Schattenspiel in Karnataka, Sud-Indien.

• Author: Bhat, N. Thirumaleshwar

Friedrich Seltmann's Schattenspiel in Karnataka, Sud-Indien (Shadow Play in Karnataka, South India) is an authentic reference work on the folk-theater tradition in Karnataka. In its two volumes, the first containing the text and the second containing tables, indices and plates, it provides a scientific documentation of the "shadow theater" of Karnataka.

The author, who is an authority on Asian shadow theater with several scientific works to his credit, has produced this work after years of extensive research. Field surveys were held periodically between 1962 and 1984 in Karnataka and the neighboring states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamilnadu, and Andhra Pradesh. The documentation, with its 229 photos (of which 102 are colored) is a treasure of reproductions of the transparent leather figures which were part of a rich theatrical tradition.

At the center of the documentation is a tabular representation, under fifty-four heads, of the findings regarding the twenty-five puppet-theater groups surveyed in Karnataka. Commentaries on the significant aspects of the tabular representation form the major chapters of the first volume.

In chapter one the author gives general information about the shadow theater of Karnataka. He recognizes the two major forms of leather figures: the transparent figures and the opaque leather puppets. His finding is that the tradition was quite alive at the turn of the nineteenth century, but was almost a dying art in the last quarter of the twentieth. The various reference works mentioning the Indian puppet theater tradition provide almost a history of the scientific studies made of the subject. Pietro della Valle, the Roman patrician, referred to the shadow play in 1627. The Bombay Gazetteer mentions the existence of shadow figures during the rule of the Bijapur kings between 1490 and 1686. According to Nanjunda Rao, shadow puppets were referred to in some texts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The first official mention of the puppet theater, however, is after 1872.

We get in this book a fair idea of the important collections of reference material on this tradition. The author has consulted the following centers and persons: Musee Kwok On, in Paris; Victoria and Albert Museum, in London; Mrs. M.P. Bonne, in Paris; Prof. A. L. Dallepiccola, in Heidelberg; and Mrs. Sharada Devi, in New Delhi. The author has also drawn on the photographic reproductions of the art from the collections of Dr. H. Plong, Munich; Dr. H...