Hello Guys, today I am going to share my views on the Rajasthani string puppetry. The puppetry art of Rajasthan is also known as ‘Kathputli’. It is a combination of two words ‘Kath’ and ‘putli’ where Kath means wood and Putli means a doll.
Rajasthan is known for its culture and traditions and showcasing its talented dance form first to the entire world centuries ago. Rajasthani string puppetry is one of the most vibrant and famous aspects of Indian culture and therefore foreigners and visitors from various parts of the country come to see kathputli’s dancing and having a conversation between them. They are part of the traditional performance of puppetry generally narrating an event from history, myths, folklore, or legend, complete with music and speech.
Those Puppets are made of mango wood and filled with cotton they are decorated with soft-colored clothes and have vibrant makeup. Puppets are usually around 1.5 to 2 feet high. There are no legs present for female Puppets but the male ones have just to differentiate them from female puppets. Their long big and stylized eyes are very catchy for the attention of visitors visiting their show. You may be thinking how are those made and designed? How it looks so pretty? Firstly a 9 to 12 inch mango wood stick is cut and given a desired shape in the case of string puppets.
The face of Puppet is drawn on it using oil paint of matching human skin colour and then nose, eyes and lips are drawn using a gentle brush. The sculptors and designers in Rajasthan use small pipes to make hands and legs and they attach them to wood to give a perfect look. So, now you got the answer and since it gets wrapped up in vibrant clothing with eye-catchy jewellery accessories, we are not able to see what’s inside it and how are they made. But there is a lot of effort involved in making it for sure. In the Puppets of Rajasthan, there are a number of wooden dummy dolls that are dressed up in bright and colour attires which have a very catchy appearance. Each of the Puppet shows of Rajasthan has a theme different from the other and that’s what makes it look attractive.
The shadow puppets of Andhra Pradesh are well-known. There is various type of Puppets in India, like some, are glove puppets, some a rod puppets and some puppetry shows use string and rod puppets and last but not the least is the shadow puppets. Some of the Puppets include faces of Raja Vikramaditya and Maharana Pratap because they were fond of puppet shows and the Rajasthani culture.
