1. As mentioned in chapter 2, note 41, these Mutaliyars are also known as Sengunthars or Kaikolars.

2. The only exception, to my knowledge, is that a group of Tamils in Chittur (near Palghat) did sponsor puppet plays until in-fighting split the community and prevented further sponsorship.

3. Kampan verse, ellivan (6.27.61).

4. This section of the commentary has been abbreviated.

5. "Million" translates koti ("crore," ten million).

6. A pappadam is a thin, crispy snack fried in oil.

7. Compare the earlier version of this story in chapter 6.

8. Thus ends Annamalai Pulavar's energetic eighty-minute commentary on a single verse. Several sections, which restate philosophical points already repetitiously explained, have been omitted.

9. The dim-witted messengers also appear in Kampan, but their conversation here is an innovation of the puppet play.

10. A slapstick conversation between the messengers is omitted.

11. A pottu is a dab of vermillion or ash (or both) in the middle of the forehead, often placed there after worship.

12. This summary in the brackets is itself highly condensed; these events consumed most of an hour.

13. Minor scenes of battle and tactical planning are omitted.

14. Here I have summarized a quick flurry of events (nearly the whole of the Velerru patalam that require complicated movements of puppets on the screen.

15. Here the puppeteers show again that they know well Kampan's verses, each of which they have reduced to a single line: "Indra-weapon, wham!" "X-weapon, wham!" etc.

16. Here follows a series of four folk verses: manita kel, cavari, patalattil, ata .

17. The destruction of Ravana's sacrifice duplicates the earlier destruction of Indrajit's sacrifice; many of these events, including dragging Mandodari by the hair, are common in folk Ramayanas. as (W. L. Smith 1988:74-75) and are depicted in sixteenth-century temple paintings at Chengam, Tamil Nadu (Nagaswamy 1980:421-22).

18. The puppeteers' treatment of Ravana's death differs significantly from Kampan's, in which Rama himself realizes that he must shoot the Brahma-weapon to kill Ravana. The puppet-play motif of disclosing Ravana's life-index in a pot of ambrosia is found in the Ramcaritmanas , the Adhyatma Ramayana , and several folk Ramayanas in south India (Gopalakrishna Rao 1984:103). However, whereas in all those texts Vibhisana reveals the secret, in Kerala Agastya advises Rama to call on Surya, who reveals the secret. Agastya appears in Valmiki, too, but only to advise Rama to meditate on Surya Deva, who confers his blessings on him without divulging the pot of ambrosia hidden in Ravana's chest.

19. That is, as Krsna, who slays Kamsa.

20. Kampan verse, unnate (6.36.220).

21. Kampan verse, vellerukka (6.36.239).

22. This point, not obvious in the verse, is also made by Kopalakirusnamacariyar (Kampan, 6, pt. 2:171), who adds parallels from the Tirukkural and Antal's poetry.

23. This folk verse is very close in meaning to the equivalent verse in Kampan enra potin (6.37.37).

24. Kampan verse, unnai mitpan (6.37.63).

25. The nelli fruit, with its nearly translucent skin, is a folk metaphor for clarity; see also chapter 6.

26. Kampan verse, parkkelam (6.37.75).

27. This folk verse ( tampiyum ) borrows two lines from a Kampan verse, ayinum (6.37. 129), and renders a similar meaning.

28. Dasaratha here tells the story of his promise to Kaikeyi's father that her son, not Kausalya's, would inherit the throne.

29. Here the folk performance presents a condensed version of the "Revival of Vacantan" episode ( Vacantan uyir varu patalam ), sometimes called "Yama Episode" ( Iyama Patalam ); see chapter 8.

