BENGALURU: Navratri and Dasara are celebrated across the country in many different ways, each unique from the other. While East Indians feast during the festival and enjoy pandal hopping, West Indians fast and dance all night to garba tunes, North Indians enact the Ramayana, and South Indians have a grand ceremony for Goddess Chamundeshwari.
There is more to Dasara than the Mysuru Dasara Ambari, a tradition unique to South India, where households are decorated with traditional, antique and age-old dolls made of clay, that have been passed down generations. They tie childhood memories to traditions, and help people stay connected with their inner child. One of the most unique traditions kept alive for generations, it has seen many changes over the years. Adding a modern twist the trend calls for recreation of scenes from mythological epics.
Divya Tejaswi is a doll maker/decorator who works especially on the modern art of doll making, a talent she inherited from her mother, who enjoys recreating customised thematic dolls during Dasara. “The most popular among dolls for Navratri is the Navdurga set, scenes from Ramayana, Mahabharata, including scenes between Krishna and Yashoda.
This year, there has been a spike in demand for Navratri Garba dolls, and Ras Leela, scenes from chapters of Lord Krishna’s life. In a creative display of her talent, Nagamani KS (67) has woven woollen dolls for her set of Dasara Dolu Gombe. Her entire set this year is dolls made using crochet & Notting.