Chamadyache bahulya
Chamadyache bahulya ( Marathi "skin doll") is a form of shadow play that is only practiced in a small area north of the town of Sawantwadi in the western Indian state of Maharashtra . Members of the Thakar caste group, who immigrated from Rajasthan in the 17th century, perform a program with medium-sized, semi-transparent figures at a Hindu temple in the vicinity of their home village of Pinguli at least twelve times a year . The scenes are based on a popular adaptation of the ancient Indian epic Ramayana . The shadow play is connected in a unique way to temple service, ancestor worship and the courtly tradition of the Bhonsle dynasty, which ruled the princely state of Sawantwadi from 1627 to 1947 . In addition to the game, the shadow Thakur still occur with a Kalasutri bahuliya mentioned puppet theater and show Citrakathi , color images to which they tell stories. The tradition is on the verge of disappearing.
Origin and Distribution
According to the interpretation of some text passages from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata and other religious scriptures written in Sanskrit , shadow plays and puppet shows have probably been known since the turn of the century. Chaya-nataka , "shadow game", is the text name for several medieval Sanskrit dramas, which some authors do not interpret literally, but rather as "shadow" or "outline" of a drama, meaning the adaptation of an older play would. A piece known as chayanataka is Dutangada , written by Subhata in the 13th century, the main scene of which is a magical transformation, which is regarded as a typical characteristic of a shadow play. The Dutangada contains an excerpt from the large and widely varied story Ramayana , the oldest and best-known version of Valmiki from the second half of the 1st millennium BC. Is dated. Valmiki's Ramayana consists of around 24,000 four-line verses ( shlokas ); The Mahanataka , the Ramayana version by an unknown author, is even longer . Because its authorship is ascribed to the mythical monkey king Hanuman , it is also called Hanumanataka . The text basis of many Indian plays, including most of the shadow plays, are episodes from the Ramayana . The shadow play Tholpavakuthu in Kerala is based on the Tamil version of Kambaramayana , written in the 12th century (there is more information on the general history of Indian shadow play).
In the past, the shadow play was also widespread in northern and central India, today it is limited to southern India, where it occurs in different forms in several regions. The northern limit of distribution forms an approximate line from Chamadyache bahulya in the south of Maharashtra across the subcontinent to Kolkata in the east. The distinction between the individual shadow play forms is based on the design of the figures in two main groups: In one group, figures made of thick, dark-painted animal skin are used, the effect of which is based on the black and white contrast of the outline and the incised perforation. They rarely have moving parts. These include the Tholpavakuthu of Kerala and the Ravanacharya of Odisha . The second group includes figures made of thin, translucent parchment , which is painted in multiple colors and additionally provided with perforated patterns. The figures in this group can be very large and have several movable arms, legs and heads, as in the Tholu bommalata from Andhra Pradesh and the Togalu gombeyaata from Karnataka . In addition to the small figures ( cikka , "small"), there are also individual figures and scene plates of the dodda type ("large") that reach life size in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka . A mixed form of the two forms forms the third group, in which movable and immobile figures as well as large scenic representations occur. These include the Tolpavaikuthu in southern Tamil Nadu and figures that are used in the border area between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Thai Nang yai also shows only large scenic panels . The figures of the Chamadyache bahulya are medium-sized and correspond in their transparency to the type of Karnataka.
The district ( wadi ) Gudivadi (Gudhi Wadi) in the village of Pinguli, which is today's center of Chamadyache bahulya , is located 16 kilometers north of the town of Sawantwadi in the Kudal district ( taluka ) of the Sindhudurg district, a few kilometers south of the small town of Kudal. Until the 1930s, the existence of shadow theaters in India was little known among European experts and was completely negated by some. The respective disciplines dealt with the Turkish Karagöz , the Arabic and Chinese shadow play as well as the Javanese wayang kulit . However, shadow plays also existed in many regions in India. At the beginning of the 20th century, there are said to have been shadow play troops in several places in Maharashtra. The fact that shadow actors are still active in the south of Maharashtra remained hidden from the responsible cultural institute in Mumbai and research until they were mentioned by Friedrich Seltmann and Valentina Stache-Rosen in the 1970s.
