Puppetry hangs by a thread in Prakasam district

Keeping tradition alive: Puppeteers performing an episode from the Ramayana in Ongole.

Keeping tradition alive: Puppeteers performing an episode from the Ramayana in Ongole.  

Passionate practitioners persevere into the night to save ‘Tholu Bommalata’ for posterity

The show goes on till late in the night as passion for puppetry is still strong among select families in Prakasam district, which are determined to practice the ancient art form even while doing odd jobs for a living during day time.

Fifty-year-old Reknath Hanumantha Rao with perfect coordination moves the life-sized puppets even while singing long-winding Telugu Padyams (poems) to enthral the audience who gather at the Chennakeshava Swamy temple here to witness the great war between Sri Rama and the 10-headed demon king Ravana from the Ramayana told by the puppeteers. “I have been performing this art form since my childhood,” he recalls going down the memory lane. People evinced keen interest in enjoying our puppet show covering all the episodes in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for even a month at a stretch.

It is still popular in select rural pockets in the district as religious festivals do not end without “Tholu Bommalata”. “Sundara Kandam” from the Ramayana is the most-sought at religious festivals as listening to this part of the epic is considered a panacea for all ills afflicting the people, he says.

For posterity

“We pull the strings out of sheer passion to see that our traditional art form survives for posterity,” says 28-year-old Durga Prasad, the youngest among the practitioners of the art form. We do odd jobs during the day time like selling fancy goods, utensils, clothes etc. But we make it a point to practise of about 100 characters till late in the night selecting a few episodes from the two epics each day, he adds. The episodes relating to Lord Lakshmana fainting during the war and Lord Hanuman bringing Sanjeevani have takers, adds co-performer Tirupatamma.

The skin of wild animals including the antelope and the spotted deer was used to make puppets. We have settled for goat skin in view of the ban on hunting wild animals, they added.

“We got an opportunity to perform in Kolkata last year,” Durga Prasad recalls, and added that they were contacted by the officials of the Department of Culture to perform in Asom this year.