Tholu Bommalaata: The Centuries-Old Shadow Puppetry Tradition Of Andhra And Telangana

As the sun sets and dusk falls over the south Indian peninsula, villagers gather around the village ground. The stage is set. A large white sheet of fabric is stretched from bamboo poles firmly planted into the ground. Earthen castor oil lamps light up the screen in a warm, golden glow. From behind the white surface of the screen, shadows of colourful, life-size puppets burst into song and dance. This is Tholu Bommalaata — Andhra Pradesh and Telangana's centuries-old shadow puppetry tradition.

Origins and History of Tholu Bommalaata

In Telegu, 'tholu' means 'leather', 'bommalu' means 'doll' or 'puppets', and 'attam' means 'dance', giving this ancient tradition its name, Tholu Bommalaata — meaning 'dance of the leather puppets'. It is one of the seven folk puppetry and performing art traditions that originated in South India and gradually spread to the rest of India and South East Asia. Mostly practised by the Aare Kapu community today, the tradition is now centred in the Anantpur, Guntur, and Nellore districts in Andhra Pradesh.

Shadow puppetry has a rich and long history in South India. According to ancient Telegu texts, it was already quite popular during the time of the Satavahana and Chalukya dynasties which ruled over the region between 4th and 6th centuries CE. Many epigraphic and literary references from the period mention that puppeteers occupied an important role within Telegu society at the time and often enjoyed royal and religious patronage. The Pallava and Chalukya dynasties, as well as the rulers of the Vijayanagara empire, were all patrons of Tholu Bommalaata puppeteers collectively known as bammalata vallu.

Neelakantha Panditha — a 12th century CE commentator of the Mahabharata — wrote that shadow plays with leather puppets were popular at that time in South India, while a contemporaneous inscription from the time also records the donation of a village to the puppeteer Sutradhari Bommalayya. Interestingly, in the 18th century, a group of puppeteers from Maharashtra migrated south to the regions of Karnataka, Telengana, and Andhra Pradesh and changed the face of South India's shadow puppetry tradition forever. Although their descendants now use Telugu and Kannada in their performances, many of them use a Marathi dialect called 'Aare' between themselves.

The Making of Tholu Bommalaata Puppets

Tholu Bommalaata is a hereditary craft — passed down patrilineally from one generation of bommalata vallu artisans to the next. The puppets are traditionally made by the puppeteers themselves, and learning the craft of making these puppets is an important part of their training in puppetry.

The tholu bommalaata puppets are unique among South India's many puppetry traditions because of their scale, typically ranging between 5 and 6 feet in height. The principal characters of a story often have several puppets each in various sizes and poses — depending on the scenes within the story. In depictions of Ramayana, for example, the character of Hanuman often has four different puppets, ranging from just over 6 inches to 8 feet tall depending on different episodes within the narrative.

These puppets are usually made out of goat, deer, or buffalo hide. Traditionally, expensive leather like deerskin were used to make puppets for 'good' characters — like protagonists and gods — while goatskin was used for human characters, and buffalo was used to make 'evil' characters. Nowadays, goatskin is used for all characters irrespective of their morality.

To make these leather puppets, the hide is first shaved and cleaned, then treated with herbs and beaten to render it thin and translucent so light can pass through. The hides are then stretched flat to prevent wrinkling and cut into the required size. This process takes as long as three days, and the hide resembles parchment by the end of the process. Once the hide has been processed, the outline of the puppet is drawn and cut from the hide.

A single hide usually produces a single puppet, with up to three needed for larger puppets. All parts of the body are made separately and attached to each other at the points of articulation using strings. The head and torso are connected by a long sturdy stick that supports the figure and allows the puppeteer to control the puppet, while thinner sticks allow for controlling the limbs. Puppets depicting female characters usually have additional articulation points at hips and shoulders for a wider range of motions and movements.

The style and visual language of these puppets draw inspiration from the murals at the Virabhadra Temple, Lepakshi, in Andhra Pradesh. To allow them to be flipped to change direction during plays, these puppets are identically painted on both sides. They were traditionally painted in red, green, and black, with white highlights, using natural dyes and pigments, however nowadays chemical dyes and colours in a wider palette are also used. Still, the colours follow traditional iconographic conventions, especially for puppets depicting divine characters like Rama and Krishna.

Epics in Light and Shadows

Historically, tholu bommalaata plays were performed during religious festivals such as Shivaratri in honour of Shiva — the Hindu deity associated with the art form. These plays traditionally took place through the night, lasting between two to four hours. In the days before mass media like radio, television, and the internet, these plays were sources of entertainment as well as information, and usually borrowed storylines from different versions of the Ramayana found across the south Indian peninsula. In fact, the Ranganatha Ramayana by Gona Budda Reddy — a theatrical rendition of Valmiki's Ramayana written between 1300 and 1310 CE — was composed specifically for tholu bommalaata performances.

The 13th century was the golden period of the tholu bommalaata tradition. The art form reached its peak between the 13th and 15th centuries during the Vijayanagara empire. In the mid-14th century, the emergence of the Bahmani sultanate led to an influx of Islamic migrants to the region, and in turn led to the influence of Turkish puppetry on the art form. This led to the inclusion of colourful garments and intricate jewellery on the female puppets and the introduction of long beards in many of the male puppets.

But as the Vijayanagara empire and the Bahmani sultanate fell, so too did the art and craft of tholu bommalaata. Without royal patronage, the art form dwindled, and performers turned to agriculture and other professions to make a living. Only a handful of troupes continue to practise the art form, and although Andhra Pradesh’s leather puppets and related products received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2008, the recognition has made little impact on the lives of bommalata vallu artisans.

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