The question of when there has been shadow play in Sawantwadi is related to the immigration of the Thakar. In reports from the British colonial authorities in the 19th century ( Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency ), the Thakar are sometimes assigned to the Dalits or lower professional castes who are regarded as Hindus . They are mentioned in the four districts of Pune , Nashik , Ahmednagar and Kolaba (today Raigad ), which form a contiguous settlement area. Thakar lived in some areas further north and further south in Maharashtra, and there were also some groups in Punjab , Kashmir and probably in Gujarat . Some Thakar belonged to the court and the army of the Rajput princes , who in the 17th century advanced from Rajasthan (Rajputana) south into the kingdom of the Marathas . There Khem Savant I (Bhonsle) founded the princely state of Sawantwadi in 1627 . The Bhonsle dynasty ruled a powerful empire under their leader Shivaji (around 1630-1680) and ruled Sawantwadi until the independence of India in 1947 began to disempower the principalities. Since the Thakar and the Bhonsle came from Rajputana in the 17th century, it is possible that there was also a shadow play there at least up to this time. This assumption is reinforced because shadow players were a direct part of the religious cult practice and ancestral worship of the Bhonsle dynasty. According to a lineage going back seven generations, shadow plays have been performed in Sawantwadi since the middle of the 18th century. Friedrich Seltmann thinks it is possible that several other groups of showmen and puppeteers in northern India originally came from Rajasthan. He also refers to numerous Turks who were involved in the establishment of the Bahmani Sultanate and the persecution of Hindus in central India in the 14th and 15th centuries, which is why he considers influencing the Turkish Karagöz and the shadow play in Rajasthan in both directions .
A longer tradition of shadow play in Sawantwadi is also likely because the immigrant Bhonsle ruled over an area with a foreign population and therefore had to gain knowledge of what was going on in the country through a kind of secret service. The Thakar, who traveled around as shadow actors and puppeteers and were popular everywhere, offered themselves for this role. Shadow actors as ambassadors and spies have a long tradition in India, which is documented several times in literature. Since Patanjali's work Mahabhashya (around 250-120 BC) is a term for actors in a drama shaubhika , regardless of different views, whether the word is to be translated with shadow player or puppeteer. In the ancient Indian textbook on constitutional law, Arthashastra , which was written around this time, it is required that shaubikas should sneak in to the enemy in a serving manner. The constitutional law textbook Nitivakyamrita , written by Somadeva, a 10th century Jain poet based on Arthashastra , lists a number of spies, including shaubikas . About them is carried out, they showed various figures through a curtain at night. In the chronicle Culavamsa written in Pali , which covers the history of Sri Lanka until 1815 , it is said that King Gajabahu II. (R. 1137–1153) used people who could sing, dance and perform shadow figures as spies. Two spies found their way into the shadow play of Kerala, where they are supposed to spy out Rama's army on behalf of the demon king Ravana , one of the spies acts as a musician.
Since there is no corresponding historical source for Sawantwadi, a statement in the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency from 1884 from the eastern district of Bijapur in Karnataka gains comparative importance. The local Kilikets or Katbus, whose number is given for 1880 as 374, were a wandering ethnic group that had lived in the area for a long time and performed shadow plays. According to the detailed description, their status is based on a document ( sanad ) dated 1520 , in which they are granted certain rights. The Kilikets had a respected social position in what was then the Bijapur Sultanate . The same could have been true of the Thakur at this time.
Cultural environment
Thakar
The development of Hinduism among the Thakar includes the worship of mostly local deities such as Bahiroba (represented on horseback), Devi , Dhanai, Janai, (clan deities), Hirva (clan deity or demon), Khandoba (regional Shiva cult), Vithoba (manifestation from Vishnu ) and especially Vaghya (tiger god). In Gudavadi there is a small shrine for Bhadrakali (form of the great goddess Devi); the local Ravalnath temple is venerated by all twelve districts of Pingulis. There are also other protective deities of the Bhonse family. The tiger is feared because it kills people and it is considered diabolical or at least dangerous in popular religion. In Kerala, obsession dances are held at some temple festivals, in which the actors are attacked not by a deity (in the rituals Mudiyettu or Ayyappan tiyatta ) but by animals such as a tiger. Likewise, Thakar are said to be possessed by a tiger in a dance that goes back to pre-Hindu customs. According to Hindu ideas, Shiva's ecstatic dance as Nataraja is the overriding model. An ethnographic description of Kolwan in Thane District used to say that Thakar practiced witchcraft in general. This meant women called Bhutali who could exercise power over the dreaded Bhutas . The Thakar von Sawantwadi benefit from their reputation as magicians in their theatrical performances. According to reports from the colonial era, the Thakar generally appeared as showmen: in the Solapur district, specifically as storytellers, and in the Ratnagiri district , they performed dancing oxen.
Today's Thakar of Sawantwadi are river fishermen, showmen and exercise certain religious functions. The collective term for shadow players , puppet and picture presenters is Baulekar, derived from Marathi bahuli , "puppet". They call themselves Kilketta as shadow actors , sutra bomb as puppeteers and Citrakathi as picture presenters . In the late 1970s, three Baulekar groups were active.
Shadow actors and presenters of sequences of images are traditionally connected to one another. In the medieval Jain script Kalpasutra , the Mankhas (also Gauriputrakas) are mentioned in a list of wandering groups, who were beggars and showed pictures in their hands. Citrakathi, Citari or Citrakar are the names of groups in the northeastern Amravati region that used to belong to the leather workers and were non-residents . Another name of one of these groups is Hardas and that is also the name of one of the shadow play figures of the Thakar von Sawantwadi.
