and the oldest written records of puppetry can be found in the works of Herodotus and Xenophon, dating from the 5th century BC. The Greek word translated as "puppet" is "νευρόσπαστος" (nevrospastos), which literally means "drawn by strings, string-pulling", from "νεῦρον" (nevron), meaning either "sinew, tendon, muscle, string", or "wire", and "σπάω" (spaō), meaning "draw, pull". Aristotle (384–322 BC) discusses puppets in his work On the Motion of Animals. The movements of animals may be compared with those of automatic puppets, which are set going on the occasion of a tiny movement; the levers are released, and strike the twisted strings against one another. In India, puppetry was practiced from ancient times and is known by different names in different parts of the country. Excavation of clay dolls from Indus valley sites serve as an indication. The art of puppetry called Bommalattam is mentioned in Tamil literature Silappadikaram, which is written around 2nd century B.C. Types of puppet and puppetry Puppetry by its nature is a flexible and inventive medium and many puppet companies work with combinations of puppet forms and incorporate real objects into their performances. They might, for example, incorporate performing objects such as torn paper for snow, or a sign board with words as narrative devices within a production. The following are, alphabetically, the basic and conventional forms of puppet: Black light puppet The black light puppet is a form of puppetry where the puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppets, which are normally designed using colours that respond to UV light by glowing brightly. The puppeteers perform dressed in black against a black background, with the background and puppeteer's costume normally made of black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets under the light, while they position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Puppets of many sizes and types may be used. The original concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry. Bunraku puppet Bunraku puppets are a type of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century, the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although their presence as a kind of 'shadow' figure adds a mysterious power to the