India  Karnataka

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According to legend, Guha, on the boat that transports Rama along the river Ganges when he sets off for exile in the forest, would have performed the original shadow theatre; having learned it from Rama. Shadow theatre proved particularly popular in Karnataka between the 12 and 14th centuries in accordance with the countless references made in writings dating to that period. It was also common place throughout Vijayanagar, a kingdom existing in this region and the last Hindu stronghold to stand up to the Mongol invasion. The puppeteers would originally have arrived from the neighbouring state of Maharashtra, as they speak Marathi, even while it is not possible to ascertain just when that took place as they are today fully assimilated. Each company represents a family business with the women performing in singing the female roles.

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In this genre, the figures are cut out of deerskin, now replaced by goat, and are so fine that the colours painted on them appear through the screen. The oldest examples have no moveable joints and represent either a character or a complete scene. Some of the more modern examples do have a jointed arm. The audacity and the beauty of their design, and in which we find the influence of statues decorating the local temples, as well as the choice of colours, ensure that these figures hold their own alongside the creativity found in modern art. Drawing upon the expression of a contemporary painter who said: 《when we gaze upon these figures, we think to ourselves that Picasso did not really invent anything new》. The music and the songs are composed of classical melodies (ragas) and popular songs. The main instruments in the orchestra are a gong, a flute, a type of single stringed lute (ektari), a type of pipe (pungi), also played by snake charmers, a double sided drum(dhole), a type of oboe (mucka veena), cymbals (tali) and now also a harmonica.

 

The repertoire essentially stems from either the Ramayana or the Mahabharata Whatever the respective play, there is always a pair of clowns, both very ugly and crude, with such obscene dialogues that in the Dharwad region, the authorities banned such performances.

 

The majority of performances take place within a religious context and in order to obtain favourable rains, bear children, see off diseases or otherwise to thank the gods on the occasion of good harvests. Whoever commissions the play takes on the duty of welcoming and feeding the artists, both paying them and giving them wheat and oil for lighting. Very often, a chicken get sacrificed at the time of erecting the screen and rising to the sacrifice of a sheep at the pint in the play when the evil characters get slain.

 

The Kwok On collection, donated to the Fundação Oriente, includes over 300 Karnataka figures; formerly belonging to a family that quit being puppeteers with the figure having been handed down between generations ever since the 18th century.

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