As Dalavai Sivamma immerses the goat hide in a vessel of boiling water, her son Durgesh uses a blade to scrape the surface of dried skin to remove the remnants of fur and ensure a smooth finish.
Going by the gruelling task and her simple attire, it is hard to believe that Sivamma is a national award-winning leather puppet artist (2019). Not just her, there are 12 national award winners from her community, including a Padma Shri awardee, Dalavai Chalapathi Rao.
The glory of this dusty little village of Nimmalakunta in the newly-carved out Sri Sathya Sai district of Andhra Pradesh is not known even in the district headquarters town of Puttaparthi. Situated 12 km from Dharmavaram town, known for authentic handloom saris, this sleepy village has 150 houses, half of them belonging to this tribe called Tholubommalatagallu.
