Origin of Puppetry in India

Puppetry is a traditional folk theatrical form of India. The word puppet comes from the French word ‘Poupee’ or the Latin ‘Pupa’, both meaning ‘dolls’. In Sanskrit puppets are termed ‘Putrika’,’Putraka’or ‘Puttalika’, all of which are derived from the root Putta equivalent to Putra (son). It is derived from ancient Indian thoughts that puppets have life. Although puppetry involves in the manipulation of puppets-inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer or sutradhar. Puppetry is the most sophisticated enactments with boundless possibilities for creativeness. There is strong belief and contention by scholars across the globe that puppetry originated in Asian Countries and India is the cradle of puppetry and travelled across the seven seas to the other parts of the eastern and western world. According to European scholar, Richard Pischel, India is the Land of birth for puppets. There are references to different kinds of puppets in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Buddhist work called Therigatha and stories behind the origin of puppetry. The evidence discovered from Sita Benga Cave of 2nd century B.C. of Madhya Pradesh and also in Tamil classic ‘Silappadikaaram’ written about the 1st  or second century B.C support that the puppetry has been of Indian origin.

In the Indus Valley civilization found by the archaeologists who have unearthed one terracotta doll with a detachable head capable of manipulating by a string dating to 2500 BC. Perhaps, this could also be one of the reasons to find all forms of puppetry in our country and also matter of pride. Thiveli and Gimaru inscriptions of Asoka also outline that the puppet tradition was used to propagate the Dhrama along with entertainment and knowledge.