Diksha pilania colloquim

PUPPETRY Not a craft but a phenomenon of human existence

• D I K S H A

P I L A N I A •

ABSTRACT “The inner face in the man kindles him to do many things, just as a dancing leather puppet and wooden marionettes are controlled by the man who holds the strings” How did puppetry come into existence or how it evolved is still a debatable topic because deep down in its roots , it is nothing but a philosophy of human existence. It’s a mere observance of the human behaviour .

The strongest link between both have always been ignored while the studies kept on revolving around constant appreciation of the wooden figures , the costumes or the beautiful blend of colours. It did not take into consideration the fact that , it is the strings that imparts soul to these lifeless puppets and it is the strings that proves human existence.

Whether it be in the terms of manipulation or the stories , the link is prominent throughout puppetry and a man’s life.

INTRODUCTION

The crafts that exist in the world are said to be evolved , they are said to be the creation of the human beings who discover the uniqueness and bring out beautiful manipulations .

However , Is puppetry a craft or is it just a phenomenon of human existence , a mere observance of human behaviour?

This research paper focuses on the points of similarity between the puppets and the humans in order to create links that speak about the parallel existence of puppetry with human’s existence.

Sutradhara , Yantrani , String-holder – all of these terms used in history were prevalent long before the dolls for puppetry were seen. Their portrayal can be traced back to the times before our existence thus invoking a thought “Whether puppetry is a craft that has evolved or whether it’s existence run parallel with our existence?”

Puppetry is believed to be developed from the shadow theatre, which was necessarily operated from below . However how string puppet evolved is still a question as it is operated from above, which links to the origin of humans who are believed to be controlled by the hand above all – Creator of the universe.

It can also be traced back to the times when man was enamoured by images forming on the wall whereby he envisioned him and replicated communication, thus puppetry became the first ever means of communication to depict stories throughout. This folk media is more effective than any other means of communication.

As it is well said “Visual language is much more effective than the verbal language” and so what you see stays more in your mind than what you hear.

It’s first mention in Mahabharata creates a strong link with the stories of literature and the stories of human evolution.

Threads of love are woven into theatre as much as literature . They are common and as generally accepted as that of other social and political subject.

“Puppetry is thus Crystallisation of imagination and magic of puppeteer.”

It is a seamless blend of many creative elements like painting , sculpture , music , dance and drama. A beautiful and well planned mix of stories, movement , set up of the stage is what brings these stories to life . Puppetry is a collaborative piece combined by the efforts of story-teller, puppet-maker, string manipulator and only when the team works together – the audience gets to experience a blend of all the artistic talent in a exceptionally well portrayed story.

The concept of puppetry was born ages back out of AUTOMATA –“ all the ancient self moving figures”. Only when this mechanism

took the form of strings, the functionality was seen in the form of puppets. From then on, anything moved by an unknown force was termed as puppetry .

Do the humans know about the force that operates them?

Even if they do, is the force visible?

Aren’t we also moved by an unknown force, aren’t we these self moving figures???

Aren’t we the AUTOMATA??

Isn’t it that: “Puppetry was something which existed parallel with our existence and just took a physical form later.”

It is exactly a demonstration of the working of human beings, a literal depiction of how the human life runs , how every action , every movement is possible just because the strings are constantly being pulled and manipulated.

Humans themselves are this craft who have been carefully placed in the theatre with a pre-decided story that they have to be a part of . The culture they belong to, the region they live in, all start to shape up their attire , their gestures and in turn build up their identity. The same process is followed up in forming the identity of a new puppet, it is given the characteristics and attributes of the place it belongs to . The stories revolve around the culture that the region follows and the changes taking place put an impact on the shaping up of their identity.

How humans are brought to life and how puppets are articulated is nothing but the same theory of Strings that animates the whole inanimate figure. All the strings passing through the body are linked to a master string that acts as the controller for the whole working mechanism that takes place. Even the slightest movement in the body needs to be carefully articulated by pulling the right string at the right time . Puppetry being a form in which there is no movement on the face of the puppet , poses a great challenge to depict the nuances of character upon this STATIC and UNCHANGEABLE face and its only the articulation of strings by the human agency that brings these lifeless figures to life. It takes proper study to master this art of articulation of strings as

the depiction of the story depends only upon how these strings are moved.

