Bengaluru: In a quiet bylane of Basavanagudi, 64-year-old Sumitra Devi carefully cleans dolls of various kinds and prepares to place them on a platform, signalling to neighbours that the ‘Bombe Habba’ has arrived.
While she plans to display her 44-year-old dolls during the nine days of Navaratri, beginning Saturday, she can’t remember exactly when the tradition took birth in South India.
“I remember my grandmother telling us stories of the Ramayana and other tales as she guarded the dolls all through the year for the festival. Eventually, my mother received them and passed them on to the next generation. When I got married, my mother-in-law passed on hers to me and now, with the arrival of my grandchildren the collection is only growing,” she smiles.
Explaining the significance of ‘Bombe Habba,’ puppeteer Anupama Hoskere says the dolls depict ‘Srishti’ (creation), ‘Stithi’ (sustenance) and ‘Laya’ (destruction). “The Pattada Gombe depict male and female energy. Every festival has some universal story to tell and here these stories are told through the dolls during the nine days,” she explains, adding, “The dolls provide important value education to children growing up with gadgets. The stories told through them are extremely important for them as they remove self -doubt and help in character building. They have solutions to most every day problems.”
The artists, who make these dolls are thriving because of the demand for them, according to her. “It is unfortunate that the Navaratri dolls are not manufactured in Karnataka. Most of the dolls in the country are supplied by Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kashi,” Anupama reveals.
Understanding Navaratri
Navaratri means nine nights. The festival is held to enable man to get rid of the darkness which has taken hold of him. The first three days are dedicated to the worship of goddess Durga, the next three to the worship of goddess Lakshmi and the last three to the worship of goddess Saraswathi.
The doll display
Every family, which has a doll collection unique to it, displays it on a platform with 7, 9 or 11 steps leading to it.
The top spot is given to ‘Pattada Gombe’ (main dolls), which are usually a family heirloom, and made of wood. Just like in temple sculpture, where the top rows are occupied by celestial and semi-celestial forms and their pantheon, here too as the tiers descend, you see the display of humans, flora and fauna and inanimate objects.
