CHENNAI: On the third floor of the Park View building in T Nagar amid the flock of vehicles and people out and about during Navrathri, Shanthi Chandrashekar has opened her golu for all to come and enjoy. The 96 dolls were arranged carefully in one of the showrooms. Shanthi, the founder of the gold plating company, has based her golu on the theme shakthi, or power, and has used only female goddesses to do so. “Female empowerment is a very important issue, but many people are talking about it like it’s a recent thing. All these issues, especially female empowerment, is present in our epics,” says Shanthi.
The clothes, accessories and other ornaments of the dolls were all bought, stitched and put together within three months time. Each doll is based on pictures and drawings of the goddesses that Shanthi could find. Starting from Kaali, dolls of Hindu goddesses were arranged on the top step. Following that, the various avatars of Saraswathi were neatly placed next to each other, and the last row was of the Navakaali, based on one of Shanthi’s favourite stories, and named after different precious stones.
Seven dolls were arranged together on a step to depict the Sapta Maatha, the seven kannigas created to help Lord Shiva fight Andhakasura. They are dressed in silk. Her golu display has seen 2,000 visitors so far. Also on display are — Ardhanari, or a depiction of man and woman to symbolise harmony, that had a distinct line in between the doll lengthwise to depict both genders; Sakambari, a reincarnation of Parvathi and the bearer of green vegetables, which was made from clay and had pulses stuck on; and of Andal, the only female Alvar saint of south India, who is depicted with a mirror beside her.
It took the 66-year-old three months of research to discover more about Durga, Saraswathi and Lakshmi, the three main goddesses, and their various avatars. During this search, Shanthi found out some details about a few goddesses that she didn’t know. “We always see Seethai as Rama’s wife. But the Ramayana was started because of Seethai’s curse on Raavan. I always wondered how the curse came to be. It turns out, Seetha was born as Vedavalli, as she was born from the recitals of sage Kusathuvan. Raavan approached her during her tapas and pulled her hair. This was when she cursed him by saying she would destroy him in her next birth,” explains Shanthi.