“Everything else in puppetry is inanimate , it’s just the strings that is animate” Isn’t it ironical that how the only thing of utmost importance, the only reason for the whole and sole existence of craft is a mere string which isn’t even visible.

In the same way , our reason for existence is also hidden amongst our bodies , keeping us unaware of the force that manipulates us. The importance of general role played by spinal cord (strings) might be easily recognized by analogy to marionette puppets, another system in which the brain (puppeteer’s) must cope up with a large number of partially redundant actuators (strings) moving a mechanical linkage with complex intrinsic properties . A mere thought inside the brain can lead to a complex set of movements of various strings, it’s all a play of the “ presence of mind” which decides the next move of the body. Likewise it is essential for the puppeteer to have a strong presence of mind in order to well plan each and every movement.

The strong connect between the existence of both forms builds up a relation of human with these artificial figures who do not imitate life but represent it . How the life is represented, or perhaps how the story builds up is a mere play of concealment and revelation. Identity of one comes to inhabit the other. As soon as the puppeteer goes behind the curtain , conceals his identity – he imparts his body and soul into the puppet and reveals the character wanted to be portrayed . The puppets thus become the identity of the puppeteer representing the story that the puppeteer had wished for.

No matter how well you have planned your story, no matter how efficiently you have crafted or painted the puppet , nothing will give life to these puppets unless and until , the “Sutradhara” or “String-holder” takes a hold of those thin strings and imparts body and soul to form these independent beings which become the centre of artistic expression that makes us conceal the identity of puppeteer itself. No matter how well the humans have clothed or decorated themselves .

Their identity is created only by the actions that they portray to the world which is driven by the string of thoughts

that shape up a being. Its the manipulation of these strings by the creator that depict their identity and shape up their stories. The master (Sutradhara) is thus the creator , manipulator of these puppets.Just as these puppets with no free will , the humans are also manoeuvred by concealed force , by the strings of external forces manipulated by the puppeteer who writes the story of their existence thus making them capable of being “self moving figures�. He is the creation of the Master of all things in time and space , who has the power to manipulate each and every second of humans life. He is the Yantrani for the human specie who has concealed his identity very well to impart soul to this whole race.

The masters for both the puppets and humans seem to apply same mechanisms for the working of their creations . The sutradhara for the puppets seem to have taken inspiration from the master of the universe in order to derive to this craft of moving dolls and these links now become the base of the discussion that puppetry was born not as a function of recreation but it is a result of observance of human behaviour.

The drastic changes in human behaviours , technology , gestures and dignity lead to the evolution of the craft as it is the stories that build up in real life that becomes the folktales of the theatrical life. Every time a new addition is done to the realistic world , a string adds up in the stories of the puppet theatre to bring it as close to the human reality as possible. As the society develops and continuously sees new innovation , it is the theatre which keeps on adding new props to its play . For instance , as openness prevailed in society , nakedness on stage became frequent and popular which gave rise to eroticism in puppetry . Puppetry started to become more socially acceptable as it was now seen as a manner to break the myths and stereotypes and lead to the better development of society. It provides the community with a sense of identity and continuity , while promoting creativity and social well being.

They both run hand in hand as on one side where the real life incidents are giving rise to meaningful stories while on the other hand its through folklore that these stories are helping to encourage development and knowledge . The portrayal of these stories is very relative as it is completely an outcome of how it had been transmitted to the puppeteer by his

generation and what were the cultural boundaries that he was restricted to . How open is he to move the strings of the puppet depends on how loose his strings were , how free he was to live his life. If the strings of his thoughts were bound by restrictions , he would either make the strings of the puppet too loose to let out his anger or he will keep them tightened to depict his actual situation. It’s not the humans that have shaped puppetry , its the strings of the culture that has shaped forms of puppetry. It’s not only about the materials and techniques that are orally transmitted from generation to generation but also about the people and the associated knowledge system. The knowledge system and the upbringing is what decides the actual movement of strings , whether they will move completely free or be bound , whether they are free to move on their own will or they are restricted by the norms and myths.

