India has a variety of types and styles of shadow puppets. Shadow puppets are flat figures cut out of leather, which has been treated to make it translucent. Shadow puppets are pressed against the screen with a strong source of light behind it. The manipulation between the light and the screen make silhouettes or colourful shadows, as the case may be, for the viewers who sit in front of the screen. This tradition of shadow puppets survives in Orissa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. "Tholpavakoothu" (or "Tolpava Koothu") is a tradition of shadow puppetry that is unique to Kerala, India. The shadow theatre of Karnataka is known as "Togalu Gombeyatta". These puppets are mostly small in size. The puppets, however, differ in size according to their social status: for instance, large size for kings and religious characters and smaller size for common people or servants.