the other and performing for the locals. They would often settled in the villages for months, met new people, made friends and left a piece of their heart as they left. Their life was a beautiful adventure every other month.

Gearing up for a show

All this slowly started coming to an end, as television started blooming and one day it totally swept of the puppetry. Presently, Mr. Selvaraja is sadly one among a very few people in the state to perform and make leather puppets. He performs in Dakshin Chitra for tourists every weekend, for four shows per day. He manipulates the plot of the story every week according to important current events.

Contact :
Mr. A. Selvaraja Naidu,
No.211, pillar kovil big street,Kolathur village,
via vandalur-mambakkam,
kanchipuram district
Mobile No.- 09444671029
Dakshin Chitra puppet show timings - 11am, 12am, 3pm and 4pm (every weekend)