Navaratri is here, and so is the time for many city residents to deck up their houses with kolus (doll arrangements). Gods, goddesses, dolls, and tableaux in bright colours make for a fascinating sight.
At the house of Usha Padmanabhan and her daughter Anumitha on Punnakkal Road near West Fort, the nine-tiered golu is the result of over a week of hard work.
On display on each wooden ‘padi’ are dolls, old and new. The centrepiece is a Radha-Krishna idol bought by Ms. Padmanabhan over two decades ago from Karamana. “I bought them for Rs.1,100 then,” she recalls. The two tiers below carry forward the Radha-Krishna motif. Surrounding them are more idols of Krishna, their shine proof of their recent origin.
The highlights of the Kolu though are dolls that are over 80 years old. There are kolus of Saraswathi and Lakshmi, and of Alli.
“Standing Saraswathis and Lakshmis are not common,” Ms. Padmanabhan says. One of a monkey and its child, and another of a policeman standing guard at the bottom of the kolu are just as old. A smaller one of Krishna eating butter also goes back decades.
A tier shows two Chettiar couples, and a spread of various fruit in front of them. “They represent the business community, and hence the large varieties of fruits in front of them,” she explains. The fruits, of baked clay, are also special, for some of them too go back decades. ‘Nongu,’ yam, pineapple, bananas, pomegranate, cashew, and coconut halves are on display.
“Some of them were made by my grandmother from clay,” says Anumitha.
There are some old brass objects too on display such as a bullock cart with the rider inside, and a king riding a chariot, a ‘chunnambu cheppu,’ besides miniatures of kitchen utensils such as tiffin carrier, ‘urli,’ milk carrier, pots.
Some 20-odd elephants made of wood stand together as a herd.
Silverware is also displayed. The arrangement has an idol of Padmanabhan with Lakshmi, but also of Sreerangam Perumal, a recent acquisition. Ashtalakshmi dolls, the Karthika “pennangal,” Rajarajeswari Devi, Dasavatharam, Palani hills, Pancha Pandavas, 10-headed Ravana surrounded by two Hanumans, one of them with the tail wound all around.
The tableaux add to the layers of stories. One shows Sreenivasan Kalyanam, with other Gods in attendance.
Another shows a Seemandham ritual, a seated pregnant woman surrounded by her family and in-laws. In front of her are various delicacies typical of such rituals.
Another shows two women exchanging betel leaves and nuts, integral to the kolu ritual. A wedding set depicts a couple seated on a platform, surrounded by their family, while a concert is on. Listening on are some others. Then there is the Thiruvannamalai tableaux, complete with Nandi, the bull. There is also one of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana attending a yagam.
The wooden ‘padis’ stand on a skeleton structure which has three parts. Starting from the top, each padi is decked up with dolls and lit up with lights, says Anumitha
No invitation is needed to visit a home to see the kolu, she says. Girls get bangles, bindis, kohl and the like, and married women get betel leaves and nut, flowers, turmeric, and prasadam. There is a different prasadam each day.
At the end of the festival, Ms. Padmanabhan, like her mother and grandmother before her, will painstakingly wrap up each of these dolls in paper and put them in storage, till next year.