Its through puppetry that the performer gets both , the physical and the emotional outlet to depict what he feels , or how he perceives the society to be . Puppetry acts as a speech to these performers who consider folklore as a medium to let out what they feel . It’s not just the puppets which have been imparted souls but also its the performer who considers it as a strong medium to reveal the stories that have been bereft of speech. Puppets are nothing but just an extension of the strings of the emotions of the human race.This beautiful interdependency of both lives is what makes the craft of puppetry a direct portrayal of how the outer world is actually progressing or evolving.

As it is well quoted in Ramacharitmanas “Gira anayana , nayana bin bani” The speech does not have vision and the vision is bereft of speech.

Audience is thus confronted by a spectacular combination of both the speech and the vision – the “omnipresent” puppeteer and the “animated” puppet. Just like we are bereft of the vision that the “omnipresent” creator has set for us . Just like we are nothing but the speech that has travelled through the strings by the one above us , narrating and living stories that he wants us to live . We are consciously or unconsciously doing nothing but transferring this speech through the link of the strings that connects us to these lifeless

puppets , where once the puppet was the receiver of the story , he now becomes the giver of the narration extending the strings and expanding the link as soon as he enacts the play in front of the audience and likewise the strings continue to add up as the stories continue to spread.The puppets or us aren’t even conscious of the external force that has the power above us. If we were conscious then it would be considered a mere case of manipulation !! But what if we are aware and yet allow ourselves to be manipulated??

In both the cases Puppetry is real.

Any dependency upon an external force , knowingly or unknowingly leads to the creation of puppets . All the destiny that we look forward to , all the fate that we believe in is nothing but an external force that allows us to keep moving ahead , thus controlling our actions. We turn around and find ourselves in the convention of real life , amidst means of actual daily manipulation , dominated by true life puppeteer in a world of puppet show enacting the story pre-decided for us.

“It is like each one of us is a thauma (wonder) created at hands of gods for their own amusement , the impulse that motivates us are like so many strings pulling in different direction.”

We have seen all the aspects of culture , the stories , the region but in the end we come back to the only moving force NEUROSPASTA - which are the strings running through and inside the figure through which the creator of the world moves the outside from within thus sending his power from an eternal and invisible place just like the puppeteer who imparts body and souls to the puppet through these merely visible strings.

Before this , did we ever appreciate the importance of the strings , did we even pay attention to the thin threads that run through the puppets . We have always ignored them , we have considered our presence to be a result of our own actions . However , now we realise how it all links , how it all comes to life and what is main driving force for our existence as well the existence of the puppets.It isn’t your fault if you never noticed the existence of these strings as it is really ironical that how the puppeteer tries to hide the only existence by camouflaging it as much as possible with the background . The puppeteer tries hard to hide these strings in

any possible manner creating an illusion of thauma which seem to perform on their own .

We are all puppets being manipulated by mysterious hands that have organized the genetic chip of our existence. NEUROSPASTA thus becomes the whole link between the craft and our lives and the reason for the existence of our puppetry and humans.

It is this strong and common link of the SUTRA (whether in the form of strings or spinal cord) that imparts life to the inanimate object (human or puppet) “The life of a puppet, the life of humans – it’s trapped in this string. Break the link, and they will fall shattered to the ground – LIFELESS” And as it is truly said “The moment you let loose your belief, you lose the reason of your existence” And in this case strings are the only strong belief that runs these puppets.

REFERENCES

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Aspects of Puppet Theatre – Henry Jurkowski Deeper investigations into Shadow theatre and PuppetryKeith Rawlings http://pages.citenet.net/users/ctmw2400/conclusionreferen ces.html http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/01/04/are-we-puppets-ordo-we-have-free-will/ http://ryuc.info/common/creativity_perspective/puppet_on_ a_string.htm https://ashscrapyard.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/we-arepuppets-in-the-hands-of-puppets/ http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/103187/ 8/08_chapter%201.pdf Indian Puppets-Sampa Ghosh , Utpal Kumar Banerjee.