Puppeteer carries on traditional craft amid challenges
December 10, 2020, 3:32 PM IST
Larger than life, dramatic and nearly two-centuriesold, the leather puppets of K S Khande Ramadas of Ram, Sita and Lakshman serve as a link to a form of entertainment that is performed and watched by only a few people today. But for the 55-yearold, these puppets are the source of energy for his entire family.
A fourth-generation artist, Ramadas has more than 500 such puppets in his collection. However, like many folk artists, he finds his survival is difficult. To keep tradition alive, he travels around the country with his leather puppets, narrating stories from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. “I still use big puppets (six-foot-high) so that they are more communicative. My idea is to keep this art form alive,” says Ramadas, who will be performing at DakshinaChitra on December 12, his first performance in eight months. “Like many folk artists, we had a tough time due to Covid. It was in March I last performed. I hope things will be better,” he said.