It is not clear where the name Kilketta comes from. It is related to Kannarese Killekyata , after the meaning of the so-called shadow play figure in Karnataka, composed of kille , "malicious" and kyata , "goblin". Other derivatives from Sanskrit kilika to Marathi khili / khila with the meaning “peg”, “rod”, “rod”, also khila , “joint”, “connection”, result in the context of kyata , Sanskrit katha , “story”, analogously People who tell something with jointed dolls . This fits for the jester figure, who is equipped with posable arms and legs. A colloquial interpretation of the meaning “stick”, “peg”, for shadow play figures is provided by the figures of the jester, who in Sawantwadi have such a nameable, oversized, movable phallus , a typical feature that also occurs in other shadow play traditions, up to around the 19th century Century in the figure of the Turkish Karagöz. The presenter and the joker figure are linguistically combined as a killekyata; in fact, it is often the joker figure from whose mouth the narrator explains the progress of the plot. Another derivation is possible from khelakari or khelakatha , consisting of khela "(puppet) play", "look" and katha , an epic singing performance: So someone is meant who shows pictures or figures and tells something about them.
Around 1970 there were about 4200 inhabitants in the village of Pinguli, of whom 525 were Thakar. For 2011, 1574 inhabitants are given. More Thakar live in three or four surrounding villages. At the time of the princely state it was regulated that the Thakar were allowed to present their performances in 48 villages. The individual Thakar families had divided these villages among themselves. Their area of activity has decreased to about 25 kilometers around Pinguli. During his research stay in 1977, Friedrich Seltmann found 20 active demonstrators who were busy with all three types of performance. According to their age and experience, the game leaders are classified as guru (general religious teacher) or naik ( nayak , a title), the long-time players as naca (dance drama, dancer) and the henchmen as sathidara ( sathi , "assistant", dara : Bearer of a property) addressed. The profession is usually passed on from the father to one or more of his sons. Furthermore, a boy from another Thakar family can be adopted into one of the demonstrator families. For this, the boy willing to adopt must give gifts to the family and the village community and bear the costs of the admission ritual. The student is called shishya (or cela ). His lessons begin around the age of 10 and last for 15 years. The unusually long training period is due to the few appearances per year, so that hardly any practical experience can be gained, which is the basis of the learning method. There is no special inauguration ceremony for the booth of a trained shadow player. Women cannot become demonstrators.
Shadow play and principality
Apart from the former espionage activities of the Thakar on behalf of the Bhonsle dynasty, their shadow play performances were integrated into the political structures of the Principality of Sawantwadi and into the religious cult practice there. In the 1970s, the Thakar gave around 15 shadow play performances per year, twelve of which are compulsory events belonging to annual ceremonial celebrations. Thus the Chamadyache bahulya is tied into a cultic context more than any other shadow play and in this respect is only related to the Tholpavakuthu in Kerala.
The Raja of Sawantwadi was the head of a secular and religious leadership; his descendants still exert a certain socio-political influence today. The state temple of the former royal family is in Akeri, a village northeast of Sawantwadi with 1959 inhabitants in the 2011 census. The Rameshwar temple there is a Pancayatana temple (temple for five deities), the central shrine of which is dedicated to Shiva. The surrounding temples belonged to the religious and family aspect of the ruler and his people. A side temple is dedicated to Ravalnath, a regional patron god related to Khandoba, who mostly appears in the vicinity of Shiva. The ancestral spirits of Gauda-Vas from old, respected families are venerated in another shrine. Together with Barasa-Vas, the temple of the twelve craft groups, the entire social stratification of the former principality is symbolically depicted. The ruler appeared in the state temple on official occasions.
Within the palace district of the royal family there was a house temple, which was of a similar importance to the state temple for the hierarchical social order. The deity worshiped here is Sri Patekar, she represents the head of the administration of the principality and is embodied in a small jug ( kalasha ). The administration consisted of several superior districts ( mahala ); the smallest unit was the village, which was administered by a Gaunkari. Each village had its own protective deity ( gramadevata ). In addition, there were intermediate levels of administration. Overall, there was a complex network of relationships between the social institutions of the principality and the deities assigned to them. The twelve ritual shadow plays of a year belonged to this context until around 1930, the first of which had to be performed in the house temple of the royal family. By performing the ritual in his house temple, the prince showed himself to be the earthly representative of the deity, because the arrangement of the stage, temporary divine throne and row of seats for the princely family in the vestibule of the temple represented a symbolic unity of deity, secular ruler and people of the state.