30. This hybrid verse illustrates well the puppeteers' use of Kampan. The first two lines are a formula used both by Kampan ( maliyai kanten , 6.30. 52) and the puppeteers (chapter 8). The final two lines, not in Kampan, make Jambuvan's point: that Rama, having crowned Vibhisana king of Lanka, has taken Ravana's chariot for his own use. In other Tamil folk Ramayanas, Jambuvan speaks a variant of this hybrid verse to chide Sita when she desires to remove a beautiful grinding stone from Lanka (C. R. Sarma 1973:66-67; Venugopal 1993:105-6).

31. The return journey to Ayodhya in Kampan differs from that in the puppet play in the following details of the Kiskindha visit: (1) Sita does not take the initiative to ask Rama to visit Kiskindha; (2) Tara first gives Sita a garland; and (3) Sita offers condolences for Vali's death.

32. Here the puppeteers tell a truncated version of the story of Siva's lingam at Ramesvaram, considered an interpolated episode ("The Puja," pucai patalam ). The Kerala version follows closely accounts in other folk texts and Tamil myths ( Kanta Puranam and Cetu Puranam ).

33. "Sins" translates pavankal .

34. "Two hours" translates aintu nalikai .

35. Folk verse, punnai nokki .

36. For this conclusion to Indian oval epics (especially Pabuji, Alha, Lorik and Canda Guga, Muttuppattan), see Blackburn et al. 1989. Gopi Chand is yet another example (Gold 1992).

37. The Hindi Ramayana by Tulsidas extends into the Uttara Kanda, but holds out "the promise of a new kind of transcendent, personal Ramraj " (Lutgendorf 1991:373).

38. Shulman 1991a:95. See Shulman on these themes of restoration in Kampan's episode of Sita's test by fire, although he finds more ferocity in Kampan's Sita than I do.

39. In Kampan and the puppet play, Sita does speak sharply to Rama in an earlier scene when he proposes that she should not accompany him into exile; in Valmiki, she insults him (Sutherland 1989:74).

40. A medieval Sri Vaisnava commentator on Valmiki justified Rama's anger when Sita carried out his command by explaining that both she and Vibhisana should have divined his true intention (Mumme 1991:209). In a Kutiyattam

drama from Kerala, Sita's appearance in fine clothes is explained away as a consequence of a boon from Anasuya (Jones 1984:18).

41. Kampan verse, yan ivani , (6.37.40).

42. On this verse, see note 30, chapter 8.

43. In a south Indian Sanskrit text, the Tattvasamgraharamayana , Jambuvan challenges Rama to a duel, but it is deferred until the Krsna avatar (V. Raghavan 1952/53 ).

44. In Kampan, Rama threatens suicide when he grieves over Jatayu's body.

45. Kampan verse, villinai (6.18.224), followed by tamarai (6.18.223).

46. Kampan verse, vitaikkulanka (6.21.197).

47. The puppeteers' telling is similar to one version in the Pancatantra ("Hundred Wit, Thousand Wit, and Single Wit"; Ryder 1972:444-46). Both versions, for example, include the motif of the fish overhearing the fishermen the day before, which updates W. N. Brown's claim (1919:34) that this motif is found in literary but not popular versions. Another oral variant, in which a mongoose, cobra, and tortoise prevaricate about a fire in their haystack home, while a jackal flees and lives, is recorded in Beck and Claus 1987:235-36. See also tales 497 and 498 in Bødker 1957.

48. GoldbergBelle 1989. Handelman later refined his analysis of oscillating clowns (Handelman 1990:240-45).

49. Personal communication, 1992.

50. This information was gathered in 1990 from written records and interviews at the All-India Handicrafts Centre, Trichur, Kerala.

51. The 1982 figure is from Seltmann (1986:16-17); the 1989 figure is from my fieldwork.

52. Harding 1935:234.

53. My list of drama-houses, compiled from interviews with puppeteers, contains seventy-nine sites, to which I have added others from a list compiled by Venu (1990:65). Seltmann (1986), who completed his fieldwork in 1982, lists thirty-five sites.

54. I refer to Cousins (1970) and Harding (1935), as quoted above, chapters 7 and 8.