Tholu Bommalata Puppet, Male Jester

Leather shadow puppetry of Andhra Pradesh is known as Tholu Bommalata, (Tholu – leather, Bommalata – puppet dance) an ancient tradition of storytelling, narrating the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The shadow puppets are flat figures cut out of leather treated to a translucency. They are pressed against the screen and appear as a silhouette or colour shadow to the viewers sitting on the other side of the screen. The leather puppets are very popular. They start at night and go on till the morning or sometimes for several nights. The shadow puppets are made from goat skin as the hide absorbs colour easily. The characters are then drawn on the skin, cut out and decorated with dots, lines and holes. They are painted in different colors, using the mural style of painting. They are then supported with a thin strip of smooth bamboo fixed vertically along the middle on either side of the figure. The arms have movable joints so that they can be manipulated and maneuvered in a specific way to perform the required movements. Historically, the tradition seems to have existed in Gujarat a thousand years ago from where it migrated to Maharashtra. The wandering clan then spread to other parts like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Orissa where the art flourished. In Andhra region, Madhavapatnam, near Kakinada, DC Palli in Nellore district, Nimmala Kunta in Anantapur district and Narasaraopet in Guntur district are the main centers for leather puppets.