The house temple is a long rectangular building oriented west-east, the sacred space of which ends in the west with an altar for Sri Patekar. Seven vessels for the royal family and six vessels for the administrative units are placed on this. A side shrine with smaller figures of gods is dedicated to the house deities of the princely family. A partition wall with a passage separates the sacral area from the somewhat larger anteroom (assembly hall, sabha mandapa ), which is also given a sacred quality during the shadow plays and other ritual acts . The shadow play stage set up behind the partition wall faces east. Opposite her, on the east side of the room, a temporary throne chair is positioned so that the goddess Mahadev, who is worshiped there, can see the performance over the seats of the royal family. In addition to the mandatory shadow play, the same arrangement in the house temple used to allow other performances with puppets and pictures to take place on the following nights. The fact that the anteroom was temporarily converted into a sacred space in this way and the cella did not immediately become the location of the performance is a concession to the usual Brahmanic purity regulations. Only a brahmin is allowed to perform ritual acts in front of the divine altar.
Performance practice
According to the Hindu calendar , the first shadow play performance ( Haratâlikâ ) takes place in the house temple of the Prince's Palace on the third day in the first half ( shukla paksha ) of the month of Bhâdrapada (August / September) on the day before Ganesh Chaturthi , the annual festival for the god of luck Ganesha . For the further performances, the shadow players move to village temples, which belong to the area of popular religion. The second performance ( Dasarâ Sashthî ) follows in the 7th Hindu month of Âshvina (September / October) in the temple of the village of Math, which is dedicated to Sateri, a local form of the goddess Durga in her capacity as a buffalo slayer ( Mahishasura Mardini). The third performance takes place at the Diwali Festival of Lights , i.e. on the day of the new moon (Sanskrit amavasya ) in the month of Kartik (October / November) in the Ravalnath Temple in the hometown of the shadow player Pinguli. The new moon day is generally used for ancestor worship. During this time the demons ( asuras , including ravana ) and spirits ( bhutas ) are calmed through rituals with sacrifices. The other dates extend until the final 12th performance on the first day ( pratipad ) or second day ( dvitîya ) of the first calendar month Chaitra (March / April) in the Rameshwar temple in the village of Bav Bambuli. There are five performances in the month of Chaitra alone. Because the beginning of the year is of particular importance, the birthday of Rama ( Ram Navami ) and the birthday of Hanuman ( Hanuman Jayanti ) are also celebrated in this month . Both very revered deities and their opponent Ravana are central characters in the shadow play, which makes the accumulation of performances this month understandable. A special feature is the fifth feast day on Karttika Ekadashi, i.e. on the eleventh day of the first half ( shukla paksha ) of the month of Kartik. That night the shadow play troupe split up and gave a demonstration at the same time in the Satpurusha temple in the village of Vadi Varavade and at the tomb of Prince Jayram Savant Bhonsle (r. 1738–1753). The latter strengthens the connection between the shadow play and ancestor worship and the cult of the dead.
At these temples, worship ( puja ) is not performed by brahmins, but by low-caste temple priests. The shadow play stage is set up in the lobby at the greatest possible distance from and towards the statue of the gods. According to the arrangement of the provisional altar in the prince's house temple, the spectators sit between the stage and the actual altar. The vestibule and cella are usually connected to one another by an intermediate connecting link ( antarala ). The prince finances the performances in all twelve nights together with the respective village communities. If payment takes place in kind, this is usually rice, lamp oil and clothing.
In addition to the twelve compulsory performances, village communities used to be able to call in shadow players if they wanted to combat epidemic diseases that had broken out in the village through magical defense measures. The plague only had to be understood as a parallel to the villain Ravana, who is defeated in the performance of the Ramayana. The transmission performance in the ritual theater was reinforced by an additional scene that does not appear in the literary model: A tiger is involved in the decisive battle, which the Thakar fear as a demon and at the same time revere as the tiger god Vaghya. The plague is first projected onto the tiger and then removed by driving away the scapegoat that acts as a scapegoat . This is a typical magical practice.
Shadow puppets
The shadow play figures consist of a more or less transparent, colored animal skin. Their effect is based on the colors and fine perforations. The figures are similar to those of Togalu gombeyaata in Karnataka and have little in common with the opaque, thick hides of Tholpavakuthu in Kerala. Because of the small screen size, the figures reach a maximum height of approximately 42 centimeters and a maximum width of 38 centimeters. In 1977 Friedrich Seltmann found a total of 98 old figures, most of which were in a poor state of preservation, some limbs were missing or the skins had shriveled due to the action of water. A set of figures used to consist of around 300 pieces. The very good artistic quality and the fact that the shadow players have lost the knowledge of how to make them speak for the great age of the figures. The perforations are partly similar, but finer than in the comparable figures from Karnataka. Previously, episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were performed; the latter is not applicable as there are hardly any figures available for this. The skins are tied to a central holding rod, which in some cases splits in a V-shape at the tip. According to the characters, the figures used in Ramayana can be classified into the following groups in decreasing number: Ravana and his comrades-in-arms at court in his state of Lanka (25 pieces); scenic panels depicting several figures (17 pieces); Monkeys and bears, companions of Rama; Jokers, musicians and people from the people; individual gods and demigods; Animals and trees; and individual figures belonging to Rama. Eight other figures from the set of the Mahabharata were still present. Some figures that were relatively well preserved in 1977:
- Brahma , four heads with bearded faces (boatman's beard) and four arms. One of the upper arms is holding a palm leaf manuscript at head height , the other upper arm probably holds a thunderbolt ( vajra ). 30 centimeters high, 25 centimeters wide.
