Navratri: Celebrating with dolls

Come Navratri and you can witness several communities celebrating the festival in different ways. For south Indians, Navratri means Golu — a traditional arrangement of dolls in odd-numbered tiers (called as padis), which are draped in a white cloth.

Essentially celebrated in the households of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh — the golu dolls are possessions of a family which are handed down through generations.

Normally comprising nine tiers, each set should be decorated in a certain manner. The first three steps should have the kalasam. Goddess Lakshmi, Saraswati, Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, Krishna and other God and Goddesses can be placed.

The tiers four to six are dedicated to saints like Swami Vivekananda, Sai Baba and even national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi who have sacrificed their lives for the country.

The seventh tier can be made colourful by setting up dolls that represents human activities. For instance, dolls representing marriage activities and even dolls representing different festivals like Pongal, Deepavali, Krishna Jayanthi among others.

The eight tier can be mixed platter where you can get dolls from various crafts and businesses. From the wooden dolls, Chettair dolls, Channapatna dolls — you could bring in dolls from varied crafts in India. It is also a tradition to keep plate of rice, pulses and other commodities as a tradition of respect to agriculture.

The ninth and the last tier can include the Marapachi dolls — the wooden dolls of a man and a woman. You can even include dolls of animals, birds and others like reptiles and insects. Apart from the nine tiers, people can even set up gardens, school or institutions, malls, amusement park setups right near your Golu.

Ultimately, the arrangement depends on the creativity of the person who is arranging it.The dolls are availble in locales of Gandhi Nagar, Basavangudi, Malleshwaram at affordable prices.
Source: Internet