Dasara doll display features games, composers

Bengalureans are inviting the public home to view their festive doll displays, assembled with old and new collections

A music-themed doll display by Chandrika.

Krupa Sunil and son Amarthya have set up a display that depicts the Mysuru Dasara, Chamundi Hills and village life.

Lalithambika and Navadurga themed dolls have been displayed by Sundar M N.

A display depicting Bengaluru by teachers of Sankalpa Pre-School, Vijayanagar.

After two years of lull, Bengalureans have opened their homes to the public to view their doll display as part of Gombe Habba.

They have put on display heirloom dolls but also modern installations. Such as Chandrika S Dutt, a resident of Bannerghatta Road. One of her displays is themed on transport. It has miniatures of bullock cart, bicycle, autorickshaw, scooter, bike, boat, and plane but also a jeep safari waiting to ferry people around a zoo, she shares.

Another display is an ode to music composers such as Purandara Dasa, Thyagaraja, and Shyama Shastri and features tiny instruments. Ashtalakshmi, Shiva Parvati with their family, philosophers like Madhvacharya, Ramanujacharya and Shankaracharya, and Russian dolls sit on other racks.

Games time

Rajajinagar-resident Padma B Udayakumar has been displaying dolls for 35 years. She has dedicated two rooms to show her collection, of which, the latest is a tribute to the traditional Indian games we played as children. Twenty outdoor and indoor games are on view — lagori, kabaddi, kho kho, buguri, goli, hulikuri atta, chess, ludo, kunte bale, chowka bara, tic tac toe, cricket, among others.

“It took me more than two months to procure them,” she says. Among traditional dolls, she has added a Rama set and a collection of silver miniature dolls, which she has “encased to preserve for generations”. The display also includes kitchen utensils and Channapatna dolls.

Her oldest dolls are at least 150 years old, a pair of brass Pattada Gombe, passed on to her by her grandmother. She has an heirloom pair in wood as well.

Mysuru feel

Around 400 terracotta, plaster of Paris and clay dolls are on display at Krupa Sunil’s home along Uttarahalli Main Road. She has been displaying dolls for Gombe Habba for 14 years and this year’s theme is Mysuru. It features replicas of the Mysore Palace, Dasara procession, and Chamundi Hill. A village display and a marriage set along with lunch scenes are other attractions.

‘Vaikunta Dwara’ (the gate to Lord’s inner sanctum) is another display where Lord Vishnu sits in kshirasamudra (the mythological ocean of milk). “I made the doors myself,” she informs.

Staying traditional

Sundar M N, a resident of R R Nagar, has displayed around 250 dolls from his collection of almost three decades and 30 new dolls.

The Brahmotsavam set depicts the different forms Sri Srinivasa dons every day at Tirumala during the Navratri festival and “the vahanas he goes around the temple street on”.

The Lalithambika set is a depiction of Sri Lalitha Parameshwari as explained in the sacred texts Devi Bhagavatam and Lalita Sahasranamam. “I have combined the set with navadurgas (nine forms of Durga) to depict different forms ‘Shakthi’,” he says. A Dasara procession, ashtalakshmi (eight forms of Lakshmi), dashavatara (ten avatars of Vishnu) and ‘Vivaha Bhojanambu’ song from the film ‘Mayabazar’ have also been assembled.

Likewise, resident of HBR layout, Ranjani Srinivasan, has put up a traditional display.

“Nava Narasimha, Nava Shayanam, Bhramotsavam, Nachiyar Tirukolam (when Vishnu adorns the jewellery of Lakshmi and dresses like Nachiyar (Mohini)) are important scenes,” she says.

Other collections include Gokulam, Bala kanda, Ayodhya kanda, Aranya Kanda, Sundar kanda, the 12 Alwars, the Siddhars, Guru parampara and Mantralaya Brindavana.

A roadtrip on SH17

Fifteen teachers of Sankalpa Pre-School, Vijayanagar, have hand-made a display of a road trip along the Bengaluru-Mysuru flyover SH17. You can see Vidhana Soudha, Cubbon Park, UB City, namma Metro, Chinnaswamy Stadium, and high-rise towers of Bengaluru here, says school principal Jyothi Chetan.

The Renukamba Thatte Idli store at Bidadi, silk cocoons at Ramanagara, wooden toys of Channapatna, Ambegalu Krishna Temple and Maddur vade of Maddur, sugarcane farms and paddy fields at Mandya, a bridge to Srirangapatna, and the Dasara procession and zoo at Mysuru make up the rest of the setup.

The display is open to visitors till October 8.