- Indra : The preserved fragment of the upper body includes a thunderbolt in one of the remaining hands. A cloth with a red and yellow checkerboard pattern hangs over the shoulder and diagonally in front of the torso. Once upon a time there was an apsara behind Indra , of which one arm with a fan still remains. 34.5 × 26 centimeters.
- Indrajit, son of Ravana, an invincible fighter in his army. On one of the largest figure plates he stands in a magical circle with a bow drawn and a short sword in his belt. The face is shown in profile with hair pigtailed upwards, the upper body frontally with a small spherical belly above the belt. Another figure shows Indrajit, beheaded by Lakshmana, lying dead on the ground, pierced by a wreath of arrows around him. 28 × 37.5 centimeters.
- Jambavat , the bear king, who fights on Rama's side in the monkey army, is ready to attack with sword and shield. Three similar, almost square figures.
- Lakshmana , Rama's brother, can be seen on four scenic panels. A plate measuring 35 × 35 centimeters shows Lakshmana lying on the ground hit by Indrajit's miracle weapon ( brahmastra, a dart). Rama kneels next to him, Hanuman steps up to help and saves Lakshmana. Rama is shown with a natural-colored face.
- Maruti ( Hanuman ), sent to procure the medicinal plant Sanjivani ( Selaginella bryopteris ) for Lakshmana, who was seriously injured in Lanka, brings the entire mountain ( Kailash ) on which the plants grow. Hanuman kneels on the floor, one leg bent. He wears a crown, a dagger in his belt and is dressed in a loincloth with a checkerboard pattern. 42 × 31 centimeters.
- A Ravana is shown with ten heads ( dashamukha ) and 20 arms, the middle head has a boatman's beard . A servant stands to one side, holding up a fan. 34 × 34 centimeters. Another ravana of similar size is shown in a fighting pose with a bow, shield, javelin and a knife in his belt. A 32 × 17 centimeter Ravana has the shape of a beggar monk in a short-sleeved dress.
- Sulochana, wife of Indrajit and daughter of the serpent king Shesha . When Indrajit is killed by Lakshmana, Sulochana goes to the battlefield to ask for the severed head of her husband. On the way she is shown riding a horse (named Hasoli), behind her is a servant holding up a fan. Sulochana's head is covered with a cloth. 28.5 × 28 centimeters.
- The nameless figures include a coconut picker who is one of the few figures with movable arms (one is missing). She is almost naked because her loincloth has slipped down to her thighs. She appears in the scene in the Ashok Vatika garden in Lanka in which Rama's wife Sita is held captive by Ravana. A bare-chested fisher woman wearing trousers carries a basket on her head with a chicken sticking out of it. When Lanka burns, you can see them flee.
- Joker characters form their own group. A male figure is Katbo (Katbu, synonym for Kilketta, "shadow player") with a fat belly and oversized phallus. He is the shadow player's identification figure. The same figure with longer legs is called Dengrishi or Hardas. Dengrishi is probably composed of dengan ("penis"), also dhenga ("buttocks"), and Sanskrit rishi (mythical hymn singer, holy man). Katbo and Denghrisi form a pair of jesters ( pakavati ). The female counterpart to Katbo is Kalâvant with protruding buttocks and spherical belly. Kalavant means a professional dancer, singer and prostitute at the same time in the regional language, so the Katbo-Kalavant couple is ideal for erotic dialogues. Other jokers are the coconut picker, a gardener and a man with two children.
The shadow play figures by Sawantwadi form a separate group according to their design. Compared to the surrounding shadow play types in Karnataka and Kerala, the pair of eyes that are visible in profile representation is missing (two-eyed, flounder effect). Most figures with bare torsos wear necklaces represented by perforations. Princes can be recognized by their crowns, browbones or hoods ( zischäggen ). Some monkeys and rakshasas (demons) wear triangular anklets .
stage
The temporary stage house ( makhar, from Sanskrit makhara , a special kind of frame, frame, cage) consists of a rectangular bamboo frame with a side length of about 1.5 meters and a height of over two meters. The vertical posts are connected to one another by crossbars inserted into holes. The approximately 80 centimeter high lower area, the sides and the rear border are braced diagonally with cords and loosely covered by a dark fabric ( jholamb, zolamb, from jholambanam , "hang", "swing freely"). A tightly stretched white cloth ( parada, padada ) forms the screen . A cord is stretched parallel to the lower edge at a distance of a hand's breadth inside the screen, around which the canvas makes a small bend inwards. The presenter can stick figures between this cord and the lower end of the screen if he does not move them for a while. The presenter crawls through the cloth at one point into the cage, which is closed on all sides. The entire construction is similar to the puppet stage used by the Thakar and is set up in half an hour.
