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Koonathara, Palakkad – Cold winds, kind prayers and impressive puppets attract the attention of 25 listeners including seated under a canopy on the night of Koonathara, a village in Palakkad state in Kerala, India. It is a mix of locals and visitors from different countries.
Tholpavakoothu (thol means leather, vava means doll and koothu means to play) is a type of dolls painted at meetings and festivals held in the temples dedicated to the women of Durga or Kaali. The paintings are found in Palakkad, Thrissur and in the neighboring villages of Kerala.
Performed three or four times a month between January and May, a special 42-meter-long section called koothumadam is set up in the temple hall. Displays fictional displays reenacted by fire or electricity behind a window.
An air of excitement can be seen as the sound of the horn begins and the actors come out holding a lit lamp. Fireworks go to announce the start of the operation and then, in complete darkness except for the light of the lamp, it becomes quiet.
A line of 21 ropes wrapped in coconut pockets is lit on the back of the canvas, made of white cloth that covers koothumadam, borders and black cloth.
Tholpavakoothu is based on the Kamba Ramayana (the Tamil version of the epic Ramayana), which tells the story of the Hindu god Sri Rama from his birth to the time he became emperor of Ayodhya.
It is said that tholpavakoothu is performed to please the Queen Bhadrakali, as she could not see the assassination of the demonic king Ravana and Rama, which is why the image of the goddess was placed at the forefront of the image.
About 160 dolls are used to represent the 70 letters of the Kamba Ramayana, described in a mixture of Malayalam and Tamil words, and songs and poems by Adalpattu.
Ten artists – the great puppet maker, singers, storytellers and other enthusiasts – are very talented on the scene.
Lakshman Pulavar, 62, is one of them. He has been doing it since he was a child, following in the footsteps of his father, his grandparents, and those who lived before him.
His family is the only one keeping it for the past 300 years, and has been doing it for eight generations.
The child deceiver is called “pulavan”, which comes from the family name Pulavar, meaning a learned student.
The leather dolls, which are about 80cm long, are made by Lakshman and his children, with the help of other relatives. They are cut from buffalo hides and deers hides, dyed with leaves and fastened with sticks.
Caring for them requires hard work and meditation and is one of the most difficult parts of the process, in which 2,100 slokas (verses) and their meanings must also be memorized.
A working group in front of the stage [Sajeesh Pulavar/Al Jazeera]
Everywhere, the Pulavar family plays 82 temples in Palakkad, while Lakshman and his children oversee 20 temples, his relatives and relatives cover the rest.
The event lasts for 21 days around Pooram, an annual festival that takes place in the first week of April, but lasts a long time. The family also makes some demonstrations of how various stories are told at events and events around Palakkad. These are short, some lasting only 30 minutes, and require a few artists.
Lakshman, who is in the middle of training other students and holds a puppet in his hand as he speaks, explains: “Scholars have to be students for years before they can master the art. He said:” It took me a long time to read the words in order.
‘I like to be with them’
Harisree Kannan Tholpavakoothu Kalakendram in Koonathara is a training school for tholpavakoothu and is run by Lakshman and his sons, 31-year-old Sajeesh and 22-year-old Sajith.
The organization organizes training sessions and summer camps to teach art, as well as how to make dolls, to train 10 to 20 adult students and 150 to 200 students at a time. He also conducts interviews with international students who study Indian culture. Since the epidemic, Sajeesh has been teaching online classes using his own classroom.
Lakshman Pulavar in a study with his students [Sajeesh Pulavar/Al Jazeera]
“The drums sound and the music adds to the excitement and excitement of the show, and I love being with them,” says Sajith, her eyes glowing.
Sajeesh’s brother left the village to study mechanical engineering and work in a car company, but soon returned to pursue family traditions.
“I have learned the art of tholpavakoothu from my grandparents since I was six years old and I have been involved in family traditions since I was a child,” he says.
Lakshman and his children are passionate about art and have volunteered to preserve it.
But since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the family has been struggling.
Due to the ban, game time is reduced from seven to eight hours per day to just four, and fewer are available. In the middle of the closing period, the theaters stand together. The lack of tourism last year has also meant a small audience.
Prior to the outbreak, she was able to make 150,000-200,000 rupees ($ 2,057- $ 2,744) a month to play at the temple. They now make Rs 50,000-60,000 ($ 686- $ 823) per month. But each show costs 20,000-35,000 rupees ($ 274- $ 480) to wear – and the rest of their projections should be shared among the eight to 10 people involved in everything.
With limited video, Pulavars relies on online discussions to supplement their earnings. They have also rented their dolls, sold dolls to foreigners and started farming. Lakshman explains: “We grow rice to supplement our meager income.
Sajeesh Pulavar is a doll of gloves [Sajeesh Pulavar/Al Jazeera]Technology meets traditions
Another problem the couple faced was the lack of professional interest among younger generations. But expertise can be helpful in this regard.
Thrissur-based Inker Robotics is a start-up technology developed in 2018 by 38-year-old Rahul Balachandran. It trains school and college students on automation and robotics, as well as making robots to work in agriculture, industry and other fields.
A few years ago, after noticing the increasing amount of work involved in attracting toys, Rahul encouraged the Pulavars to try to use robots to manipulate the dolls.
Sajeesh and Lakshman were immediately attracted to the idea, because they believed that introducing something more sophisticated to the arts could attract more people.
“We had hoped to inform people about the preservation of traditions and customs,” Lakshman explains.
But since each robot could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, it would not be possible.
Then, a few months ago, the District Heritage Museum in Palakkad, one of India’s largest musical instruments, visited Sajeesh. He wanted to hold a permanent demonstration of tholpavakoothu. Sajeesh saw an opportunity to use robots to drive robots and spoke to Rahul.
Together, they began making the first show of the dolls. Sajeesh expressed the handshake of Rahul and his team, who also wrote the document to coordinate the movement.
Testing the effectiveness of robot toys in Inker Robotic [Photo courtesy of Rahul Balachandran]
Rahul explains: “Sajeesh and I talked for hours with my team to get the best robots out of the doll.”
It took me three months to complete.
It was first unveiled in front of 100 people in a museum in February.
“People were amazed and delighted to see the puppet show used by robots as it was unfamiliar to them,” says Milton Francis, director of the museum.
The puppets are designed so that when the sensor detects the presence of a visitor it plays one story from Kamba Ramayana, which lasts between 30 minutes to two hours. It has been a huge hit since its inception and has attracted a lot of people before recently.
“The machines were able to control the movement of the dolls which is a very difficult part,” says Sajeesh, adding: “I felt like seeing robots using dolls, it was like a dream come true.”
Lakshman and Sajeesh Pulavar look at the exhibition at the museum [Photo courtesy of Sajeesh Pulavar]
He is now considering a new site for robots.
“We have used a replica in the museum and we are using the products to place them at Kochi airport which has a large foot,” says Rahul. “I am delighted with the professional hope and its potential.”
However, despite the success of the robot dolls, the Pulavars are relentless in their pursuit of human prowess and have decided to limit their use of theater while keeping handmade dolls in the temple in honor of “our elders’ beliefs and traditions”.
Lakshman says: “We see that this kind of art should be spread and taught to younger generations, so that it will not be destroyed,” Lakshman said.
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