About
To study, preserve and promote the folk arts, music, dance and puppetry of Rajasthan and India.
Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal is a celebrated institution in Udaipur devoted to the folk arts of Rajasthan and India, founded in 1952 by the folklorist and cultural activist Devilal Samar. Combining a museum, a puppet theatre and research and training activities, it is renowned above all for keeping alive the Rajasthani kathputli string-puppet tradition through regular performances, training and documentation, and it holds one of the country's finest collections of puppets, folk masks, costumes, ornaments and instruments.
Founded by Devilal Samar in 1952, the Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal grew into one of India's foremost centres for the study and promotion of folk art and puppetry. Its museum near Chetak Circle presents puppets, masks, costumes, folk instruments and everyday objects, while its puppet theatre stages regular kathputli and other folk performances, and the Mandal has trained puppeteers and folk artists and taken Rajasthani folk arts to national and international stages, sustaining a living tradition as much as a collection.
Founding & Leadership
Institutionally funded through grants, ticketing and support; a not-for-profit folk-arts body.
Leadership & Trustees
Cultural Funding
Recognition
[{"name": "A pioneering institution in the study and revival of Indian folk arts and puppetry", "year": "", "note": ""}]
Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal is a foremost custodian of Rajasthani folk art and Indian puppetry, sustaining the kathputli tradition and the wider folk culture of Rajasthan through its museum, theatre and research for over seven decades.
[Atlas Perspective] Profiled as an Institution (Operator) in the Folk Arts field. The Mandal connects to Rajasthani puppetry (kathputli) and folk performance, and to the folk artists it trains and platforms. Founder Devilal Samar was a pioneering folklorist.