The light source is an oil lamp ( dipa ) hanging from a string at the head height of the presenter , which consists of a square stone bowl with a thick cotton wick. The presenter is in a sacred room during the performance. He sits on an intermediate floor lined with mats. The other actors take their seats on mats next to the stage booth. A special feature is that the main character, who is the director and who reads most of the texts , acts outside the separate stage area. He sits on a mat in a certain position to the stage, like his assistant ( naca ) and a henchman ( sathidara ). Usually, the main event takes place inside the stage building. The only comparable exception is the shadow play Ravana chaya in Oriya, where two speakers act in front of the screen and the presenter remains silent behind the screen.
music
The game master tells and sings the progress of the plot while beating the double barrel drum dholki . In some scenes he blows a snail horn ( shankh ), the dark tone of which accompanies the appearance of gods. As a special sound effect, it blows into a tube called poura . This is about 40 centimeters long and has a diameter of three centimeters on the outside and two centimeters on the inside. An oval hole is cut about 15 centimeters from one end and sealed with a paper membrane. The instrument, which belongs to the Mirlitons, produces a nasal rasping sound when blown into it. The narrator can also speak a text into it and imitate demons with the distorted voice.
A wizard is survala because he was a svara called (Sanskrit, in the general meaning "sound", "pitch", "mood") Idiophones used to produce a dark-sounding continuous tone. The svara consists of a brass plate with a four centimeter high rim and a flat base 25 centimeters in diameter. The musician, seated with crossed legs, lays the plate with the opening facing down on the floor or on his lower legs and turns the tip of a 50 centimeter long stick pasted with a resinous mass over the surface. To do this, he quickly moves the oiled stick between the fingers of one hand. The sound accompanies the entire performance with a few interruptions. The use of the instruments differs from puppet play. There, the kettle drum pair tabla , the cymbals tala or jhanjh and the single-string plucked drum tuntuna are used.
The sung or spoken dialogues are exchanged between the game master ( naik ) and the presenter ( naca ). Most of the singing parts are performed by the naik ; a choir, consisting of the other actors, emphasizes the essential statements by repeating them. When the main gods and heroes appear and towards the end of a scene there must always be singing. The dialogues are very protracted, the fight scenes accompanied by whistles offer a certain variety.
Course of the performance
As with practically all shadow play types in the Indian cultural area, the "good" gods and heroes (Rama and his) are on the right side of the screen as seen by the presenter and the "bad" demons (Ravana and his court in Lanka) on the left Page held in a basket. The presenter arranges the figures that are used first in the stage house and then leaves it again. The game master releases the screen, which was previously covered with a fabric. Now the client of the performance ensures the proper presentation of the (edible) offerings ( dakshina ), which are placed on a tray in front of the stage booth . After the oil lamp is lit, the presenter takes a seat in his stage house, which he is not allowed to leave until the end of the performance. The foreplay (generally purvaranga ) includes the invocation of Ganesha, who is represented by a figure placed in the middle of the screen. While everyone involved is singing and making music in homage to Ganesha, the god of luck and protector of theatrical performances, the figure of a rat (or a substitute for this figure) appears on the screen. As Ganesha's mount, the rat enters into a dialogue with Ganesha. Both figures disappear and are replaced by figures of the goddess Sarasvati , who stands for erudition, and then Indra , who are appropriately honored.
When the homage to the gods is over, the joker couple Katbo and Denghrisi appear, whose importance presumably decreased centuries ago under Hindu influence. The two are supposed to cheer up the audience with funny, coarse and sometimes allusive dialogues and prepare them for the following dramatic events. A dholki player appearing after the jokers explains on request that he set out from the holy pilgrimage site of Pandharpur (near Solapur ) and is on the way to Rameshwaram in the south. In doing so, he sets the course for the heroes of the drama.
The stagings reflect some events from the Ramayana , for example from the sixth book ( Yuddha-Kanda ), in which the decisive battle, the victorious return of the gods and heroes and finally the enthronement of Rama and his marriage to Sita are described. A performance lasts about four hours. Essentially, the stories are retold or sung, the shadow play figures interacting on the limited screen only takes place temporarily. After a few movements, the speaking figures are set in a rest position. Only two of the large figures fit completely on the screen, other large figures partially overlap.
