“There used to be a Harikatha exponent called Srivanchiyam Ramachandra Bhagavatar. He thought of getting messages across to his audience using visual aids in the form of puppets. Bhagavatar chose different kinds of wood for different dolls. Brahma, for instance, was made of wood from the mango tree and the demons, tamarind wood. A carpenter would carve out the dolls, and the eyes were fixed by a temple sthapathi,” narrates Kudanthai Chandhar, as he traces the origins of ‘Katta Bommalaattam’, the art of wooden puppetry. Chandar argues therefore, that the art owes a lot to Harikatha.
Wooden puppets are heavy and huge - two to four feet in height, and weighing between three to seven kgs. As ancient as the Tirukkural, the art of wooden puppetry has few champions today- Kudanthai Chandhar being one among them.
“Puppetry is an ancient art. Verse 1020, of the 102nd Adikaaram in Tirukkural speaks of puppets made of wood. The Silapadikkaram talks of paavai koothu. The Mahratta kings of Thanjavur encouraged all kinds of puppetry,” says Chandhar.
But how did Chandhar get interested in the art? “That’s a long story,” he says. “Mani Iyer of Kumbakonam Mangala Gana Sabha used to stage katta bommalaattam. As a school student I had watched his shows, and wanted to learn the art myself. But when I finished schoolg, I took up a job with the Railways, and work and other preoccupations kept me from learning puppetry.”
But the desire to learn puppetry kept gnawing at him. Learning that wooden puppetry was also popular in the villages in Omalur taluk in Salem district, he went there. The art had been kept within a handful of families in the villages and hadn't been taught to any outsider. But Chandhar's persistence paid off. The villagers overcame their initial reluctance to teach him the art. “The villagers considered the art so divine, that once a show was over, they would keep the puppets in the temple. There would usually be 14 people in a team. Those who lent vocal support did not manipulate the puppets.”
In 1980, he bought 11 puppets in Karveli village in Salem. This set him back by Rs.12,000. Eight skirts are draped around each of these puppets, so that when the puppet is pressed down gently, the skirts spread, giving the viewer the impression that the doll is seated. Mridangam and Mukha veena used as accompaniments. In the case of Thanjavur puppets, the dancing dolls are fitted with legs, but in the case of the Salem dolls, none have legs. The Salem puppets are manipulated using eight strings. The Thanjavur dancing dolls have ten strings.
Once Chandar learnt the art from the Salem villagers and bought some puppets, he began to give programmes. He chose social themes most of the time. He has done programmes on female foeticide, AIDS awareness, the importance of education for girls, travel as education etc.
Earlier, puppetry had been an art that had excluded women. Chandhar wanted women too be a part of his team. His ‘Kudanthai Chandhar Kalai Mandram’, which he calls “a social service cultural propaganda unit,” includes many women too. “My mandram is registered with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry – Song and Drama division,” he adds.
Later, when the Mangala Gana Sabha wound up, he bought their puppets too. This added dancing puppets of the Thanjavur tradition too to his collection. “The Thanjavur dancing puppets are manipulated to mimic dances like Bharatanatyam, karagam, poikaal kudirai, kavadi,” he says .
UNICEF asked him to do 100 shows for children orphaned by the tsunami. He manipulated the puppets to garland the children. “The children’s smiles are the best rewards I could have asked for.”
Last month, he did a programme for the Visual Communications department of Anna University, to show how puppetry, in many ways, was the forerunner of Tamil cinema. “Puppet shows were based on mythological stories. Dramas began to be based on these same stories. Early films drew inspiration from Tamil theatre. Again, if you take the case of shadow puppetry, it helped people understand how to use lighting in cinema.”
About a year ago, he sold his entire collection of puppets to the Ramakrishna Kattabommalattam company in Kongupatti, near Omalur. How could he bring himself to part with the puppets which he had collected with so much care? “It was difficult, but I had to. I could no longer rent a place in Chennai to house my puppets, because of the high rentals. But when I sold my puppets, I also included a condition in the agreement, that whenever I wanted puppets for a show, I could borrow them from the Ramakrishna Bommalattam company.”
The Ramakarishna Bommalattam company does shows almost every day in different villages for six months in a year. They camp in each village for a month, and stage ticketed shows everyday. The stories are the usual traditional ones like Abhimanyu, Karnan, Keechaka vadam etc. Do people come to these shows, when there are other distractions like TV? “They do. Daily collection is anywhere between two and three thousand rupees!”
