{"id":283,"date":"2017-10-02T17:52:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/?p=283"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:34:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:34:43","slug":"pavakathakali-kathakali-as-a-puppet-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/pavakathakali-kathakali-as-a-puppet-play\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Pavakathakali<\/em>, <em>Kathakali<\/em> as a Puppet Play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/239086009?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Video clip: <em>Pavakathakali<\/em> performance <span>Veli Rosenberg<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in072.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in072.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1014\" style=\"width:736px\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In all of its conventions and details <em>pavakathakali<\/em> is <em>kathakali<\/em> in mini-size <span>Jukka O. Miettinen<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Pavakathakali<\/em> is a mini <em>kathakali<\/em> adapted for glow puppets. It evolved in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century when <em>kathakali<\/em> became popular in the Palghat region, which already had its own glow puppet tradition. The performers belong to the Telugu-speaking population, although the language of the performances is local Malayalam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full tall\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in073.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in073.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1015\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Puppeteers act as narrators who also convey the <em>rasa<\/em> sentiments <span>Jukka O. Miettinen<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nowadays the puppets are about half a metre high. Their faces, headgear, hands and feet are carved from wood and painted according to <em>kathakali<\/em> practice. A mini version of the <em>kathakali<\/em> costume, made of wool and cotton, form the body of the puppet, inside which the puppeteer puts his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in074.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in074.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1016\" style=\"width:736px\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Several puppeteers participate in the performance <span>Jukka O. Miettinen<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The performance is accompanied by musicians, just as in real <em>kathakali<\/em>. All the performers sit on a small, elevated platform facing a mini-sized oil lamp. All in all, a <em>pavakathakali<\/em> performance requires at least six performers, including the musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full tall\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in075.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/in075.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1017\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The apotheosis of the god Vishnu <span>Jukka O. Miettinen<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the mid-20<sup>th<\/sup> century <em>pavakathakali<\/em> was a declining art form, but recently there have been attempts to revive it. It has also been performed in international puppet theatre festivals outside India. Now the trend is to make the puppets, in their tiniest details, resemble the actual <em>kathakali<\/em> actors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pavakathakali is a mini kathakali adapted for glow puppets. It evolved in the 18th century [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-puppet-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4756,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/4756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disco.teak.fi\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}