61 year old Arabinda Ghoroi has been a glove puppeteer for over four decades, belonging to a family of traditional glove puppeteers. Too impoverished to attend school beyond class IV, he was only about twelve when he began training under his father, Khagendranath Ghoroi – learning to craft the puppets and to perform with them. He would also walk along with his father to neighbouring villages each day, where they would perform for households, thus eking out a meagre income. By the time he was sixteen, Arabinda had completed his training and was able to craft puppets on his own  - the clay heads, the wooden hands, the painting and the costumes and soon began to perform , independent of his father. But his art alone did not sustain him and he had to take recourse to daily wage earning and this was at a time when glove puppetry was still reasonably popular. The scenario changed with urbanization, demand dwindled and eventually there was only Padmatamali village where a Beni Putul practitioner could be found.  

The last few decades have been difficult for the Beni Putul artists, Arabinda included. They no longer walk to neighbouring villages to perform but wait eagerly for performance opportunities that come to them from the start of Durga Puja and last till the end of winter.  There are no guarantees however. 

Arabinda has been fortunate to have been invited to perform in numerous states across the length and breadth of the country and on several occasions, at the invitation of Sangeet Natak Akademi, under the Ministry of Culture. He and other puppeteers are also called upon to compose new songs and performances to popularize government schemes. He is often seen in the craft fairs of Kolkata too. In fact, he feels that the Beni Putul is gradually making a come-back, with the increased interest in the tradition that he is witnessing. He also gets invited to workshop with students in schools and colleges. But even this is not sufficient to sustain him and his family. Like all registered folk artists in West Bengal, he too receives a monthly stipend from the state government, but Arabinda still needs to take recourse to daily wage labour – usually as farming labour.  He doe sell his dolls sometimes, but sales are few and far between.   

Arabinda spends his free time with his puppets – crafting new dolls or repairing damaged ones, particularly the wooden hands, made of shirish wood. He has about twenty dolls that he uses for his performances. For many years now, Arabinda and his fellow artists have been using papier mache as a replacement for the clay heads.  Being light, this makes transportation easier and there are less chances of breakage. Arabinda makes the papier mache heads himself using either paper pulp or layers of moistened paper strips glued together to a mould. Arabinda is assisted by his son who has learnt the tradition. His grandson and granddaughter, though still very young, have begun to show a keen interest. 

College students often visit him at his home to train and Arabinda regrets that he does not have the space to train sufficient numbers. He fervently hopes that some kind soul in the government would enable this - a common work space for the village, which could double up as a training room for visitors. Many other folk craft villages have benefitted from such an initiative by both big NGOs and the government, but perhaps the low numbers of practitioners do not make it an attractive/important enough proposition. 

 

 

Glove puppetry or the Beni Putul tradition has been around for centuries in West Bengal, with its roots in East Medinipur district. Today all that survives of this tradition is in the hands of about ten elderly puppeteers in the lone village of Padmatamali.  

61 year old Arabinda Ghoroi has been a glove puppeteer for over four decades, belonging to a family of traditional glove puppeteers. Too impoverished to attend school beyond class IV, he was only about twelve when he began training under his father, Khagendranath Ghoroi – learning to craft the puppets and to perform with them. He would also walk along with his father to neighbouring villages each day, where they would perform for households, thus eking out a meagre income. By the time he was sixteen, Arabinda had completed his training and was able to craft puppets on his own  - the clay heads, the wooden hands, the painting and the costumes and soon began to perform , independent of his father. But his art alone did not sustain him and he had to take recourse to daily wage earning and this was at a time when glove puppetry was still reasonably popular. The scenario changed with urbanization, demand dwindled and eventually there was only Padmatamali village where a Beni Putul practitioner could be found.  

The last few decades have been difficult for the Beni Putul artists, Arabinda included. They no longer walk to neighbouring villages to perform but wait eagerly for performance opportunities that come to them from the start of Durga Puja and last till the end of winter.  There are no guarantees however. 

Arabinda has been fortunate to have been invited to perform in numerous states across the length and breadth of the country and on several occasions, at the invitation of Sangeet Natak Akademi, under the Ministry of Culture. He and other puppeteers are also called upon to compose new songs and performances to popularize government schemes. He is often seen in the craft fairs of Kolkata too. In fact, he feels that the Beni Putul is gradually making a come-back, with the increased interest in the tradition that he is witnessing. He also gets invited to workshop with students in schools and colleges. But even this is not sufficient to sustain him and his family. Like all registered folk artists in West Bengal, he too receives a monthly stipend from the state government, but Arabinda still needs to take recourse to daily wage labour – usually as farming labour.  He doe sell his dolls sometimes, but sales are few and far between.   

Arabinda spends his free time with his puppets – crafting new dolls or repairing damaged ones, particularly the wooden hands, made of shirish wood. He has about twenty dolls that he uses for his performances. For many years now, Arabinda and his fellow artists have been using papier mache as a replacement for the clay heads.  Being light, this makes transportation easier and there are less chances of breakage. Arabinda makes the papier mache heads himself using either paper pulp or layers of moistened paper strips glued together to a mould. Arabinda is assisted by his son who has learnt the tradition. His grandson and granddaughter, though still very young, have begun to show a keen interest. 

College students often visit him at his home to train and Arabinda regrets that he does not have the space to train sufficient numbers. He fervently hopes that some kind soul in the government would enable this - a common work space for the village, which could double up as a training room for visitors. Many other folk craft villages have benefitted from such an initiative by both big NGOs and the government, but perhaps the low numbers of practitioners do not make it an attractive/important enough proposition.