Vignettes of Ramayana- Ravana Chaya Part 1: Birth of a Tradition

Ravana Chhaya is the name of the shadow puppet play tradition of Odisha. Rama is considered the ‘Parambrahma’. The belief is that Parambrahma does not cast shadow, as shadow is impure and thus the name Ravana Chhaya has been used.
All the puppets are made of a single piece of leather. The characters are first drawn on sheets and then are fixed on the piece of leather. The finer lines are then set and cut. The style is a linear cut where there are no intricacies leaving soft lines and edges. The puppets when projected on the screen produce a beautiful silhouette-effect.
The text that is followed was written by Biswanath Khuntia around 1700-1720. It has 256 cantos based on more than 60 ragas. Traditionally a tambourine called ‘Khanjini’ and two pieces of wood called ‘Dasakathi’ were used. Gradually Harmonium and other percussion instruments were added to the ensemble.