Museu da Marioneta

Southern India shadow puppets are made of goat or buffalo skin. Dear skin is also used to manufacture divine characters. Skins are treated with alkaline substances, and cleaned and softened in various stages until attaining a translucent and flat surface on which each character is drawn. Then they were coloured with natural pigments, but nowadays this is done using chemical pigments.
Ancient puppets, thus maintaining its visual continuity, inspire the design of each character. This wide and colourful line drawing is then reinforced and completed by puncturing the skin according to rich and different decorative patterns.
The translucent nature of the skin media, transparency of colours, and diversity and regularity of carvings allow an easier reading of the depicted characters, particularly when they are placed and put in motion against the light. Therefore the light, combined with each puppets’ colour and eye make-up – which have a symbolic feature –give life to shadow puppets.
Southern India shadow puppets are usually large – more than a meter tall – and the personality of each character is marked by its colour and iconography. Blue is reserved for Rama and Krishna – divine characters – and red depicts a violent and animal personality, such as Ravana.
The drawing of the eyes of each puppet defines the turning point at which the shadow puppets begin to be treated with the respect due to each of the depicted characters, mainly those of divine nature. This respectful treatment also includes the way they are stored, thus avoiding mixing them with others of devilish nature.
The tradition of shadow puppets is very old and relates to animist and religious rituals of the communities where they were developed and still linger on. Performances are accompanied by music, dialogues, songs and accounts that allow bringing life and emotion to both stories and tales. The most common stories are inspired by the local versions of the two major Hindu literature epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata – whose influence is still dominant in all Southern and South-Eastern Asia.