The skits of the jester characters inserted from time to time have nothing to do with the dramatic plot. The insults and sexual innuendo between Katbo and his wife Kalavant regularly end in a fight. Kalavant's role as a dancer and prostitute turns her into a traditional temple dancer ( devadasi ) who was previously tied to a particular temple and married to a deity. The ritual of marrying a deity was abolished in Sawantwadi at the beginning of the 20th century. In the West Indies, the temple prostitutes were called Bhavin (Sanskrit bhavini , easily available woman), Devli (Sanskrit devala , devotee of a deity) or Naikin (lover, pimp). They are said to have been descendants of female servants at the court of the Sawantwadi rulers. The bhavins were hierarchically divided into two groups. The lower group had to provide food and accommodation for the pilgrims, the higher group took on ritual temple services such as caring for statues of gods, dancing and singing hymns in honor of the deity after several years of training. The Kalavant ( kalavantini ) formed a group of professional dancers who were socially classified between the Devadasis and conventional prostitutes and who, like the Devadasis, maintained relationships with the Brahmins in the temple. From this classification, Seltmann concludes that the joker Katbo could once have been perceived as a Brahmin priest.
The magical significance of the shadow play is illustrated by the precautions that must be taken if an incident occurs that causes the oil lamp to go out. This is considered an extremely bad omen and forces the performance to be stopped immediately and the oracle priest of the temple to be summoned. He makes ritual contact with the deity in charge of the temple and the oracle priest tells them whether the performance may be continued.
Other forms of theater
The three groups of showmen (Baulekar) from Pinguli perform not only shadow play, but also puppet theater and stories about pictures. The puppeteers only have scenes from the Ramayana in the program, the picture presenters also tell a wide range of stories from the Mahabharata and the Puranas . By 1980 two families had shadow puppets, four families had puppets, and around 20 families had pictures. In addition, five families owned oxen, which they wore brightly decorated on festive occasions. The Thakar are not able to recreate the valuable old stock of pictures and shadow puppets if they are lost. In the early 1980s, the non-governmental organization Gokul Prakalp Pratishthan began collecting old (damaged) pieces in order to display them in a museum and instead provide intact copies to the demonstrators. New marionettes were made in the Sawantwadi Palace, which are now used in place of the old ones.
Puppet play
The puppeteers perform Kalasutraca khela and call themselves sutra bomb (from sutra , "thread" and bomb , "doll"). Only one performance per year is compulsory for the puppeteers: in the Vetala temple of Salgaon, a few kilometers north of Sawantwadi, on the third day after the full moon in the month of Kartik (October / November). There is also a compulsory performance every three years under a banyan tree at an intersection near Pinguli. In the late 1970s, the Thakar performed an average of 13 to 15 times with puppets.
The puppet stage is similar in size and construction made of bamboo poles to the shadow play stage. The front part of the platform serves as space for the figures to move, while behind a reddish cloth the puppeteer acts while standing. Its area is shielded with fabrics on the sides and back. The puppeteer works alone with the marionettes, only a helper supports him in some complicated scenes. About 30 puppets are needed for a performance. As in the shadow play, your characters can be divided into five groups. Headgear and the color of the face and hands are the main distinguishing criteria. Some figures are not personified, but can be used as this or that prince or as an apsara according to their type . The torso of the figures is made of wood ( Gmelina arborea ), the arms and legs are connected at joints. Since elbow joints are usually missing, the arms can only be moved stiffly forward. Some figures with long dresses have no legs. Depending on the clothes they are wearing, the figures are around 8 to 15 centimeters wide, with an average height of 15 to 30 centimeters, they are small. The puppets in Karnataka and in southern Tamil Nadu are much larger. With their flat and only slightly rounded rectangular faces, they resemble the masks used in the Krishnattam dance drama of Guruvayur in Kerala, some types are reminiscent of Kathputli puppets in Rajasthan. As in the shadow play, the figures of gods and demons are kept in separate baskets.
Before the curtain is opened in front of the stage, sacrificial acts are required, which, if a temple or the village community has commissioned the performance, is carried out by the village head ( pudhari ). Then the figure of Ganesha appears on the stage and begins a magical dance. The rat, Ganesha's mount, takes the coconut rolled onto the stage as an offering and disappears with it sideways through the curtain. A brahmin's puppet makes another sacrifice. The non-Brahmin demonstrator symbolically delegates a priestly activity to a Brahman who should actually be responsible for the proper performance of the ritual and thus secures the status of the puppet play for Hindus. There is no Brahmin priest among the Thakars. After further homage by two Apsara figures who appear as temple dancers, the performance begins with a funny sketch that, as usual, has nothing to do with the following Ramayana story.
