The puppeteers' own story
Ask an old puppeteer where his family comes from, and he will name a village near Nagaur, a royal patron long dead and a road his grandfather walked every winter.
The Bhats: most kathputli puppeteers come from Bhat families, who have performed for generations and pass the craft from parent to child.
A Marwar homeland: their tradition links them to the courts of Marwar, and especially to the region around Nagaur.
Facts to know
- Community
- Mostly Bhat families
- Old patrons
- Rajput courts and villages
- Old life
- Travelling in the dry season
- Paid in
- Grain, cloth, coins, hospitality
- Today
- Hotels, festivals, schools, weddings
- Royal patrons: puppeteers say their ancestors performed for Rajput rulers, singing the deeds of heroes. Some families tell that the art began with stories of the legendary King Vikramaditya.
- On the road: for centuries they travelled village to village in the dry season with a bundle of puppets, a drum and a few cots, and went home for the rains.
- Paid in kind: a village fed them, gave grain, cloth or a few coins, and sometimes a family would ask for a special show at a wedding or birth.
- A family art: a show is often three generations at work. The men work the strings, the women drum and narrate, the children watch from behind the stage until they can do it themselves.
What a kathputli looks like
A kathputli has no legs. It doesn't need them. Its long skirt swirls, its painted eyes stare, and a flick of the puppeteer's finger sends it spinning.
Carved wood: the head and upper body are carved from a single block of light wood, with the turban or veil shaped into the wood itself.
The face: painted in bold colours, with enormous almond eyes, arched brows, red lips and, for the men, a sweeping moustache.
- No legs: most puppets end in a long, full skirt that flares as they dance. Horses are a single carved piece with no legs either.
- Cloth arms: stuffed cloth arms are attached at the shoulder, so they swing freely when the puppet moves.
- Bright clothes: costumes are stitched from cotton, satin and brocade scraps, with gold trim, sequins and tiny mirrors.
- Few strings: a puppet usually has a single loop from the head to the back and short strings to the hands. Everything depends on the puppeteer's touch.
- Balance: hold a well-made puppet and you feel it hang true, ready to dance. A badly made one tips and twists.
A reed in the mouth and a stage made of beds
The voice is the first surprise. It comes from nowhere in particular, high and buzzing, like a bee arguing with a kettle.
The boli, the puppet's voice
What it is: a small reed whistle held between the puppeteer's lips as he works.
- How it works: by shaping his breath and mouth, he makes the shrill, chattering speech of the puppets, rising for an angry king and squealing for a fight.
- Why a narrator: few in the audience follow every squeaky word. The narrator repeats and explains, and adds jokes for the local crowd.
The narrator and the drum
- Usually a woman: a woman of the family plays the dholak, a two-headed drum, sings the songs that carry the story and explains what the puppets are saying.
- The real star: watch her. She controls the pace, wins the audience and covers any tangled string with a joke.
The stage
Two charpais: two string cots stood on end and tied together make the frame. A painted cloth with a row of arches hangs across the front like a palace facade.
- Hidden hands: the puppeteer stands on a step behind the cloth, so his hands are hidden above the arches while the puppets play below.
- Portable: the whole theatre fits on a bicycle or a camel, and goes up in a courtyard in a quarter of an hour.
Local tip
Ask the puppeteer to show you the boli after the show. Most will demonstrate it, and many children manage a squeak on their first try.
The ballad of Amar Singh Rathore
Every kathputli family knows one story above all others. It has a proud hero, a jealous court, an insult, a dagger and a horse that leaps a fortress wall.
The prince: Amar Singh Rathore was the eldest son of a ruler of Jodhpur, passed over for the throne and sent into Mughal service, where Shah Jahan made him governor of Nagaur.
The insult: the popular story says that in 1644 the Mughal noble Salabat Khan insulted him in open court at Agra, and Amar Singh killed him with his dagger in front of the emperor.
Facts to know
- Hero
- Amar Singh Rathore, a prince of Jodhpur
- Mughal post
- Governor of Nagaur under Shah Jahan
- The insult
- At court in Agra, in 1644
- Remembered at
- The Amar Singh Gate, Agra Fort
- Told as
- Legend, with plenty of comedy
- The leap: he was cut down soon after, and the ballad says his horse leapt from the fort walls to carry him, or his body, home.
- In Agra: guides still point out the gate named after him at Agra Fort, a link that surprises many visitors who saw the puppets first.
- As legend: the puppeteers tell it as a ballad, not a history lesson, and so do we. What matters is the idea: honour above life, courage against power.
