'Gombe habba' in all its splendour

 ‘Pattada gombe’, which portrays the culture and tradition of the festival, depicting popular historical and mythological characters, is the highlight of the doll show which is getting bigger and better in the homes of Mysore city, writes Shivaranjini S.

D oll arranging, which is an integral part of Dasara festivities since the Wadiyar reign, is alive and pulsating even in the modern days, with many of the families in city still practicing it very dedicatedly.

Dasara, which is celebrated in various forms across India, according to mythology, has been celebrated with pomp and glory in the South, and doll arranging has been important part of it. In Karnataka Dasara is also known as ‘Bombe Habba’. Not only has the city been decked up for the festivities, people have spruced up their houses to host the doll show.

While some of them do it in small scale, most of the enthusiasts dedicate their time, space to creatively relive the culture and tradition with the dolls. A few families also find it apt to include the present days’ incidents and technologies in their doll show, along with the classical dolls.

The living space of the residence of the couple Dr H S Satyanarayana and Malini Satyanarayana, has been converted into a museum of doll collection, comprising of traditional, ancestral and modern dolls.

The furniture at the house in ground floor has been shifted into the car garage and the first floor of the house now doubles up as the living area. The couple, along with their son, daughter and daughter-in-law, have earnestly devoted themselves in arranging the dolls in two rooms and other parts of the house.

The doll show, which starts with the welcome dolls outside the house, ends with the theme on ‘Karnataka Folk Dance’. Dolls depicting about 20 varieties of dances like halakki kunita, bhoota nrutya, keelu kudure, koravanji kunita, veeragase, hulivesha, kamsale, garudi kunita, suggi kunita, dollu kunita, marada kalian kunita, jagga halage, halakki kunitha, have been showcased.

Malini did not forget to decorate the ancestral ‘pattada gombe’, a gift from her mother-in-law. Bramhotsava, excerpts of Ramayana and the ruling of King Shivaji, great musicians, saints, artisans and market streets find a space in bigger room. The veranda has all the modern and foreign toys highlighting importance of a few issues.

The Mysore Airport has been converted into a full-fledged Mysore International Airport with 11 flights within it. Take-off and landing of flights has also been shown within the airport creatively. Other transport facilities like bus, railways and autorickshaw stands have also been set up up.

The couple’s creativity does not end here. They have recreated the tale of Onake Obavva at Chitradurga Fort, where she bravely killed the soldiers of Hyder Ali who entered the fort illegally. The fort has been created with bricks, mud and plastic toys.

They even have set up toys depicting defence system in the country. Relating the recent incident of fire mishap at KVC Hotel in city, Satyanarayana, who has set up a modern fire brigade, says that if such upgraded fire engines were in Mysore to reach the heights, the impact would have been much lower.

Malini says that the tradition which was part of both houses (husband's and hers), was followed by her even after she got married.

The doll arrangements started getting bigger in the last 15 years. Their collection of dolls comes from Kashi, Belgaum, Tanjavoor, US and other places they have travelled in the last 50 years.

N Meenakshi, wife of N Sreeshailakumar, who has been inspired by her mother, did not have the opportunity to display her talent at her in-law's place initially, as there was no doll show tradition there, even though Dasara festivities were observed. She was happy when her mother-in-law asked her to continue the tradition, about nine years ago.

Ever since then, she has been doing it sincerely with different themes of mythology. Shiva Parvathi Ganga, Sapta Matruke, 101 Ganapatis and many more have been part her arrangements. This year, she has picked up ‘Shiva Karya Manche’, the ninth Shloka of Soundarya Lahari, describing Goddess Rajarajeshwari as the power of the universe.

She has also created the JSS Multi Speciality Hospital that was inaugurated by President Pranabh Mukherjee along with the replicas of the President and the Suttur Seer Shivaratri Deshikendra Swami.

Sreenivasa Kalyana, Meenakshi Kalyana, Vaibhava Lakshmi Puja and other pujas along with the traditional Durbar of Wadiyars, procession of present days with tableaux have been hand made by her assisted by her daughter Varsha S Kumar.

Roopa Ananthprasad, who has recently shifted to Mysore from Hassan did not have much time to decorate many dolls. She has however not stalled the tradition. The practice which has come from her mother’s house, is being carried forward by her.

Her children A Sindhu and A Sathivik enthusiastically pitch in.Different dolls of Krishna, Gowri, Ganesha, and scenes from Ramayana, Dashavathara and ‘chandana gombe’ have been recreated. Most of the toys are of Channapattana, she says.

Citing the stories related to Dasara, she said that each day was associated with a story of the Goddess converting her power into different forms to kill demon Mahishasura. “I usually arrange the varied forms of the Goddess.

But now that I have recently relocated to Mysore, I could not arrange them,” she added. She is however readying the dolls now itself for the next celebrations.

(Note: This story is independent of the doll show competition being conducted by Deccan Herald as part of Dasara)