Anupama Hoskere the founder of Dhaatu, one of the leading puppeteers in the country believes that festivals are a celebration of life. “Vrata and Utsava are two aspects of one’s life. The former means work and it is something which gives you a sense of purpose in life. The latter means celebration and without this, what is the point of work,” she asks. Angarika Gogoi has more…
Dhaatu, located amidst the cooling shade of the big trees in Bengaluru’s Banashankari neighbourhood, is a welcome sight on a late sunny morning. A few men load securely packed items with utmost care at the entrance of Dhaatu, adorned with beautiful statues that greet one from a distance. With Dasara around the corner, the preparations are in full swing.
Anupama Hoskere, the founder of Dhaatu, is one of the leading puppeteers in the country. Puppetry aside, during the time of Dasara, she exhibits one of the largest collections of dolls as she celebrates Gombe Habba. Owning close to 10,000 samples, Hoskere is also an expert doll maker herself and she makes these dolls using materials like wood. A few dolls were in the process of completion for the Dasara exhibition and could be seen lying on her work station.
Hoskere believes that festivals are a celebration of life. “Vrata and Utsava are two aspects of one’s life. The former means work and it is something which gives you a sense of purpose in life. The latter means celebration and without this, what is the point of work,” she asks.
The mythological tale associated with the celebration of Gombe Habba is that when Goddess Durga was waging her fight against Mahishasura, she needed more strength. To help her out, all the other Gods and Goddesses gave her all their powers. As, they did that, they stood powerless like statues and this is what the festival is supposed to signify. The tenth day of the war against Mahishasura is celebrated as Dasara, while the other gods and goddesses are worshipped as dolls or statues. With time, this doll arrangement inspired other forms of storytelling and different epics like Mahabharata or the Ramayana are also incorporated in the storytelling. This tradition is known by different names in South India — Bommala Kolavu in Telugu, Bommbai Kolu in Tamil and Gombe Habba, Bombe Habba, Golu or Kolu in Kannada.
In the same city, not too far away, Mansoor Ali, is gearing up for the tours he is going to give during Dasara. Ali is the founder of Bengaluru By Foot, a walking tour group in the city. An architect by profession, he started the tour group five years back after drawing inspiration from the heritage walks he went for in Delhi.
“When I used to visit Delhi, I went on these walks where we were shown these beautiful monuments. Although, we do not have too many monuments in Bengaluru, I realised that we have a very rich cultural heritage that could be shared with others and that is how the tour company was started,” he says.
Come Dasara and Ali customises special tours covering places of cultural interest for his groups that accommodate a maximum of 20 people at a time. The showstopper in Ali’s walks, he says, is the encounter people have with Gombe Habba which gives them a glimpse into the Bengaluru’s traditional way of celebrating the festival of dolls.
Ali says it was a few years ago when he, along with his daughter, was invited to one such home where Dasara dolls were arranged in a manner that left them spellbound. “Both of us really loved it as it was something we had never seen before. This is one of the main features during our Dasara walks as I realised that people would love to witness this unique exhibition,” says Ali.
One of the places that Ali takes his tour groups to is the home of Veena Ravindranath in Jayanagar. A professor of Commerce and Accounts with a deep interest in the festival, Veena celebrates it wholeheartedly by setting up themed exhibition of dolls since last 25 years. Each member in her family of four has an integral role to play during the days that lead up to the festival.
“We pick unique themes from mythology and try to explain different stories through visual representation of the dolls. The advantage of visual representation is that, it stays with people for a very long time,” says Srisha Bharadwaj, Veena’s daughter. Srisha explains that the different themes they use for storytelling include the Dasavatara, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, among several others.
The selection and the preparation of the themes requires almost a month. The family sits together every night and makes notes. “Every prop that we use as a part of our themed doll displays have been handmade either by us or by our friends,” says Ravindranath Bharadwaj, Srisha’s father, as he shows pictures of mountains, chariots and rocks they had made in the past celebrations.
“It takes a lot of time and energy to read and understand mythology these days. We try to bridge the gap by our storytelling, where we try to cover all the important aspects within 20 minutes,” says Veena. She added that she has hundreds of dolls she has bought and collected over the years and most of dolls have been inherited from her parents and grandparents.
For Anupama Hoskere, the different epics and the stories she disseminates through her dolls is how she finds expression as an artist. “We understand life through dolls. Doll making follows the same principles of cycle of life which include creation (srishti), maintenance (sthiti) and resolution (laya),” she says.
Hoskere mentions the two primary dolls, Pattada-Bombe, which represent the male-female energy, the ultimate symbol of life. She says that these dolls could also be portrayed as the King and the Queen, where their presence is symbolic of the stability that is needed to sustain life. Srisha too talks about the central status awarded to Pattada-Bombe among the doll sphere as the provider of life to all the other dolls.
During the festive days of Dasara, Veena’s house remains open to one and all, she says, adding that they don’t ticket the exhibit.
In fact, she says that it makes her proud and happy that without having to invite people, they throng to see their doll display.
The 15 days of the festival witnesses over 1,000 people visit their home and most of them get to know about the exhibit through word of mouth, shares Veena.
Ravindranath Bharadwaj explains how their neighbours and relatives contribute to the exhibit during the festival in their own way. They help the family clear out space for the exhibition by letting them move stuff to their homes. So, is it too much hassle to organize? “Not at all,” says Bharadwaj, adding, “When we create something like this, it gives us a sense of happiness and this is not something you can buy.”
Hoskere, on the other hand, not only hosts the doll exhibitions, but also helps and guides those who plan on holding their own exhibitions. She believes that this festival brings with itself a sense of community and also strengthens our cultural roots. “Story telling is an art and the lifeline of the country,” she says.
Angarika Gogoi is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters. This article was published in the October 2018 issue of Karnataka Today monthly.
