This is a leather puppet of Hanuman, the monkey hero from the Ramayana. Such puppets are used for shadow plays, which are staged on festive occasions. Many of the themes are religious, drawn from epic myths, historical tales and sometimes fables.This form of shadow puppetry is known as Tholubomalatta in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The puppets of Andhra Pradesh are unique in that they are created in a combination of profile and frontal views, as seen in this Hanuman, where the legs and head point to the side in a profile view while the rest of the body is presented in a frontal view.
