Kanatichya Mage

On the Tamasha stage, the sounds of the halgi and dholki reverberate through the air. With great enthusiasm, the drummer plays a rhythmic pattern on the dholki, and the performance begins with the Gana. Artists belonging to diverse castes and religions come together to bring the Tamasha performance to life.

The performance unfolds through various traditional forms, including Mujra, the Haalichi and Vinavanichi Gavalan, the witty exchanges between Maushi and Lord Krishna, Rangbaji, Lecture Powada, Shilkar and Vagnatya. When the Vagnatya concludes, the artists, whose faces bear the marks of a lifetime of hardship, pay their respects to the stage and present the concluding Bhairavi.

The atmosphere within the kanat—the canvas enclosure of a Tamasha tent—can truly be understood only by stepping inside it!

This very world was brought to readers by Shyamal Garud through her newspaper column, 'Kanatichya Mage' (Behind the Canvas Enclosure). Through these articles, the faces of many performers who worked behind the scenes came into the limelight, even if only briefly. They included troupe owners, artists, managers, technicians, painters, cooks, labourers and many others.

Along with Tamasha performers, the column also documented selected artists from the Sangeet Bari tradition. To undertake this work, Shyamal Garud travelled thousands of kilometres using whatever means of transport were available. She visited not only villages and rural settlements but also remote hamlets and small communities, documenting the unseen hands that contribute to the making and preservation of folk art.

This authentic documentation of folk art will undoubtedly serve as an important reference work for researchers and scholars, while offering general readers an immersive journey into the fascinating world of Tamasha. There is every reason to believe that discerning readers will warmly welcome this book.