Proposal Form
Proposal Form
Autumn and winter in India are all about festivity and celebration. Many of these festivities are not only about prayer and offerings to the God but also about expressions of happiness and gratitude. This is expressed in traditional vocal and dance performances and instrumental recitals. Performances are usually held in temple auditoriums and theatres, however, villages and school grounds do sometimes play host.
The Shadow Puppetry Theatre has various forms throughout India. In this document I will explain about the types in the Southern part of India, including the forms of puppetry from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil, Nadu and Kerala.
In Andhra Pradesh the type of shadow puppet theatre is called Tolu Bommalata. This word literally translates to “Leather Puppet Dance”. These performances are a very strong tradition in this region of the country and are not only famous for their life-size images, highly intricate ornamentation and brilliant colours but also for their rich style of singing and the adoption of Yakshaganam texts to present full-length theatre. Tolu Bommalata originated in the Nimmalakunta village of Andhra Pradesh; but now the numbers of performances are decreasing and this form of puppetry is in a period of decline. The few present performers that do remain, however are not from Andhra origin, they are known as Are Marathi or Are Bondili and are families from the Maratha or Bundel army background who migrated to the Rayalseema region in interior Andhra in the 1850s and now have become completely assimilated to the culture and speak Telugu fluently. The patronage of shadow puppetry in most parts of India has declined after the advent of television.
Togalu Gommbeyatta is the most famous form of shadow theatre from Karnataka. These puppets are mostly small in size. The puppets however differ in size according to their social status, for instance, large size for kings and religious characters and smaller size for common people or
Autumn and winter in India are all about festivity and celebration. Many of these festivities are not only about prayer and offerings to the God but also about expressions of happiness and gratitude. This is expressed in traditional vocal and dance performances and instrumental recitals. Performances are usually held in temple auditoriums and theatres, however, villages and school grounds do sometimes play host.
The Shadow Puppetry Theatre has various forms throughout India. In this document I will explain about the types in the Southern part of India, including the forms of puppetry from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil, Nadu and Kerala.
In Andhra Pradesh the type of shadow puppet theatre is called Tolu Bommalata. This word literally translates to “Leather Puppet Dance”. These performances are a very strong tradition in this region of the country and are not only famous for their life-size images, highly intricate ornamentation and brilliant colours but also for their rich style of singing and the adoption of Yakshaganam texts to present full-length theatre. Tolu Bommalata originated in the Nimmalakunta village of Andhra Pradesh; but now the numbers of performances are decreasing and this form of puppetry is in a period of decline. The few present performers that do remain, however are not from Andhra origin, they are known as Are Marathi or Are Bondili and are families from the Maratha or Bundel army background who migrated to the Rayalseema region in interior Andhra in the 1850s and now have become completely assimilated to the culture and speak Telugu fluently. The patronage of shadow puppetry in most parts of India has declined after the advent of television.
Togalu Gommbeyatta is the most famous form of shadow theatre from Karnataka. These puppets are mostly small in size. The puppets however differ in size according to their social status, for instance, large size for kings and religious characters and smaller size for common people or