Puppetry originated in India and traveled across the seven seas to the Eastern and Western world as vouched by many scholars. Puppets dated back to a period well before Bharata’s Natya Shastra and have continued unabated throughout the centuries in almost all Indian sates. Puppetry is one enduring form which has entertained masses and educated people. The famous puppeteers of Rajasthan are really acrobats, who only put on puppet shows when they move out of villages. These and a thousand other scintillating facts come out of this exciting book for the reader;s entertainment and elucidation. Puppets are by no means for only children-as the puppeteers of Orissa sing and dance about the romantic love of Radha and Krishna, and Keralan puppets narrate Kathakali stories in the same make-up and costumes. The book aims at giving a connected account of the Indian puppets: their variety, their multiple functions, their craft, their animation and their connections with other related arts in five separate parts. The book also contains-for the first time in any book on puppetry-four important appendices: Museums in India containing puppets, Directory of Indian Puppeteers, Global Bibliography on Puppets and a relevant Glossary. The world of Indian puppets is seen in vivid colours-with scores of coloured photographs and many line-drawings and halftone pictures-in their many-sided splendour: variety of the glove, rod, string, shadow, and human puppets and a myriad background stories of the puppet-masters and their imaginative landscape of free creativity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sampa Ghosh
Sampa Ghosh joined Calcutta Puppet Theatre (CPT) under Suresh Dutta in 1980. She received scholarship for Young workers in Different Cultural fields from Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for puppetry in 1982-85 and participated in more than 2000 shows all over India and Bangladesh as a member of CPT up to 1986. She worked at SRC Puppet Repertory as its Director in 1986-87 and directed four puppet plays, which proved very popular. She participated in Indian Manifestation Festival in Sweden in 1987 as the group leader, performing 42 shows all over Sweden. She conducted many puppet workshops in India and Canada especially for children and teachers. She directed two children productions and gave a lecture demonstration on Indian puppets to international group of puppeteers under the aegis of Kala Bharati and Quebee Puppeteers Association of Canada in Montreal in 1995. As an outstanding artist, she received Senior Fellowship from Government of India in 2001-03 for creating a website portal on Indian Pupperty. Her recent monograph on Make Your Own Puppets has been highly applauded.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal K Banerjee
Dr. Utpal K. Banerjee's career is both varied and prolific. He has been an adviser on management and information technology for over thirty years and has an abiding interest in Indian art and culture. In 1998, he was sent by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to lecture on art and culture in South America. Earlier lectures included those given in Canada and the USA in 1990 and 1995 when he was invited by ICCR and Kalabharati Foundation of Canada. His comprehensive book, Indian Performing Arts, has gone into several editions and another, Begali Theatre: 200 Years, has been published by the Publications Division, Government of India. His most recent works include Indian Performing Arts: A Mosaic and Indian Puppets. Dr. Banerjee's formal introduction to the visual and performing arts of the world came through several courses that he attended at the Extra-Mural department, University of Manchester, UK in 1969-72. He was National Project Director for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) for a UNDP project on 'Multimedia Database for Art and Culture Documentation and Computerisation'. His articles appear regularly in India Perspective, Indian Horizons and The Pioneer. He has contributed to countless cultural programmes on the BBC, All Indian Radio and Doordarshan.
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