- The interludes: between scenes come jugglers, a snake charmer whose snake bites back, a dancing horse and a dancer who spins faster and faster on one string.
Meet the cast
A puppeteer's bundle holds a whole kingdom. Unroll it and out come a king, a court, a horse, a snake and a woman who turns into someone else entirely.
The hero and his horse
- Amar Singh: the tallest puppet, with a towering turban, a fierce moustache and a sword at his side.
- The horse: a single carved piece with a painted saddle cloth. A rocking movement of the wrist makes it rear, trot and charge. The leap over the wall always gets a cheer.
The emperor and his court
- The court: the emperor on his throne, surrounded by courtiers, each a slightly different shape and colour.
- The villain: the noble who insults the hero usually gets the silliest voice of all, and the narrator's sharpest jokes.
The snake charmer and the snake
- Pure slapstick: the charmer plays his pipe, the snake rises, sways and bites him on the nose, and the chase begins. It never fails.
- Real snakes: the wooden snake is the only kind we book. Real snake shows are illegal and cruel.
The dancer and the juggler
- The dancer: in a wide mirror-work skirt, she spins on a single string until her skirt becomes a wheel. Some have a trick costume that flips to reveal a new figure.
- The juggler: tosses tiny balls on strings so fine you can hardly see them, and drops one on purpose for a laugh.
Other plays and new stories
Amar Singh is the one everyone waits for, but a good troupe carries several stories, and some have written new ones.
Folk heroes: plays about Pabuji and Prithviraj Chauhan appear in some repertoires, sharing heroes with the singers and storytellers of the region.
Village tricksters: comic tales of clever villagers and foolish officials, full of jokes the local audience recognises.
- Short programmes: for children and hotel audiences, most troupes perform a sequence of dances and interludes without a long plot.
- New subjects: puppeteers have been asked to perform stories about health, schooling and the environment, and some have toured abroad with new plays.
- Weddings and birthdays: troupes often add a scene or a song in honour of the family who has invited them. Ask, and they will usually oblige.
How a kathputli is made
Every puppet begins as a block of wood and a family discussion about what the new king should look like.
Carving
- Light wood: the maker chooses a soft, light wood, so the puppet hangs easily from the strings.
- A few tools: chisels and knives rough out the head and body. A skilled maker shapes a head in an hour and finishes it in a day.
Painting
- Priming first: the face is primed and painted in a warm yellow or pink, then given its brows, lips and moustache.
- The eyes last: the great black-rimmed eyes bring a puppet to life on stage, so they get the most care. Older puppets used natural pigments, newer ones mostly enamel paints.
Dressing and stringing
- The women's work: costumes are usually stitched by the women of the family, with skirts, jackets and veils trimmed with gold and mirrors.
- Stringing: the strings go on last, and the maker tests the balance until the puppet hangs true.
A morning with a maker
- What we arrange: with notice, a morning with a puppet-making family in Jaipur or Udaipur, where you watch the carving, help dress a puppet and learn a few movements.
- What you take home: the puppet you helped to finish. Our kathputli puppet theatre page explains the visit.
Where to see a good show
You can watch puppets in a museum, a courtyard, a hotel garden or a village square. These are the places we use, and what each gives you.
Udaipur, Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal
- What it is: a folk art institute near Chetak Circle founded in 1952 by Devi Lal Samar, a scholar and puppeteer who did more than anyone to win respect for Rajasthani puppetry.
- What you see: an old-fashioned, charming museum of puppets, masks and instruments, and a short puppet show on most days. Our Udaipur guide has more.
Udaipur, Bagore ki Haveli
- The evening show: the courtyard of Bagore ki Haveli hosts an hour of folk dance and music most evenings, usually with a short puppet act.
- Inside: the haveli museum has a room of puppets too.
Jaipur, a private courtyard
Our favourite: a puppeteer family performing in the courtyard of your haveli or palace hotel, with musicians and perhaps a dancer, rather than in a lobby.
- Where: at Samode Haveli or Rambagh Palace, the setting does half the work.
- The puppet sellers: around Siredeori Bazaar and the walled city. Our guide to the bazaars of Jaipur shows where.
Jodhpur, Nagaur and Jaisalmer
- Marwar: a puppeteer can perform on a rooftop facing Mehrangarh as the fort lights come on. In Nagaur, ask your guide to tell Amar Singh's story at the fort.
- Jaisalmer: small cultural centres near Gadisar Lake hold evening shows, and in the desert camps a puppeteer can join the musicians by the fire. See our Jaisalmer guide.