The funny interludes include the fisherman and his wife in a special role. The fisherman with a movable phallus corresponds to the joker in the local shadow play, as well as the Killekyata figure from Karnataka, Kethigadu and Juttu Poligadu in Andhra Pradesh, formerly the main character Karagöz in the Turkish shadow play and is known from the Javanese wayang kulit . The pair of naked figures, no longer used or only used on certain occasions, probably passed over the course of time from a pre-Hindu fertility cult into the realm of ambiguous, sexual comedy. The former meaning of the two figures was retained in their names Vetal and Baukadi. Such are the names of demons in the region; Vetala also belongs to the environment of Khandoba, a regional phenomenon of Shiva. In addition, the figure of the fisherman represents the professional activity of the Thakar as river fishermen. The figure is thus interpreted as a deity who cares for the fertility of the fish and as the progenitor of the fishermen. The name Baukadi, also Bahukhadi, contains bahu ("doll"?) And khadi ("food", "food") or kadi (woman from the jungle). Baukadi, the breadwinner from the forest, and Vetal can therefore be explained as ancestral parents and protective deities of the Thakar.
Graphs
According to the Jain scriptures, a contemporary of Mahavira is said to have wandered around as a beggar, telling stories and showing pictures. Such picture presenters are called mankha in Sanskrit and their art therefore already existed in the 6th century BC. In the encyclopedia Manasollasa , written by King Somesvara in the 12th century, the Mankhas are called Chitra Kathak (from Sanskrit citra, chitra , among other things "image" and katha, kathi , "history"). Sawantwadi, Citrakathi's picture presenters appear with a stack of 20 to 35 pictures. The pictures (regional name pothi ) are painted on both sides on a 30 × 40 centimeter brown paper. During the presentation, one of the two demonstrators sits on the floor and holds the entire pile, which is leaning against a sloping wooden board, in position with his knees. He speaks the dialogues alternately with the actor sitting next to him. The accompanying musicians play the small hourglass drum huduk (related to the hurka ), the three-stringed long-necked lute tambura (of the ektara type ) or harmonium and cymbals ( jhanjh ). A total of five to six people are involved in a demonstration.
Some of the pictures are similar to the Paithan painting from the 19th century city of the same name in the Aurangabad district . The Chitrakatha tradition is particularly well known in Rajasthan, where the Bhopas show and explain long, painted scrolls called phad ( phad bachana ). The Patua in West Bengal have a similar tradition, presenting scrolls painted with folk-mythological motifs. Patua or Chitrakar is the name of the community presenting picture scrolls. The pictorial drama wayang beber belongs to the old and now practically disappeared Javanese tradition .
literature
- Friedrich Seltmann: Shadow and puppet play in Savantvadi (South Maharastra). Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1985
- Valentina Stache-Rosen: Shadow plays and picture presentations, two forms of religious popular entertainment in India . In: Journal of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft , Vol. 126, No. 1, 1976, pp. 136–148 ( at ULB-Sachsen-Anhalt )
- Valentina Stache-Rosen: Story-Telling in Pingulī Paintings. In: Artibus Asiae , Vol. 45, No. 4, 1984, pp. 253-286
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg Jacob Hans Jensen, Hans Losch: The Indian shadow theater. (Georg Jacob, Paul Kahle (Ed.): Das orientalische Schattentheater, Vol. 2) W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1931, p. 5f
- ^ Friedrich Seltmann: Shadow play in Kerala. Sacred theater in South India . Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1986, p. 9
- ^ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 27, 79
- ↑ Valentina Stache-Rosen, 1976, note 35 on p. 145
- ↑ James M. Campbell: Bijapur . Keyword: Kilikets . In: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency , Vol. 23, 1884, pp. 196–201 ( online )
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 14, 16
- ↑ Valentina Stache-Rosen, 1984, p. 254
- ↑ See the Indonesian ceremony rampok macan , a killing fight between a buffalo and a tiger: Robert Wessing: A Tiger in the Heart: The Javanese Rampok Macan. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Vol. 148, 1992, pp. 287–308
- ^ Reginald Edward Enthoven: Folklore Notes Vol. II: Konkan. British India Press, Bombay 1915, p. 85 ( at Internet Archive )
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, p. 15f
- ^ Census of India 2011: Maharashtra. Series 28, Part XII-B. District Census Handbook: Sindhudurg. Directorate of Census Operations, Maharashtra, 2011, p. 124
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, p. 19
- ^ Christopher Buyers: The Bhonsle Dynasty: Genealogy. royalark.net
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, p. 23f
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, p. 26f
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 33-37
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 44f
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 28–31, 57
- ↑ Valentina Stache-Rosen, 1976, p. 144
- ↑ James Hastings (Ed.): Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics . Vol. 10, T & T Clark, Edinburgh 1918, p. 407 ( 13 volumes at Internet Archive )
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 50, 72
- ^ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, p. 58
- ↑ Valentina Stache-Rosen, 1984, pp. 254f
- ↑ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, pp. 68, 73f
- ^ Friedrich Seltmann, 1985, p. 71
- ↑ Manohar Laxman Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Loka Ranga. Panorama of Indian Folk Theater. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 1992, p. 115
- ↑ Valentina Stache-Rosen, 1984, pp. 254f
- ^ Keyword Paithan Style British Museum (illustrations of Paithan paintings, 19th and 20th centuries)