Bommalatta, an ancient Indian art of two millennia old, became best known around the nineteenth century under royal patronage. The form is mostly seen in Tamil Nadu. Wooden puppets are 2.5 feet to 3 feet high and weigh around 10 kgs. Jewellery and clothes resemble those of Bharatanatyam dancers. The stage is on open ground with a thatched roof, 20 feet long and 8 feet wide. The black screen concealing the puppeteer is 3.5 feet high. Opening is 10 feet long and 3 feet broad, with hand-woven cloth-curtain. Two oil lamps burn at each end inside, now replaced by electric lamps. The manipulator speaks the dialogue.

Chhadar Badar is a little known Indian puppet-form prevalent among the Santhal tribes of Bihar and West Bengal. There is a central bamboo rod (stuck in the earth or held by one hand), which has a circular wooden platform on the top, carrying a number of puppets on it. There is a leader puppet-maiden and a youth in various dancing poses, who face each other and execute a series of movements, -- apart from playing drums and flute. All these wooden puppets vary in height from 5" to 8", each of which is tied with a string. The puppeteer holds the other end of the strings tied in a knot passing under the disc. The central rod, covered from all sides by a red cloth, has the puppeteer perform in the open with songs and the dancing dolls. The puppets are simply clothed with painted facial features, carrying turban or bird-feather on the head.

The puppeteers sit in a series of shallow ditches and put the puppets at about three feet height on wheeled platforms. The curtain, which keeps changing with different scenes, is at the back and musicians sit outside the trench,-- playing harmonium, dholok (barrel-shaped drum), cymbals, etc. The ticketed show lasts for an hour and is performed in Hindi language (or Bhojpuri dialect), describing Yampuri (the house of Death). The show begins with appearance of the death-god Yama and his messenger, followed by their record-keeper Chitragupta. One by one, the people (supposedly after death) are marched in front of Yama to receive their doles of punishment. There are some who are earmarked for heaven. People finally cross the sacred river Vaitarani keeping the tail of a cow in hand, as though they are marching towards heaven after their suffering in the hell.

These are small contemporary puppets manipulated by fingers. All the fingers of the hand are used with imagination. A variation is the small puppet made of paper or cloth, which is manipulated by inserting fingers into the legs of the puppet. These are normally tabletop puppets and are fairly popular among small children in India.