At the festivals
- Where: puppet shows are part of the Kumbhalgarh Festival in December and the Abhaneri Festival, among others. We confirm the dates each year.
A private show, the way we arrange it
The best puppet show we ever saw was in a courtyard with twelve people in it, a jug of lemonade and a puppeteer's grandson asleep behind the stage.
A family we know: usually three or four people with their puppets, drum and stage, invited to your hotel, haveli or a courtyard we have chosen.
After sunset: they arrive in the late afternoon, put up the stage and perform for thirty minutes to an hour, before or after dinner.
- The programme: chosen with the family in advance, from the full Amar Singh ballad to a short version with plenty of interludes for young children.
- With music: we often add folk musicians, so the evening becomes a small festival. Our piece on Manganiyar music explains the desert singers.
- With dinner: a private dinner in a palace courtyard, puppets before the meal and singers after, is one of the loveliest evenings we arrange.
- Children backstage: after the show, children are invited to try the strings. Very few manage more than a wobble, and very few stop smiling.
An art that needs its audience
Ask an old puppeteer how things have changed and he will tell you about the year his village bought its first television and stopped calling for the puppets.
Lost villages: cinema, radio and then television took away much of the village audience, and many puppeteer families moved to the cities.
City settlements: in Delhi, a large settlement of performing families, including many puppeteers, grew up in the west of the city and became known as Kathputli Colony. It has been the subject of a long redevelopment.
- New stages: puppeteers now perform at hotels, schools, weddings, festivals and abroad, and some troupes have toured the world.
- Recognition: Devi Lal Samar's work in Udaipur and the attention of folklorists helped the art win respect as one of India's great folk traditions.
- Uncertain work: the pay is irregular and often low, and many young people from puppeteer families have chosen other trades.
- Factory puppets: cheap machine-made puppets with plastic faces now flood the bazaars, undercutting the makers.
- What helps: watching, paying properly and buying puppets from the families who make them. Our piece on the artisans we work with explains how we choose.
Buying a real kathputli
There are rows of puppets on every fort ramp in Rajasthan. A few minutes of looking tells you which ones a puppeteer would put on his own stage.
Tap the head: a real kathputli has a carved wooden head that knocks like wood. Plastic faces are light and hollow.
Look at the eyes: hand-painted eyes are slightly different from puppet to puppet. Identical rows of faces mean factory work.
Facts to know
- Head
- Carved wood, not plastic
- Eyes
- Hand-painted, slightly uneven
- Arms
- Stuffed cloth, sewn at the shoulder
- Costume
- Hand-stitched, real trim
- Traditional gift
- A pair, a man and a woman
- Check the stitching: costumes on handmade puppets are sewn by hand, with trim and mirrors stitched on, not glued.
- Hold it up: a well-made puppet hangs straight and balanced from its strings.
- Buy from the puppeteers: after a show, ask the family. A pair of puppets, a man and a woman, is the traditional gift.
- Travelling with it: wrap the faces in soft cloth and keep the puppet away from damp, which lifts the paint. Our shopping guide has more on handwork.
Good to know before the show
A few small things make a puppet evening better for you and for the family performing it.
Sit close: the puppets are small and the stage is low, so the front rows see far more. Children belong on the ground at the very front.
Ask for the story first: especially for the Amar Singh ballad, a two-minute summary from your guide makes the squeaky dialogue make sense.
- Clap and laugh freely: the puppeteers play to the audience, and a lively crowd gets a better show. Silence worries them.
- Photograph without flash: photography is usually welcome during a show, but ask first and never use a flash in anyone's face.
- Tip at the end: a gift for the performers, handed with thanks to the head of the family, is customary. Our money and tipping guide explains what is usual.
- Go behind the cloth: ask if you may see the stage from behind after the show. The tangle of strings and the tiny step the puppeteer stands on explain everything.
- The right hour: between October and March an outdoor show after sunset is perfect. In the hot months we move it indoors or later in the evening.
Who will love it
Children, obviously. But we have seen a retired judge laugh until he cried at a wooden snake charmer.
Families: a show is one of the easiest ways to end a long day of forts. Our family journeys and our guide to travelling with children build one in.
Grandparents: many Indian guests remember the same shows from their own childhoods, and the nostalgia is half the pleasure.
- Folk-culture lovers: a private show followed by a conversation with the puppeteers is fascinating. Pair it with our piece on the bhopa and the phad, the puppets' storytelling cousins.
- Couples: a full show can feel long, so we suggest a short puppet act with musicians at dinner.
- Limited mobility: everything comes to you, which makes it a lovely evening for anyone who finds forts hard going.