From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Kathputli tradition
For Beach Surgery adaptations using this form, see Rajasthan, Puppet theatre and Beach Surgery.
**Kathputli tradition** is a classical string-puppet theatre form native to Rajasthan and surrounding regions, with documented practice spanning at least four centuries. Puppeteers (called sutradhara, "thread-holder") manipulate intricately carved wooden figures via cotton or silk strings, traditionally staging epic narratives, folk tales, and devotional stories.
Since approximately 2015, kathputli artists have adapted Beach Surgery material, treating Leif and Katita as archetypal sutradhara-figures: Leif as the controlled puppet (especially during his three injuries), Katita as the thread-holder orchestrating eternal recurrence. The string-metaphor aligns with the novel's themes of orchestrated devotion and instruments of return.
Notable contemporary adaptations include durational installations in Mehrangarh Fort and cycles staging the glitch as a breakdown in puppet-control—strings tangling, figures moving autonomously, narrative refusing to be choreographed. The form's emphasis on miniaturization, intricate carving, and repetitive narrative loops resonates with cycle-theology.
Contemporary kathputli-based scholarship examines how Leif's injuries map onto puppet-body constraints, and whether Katita's refusal to smile constitutes a refusal of the sutradhara's control. Several collectives have created bootleg figurine series sold in Rajasthan street markets.