Dolls, play, and culture
I was recently reading a story told by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The story was about a doll made of salt. This salt doll was rather adventurous and travelled to many places and learned about many ideas and concepts from around the world. In the course of its extensive travels, the doll arrived on the seashore. Watching the surging sea and the crashing waves, the doll’s curiosity was piqued.
“What are you?” it asked the sea. “Come in and see,” replied the sea. So, the salt doll waded in, and the deeper she went, the more she dissolved until at last she became one with the sea and understood everything about the sea. This story got me thinking. Much like the doll was used to help us understand how important it is to immerse ourselves completely to learn the true nature of things, many of our festivals and our rituals use this element of play and games. And one such fascination is with dolls.
Perhaps it is rooted in the fact that India has a rich toy making tradition with incredible artisans across our country making the most exquisite toys with wood, clay, cloth, paper, pith and more. Perhaps it is rooted in the fact that in a doll we see ourselves in miniature thus lending us perspective in understanding things because we are outside looking in. Perhaps it is rooted in the fact that we are all children at heart and can never truly escape the charm of toys and dolls.
No matter what the reason, there is a strong element of play in our culture and dolls form an integral part of our customs. Dr V Raghavan, in his book Festivals, Sports and Pastimes of India, says that many of the festivals had one aspect in religion and another in enjoyment, music, dance, jest, with fun and games, forming essential parts of the celebrations.
Play in our cultural tradition takes many forms. Gods and Goddesses are created in the form of dolls dressed lovingly, adorned with flowers, jewels and more. We see this in the Varalakshmi puja celebrations in South India, where the silver face of the Goddess Lakshmi is mounted on a coconut to give it substance and tied to a beautiful silver pot to give it body. This Lakshmi then adorned with silk, jewellery and other embellishments before being placed in the puja.
Again, during the Navratri celebrations in South India there is a beautiful arrangement of dolls in every home symbolising the various Gods, Goddesses and mythological characters telling stories of from our legends and epics. The Ram Navami celebrations with giant figures of key characters re-enacting scenes from the Ramayana is another example of dolls of a different scale and type.
Another fascinating example is the Marapachi dolls from Andhra. These wooden dolls, made of dark wood are the traditional forerunners of our modern-day Barbie dolls. Clothes were made for these dolls. Jewellery was fashioned for them. The boy and the girl were often dressed for festivals and displayed in homes. This is the kind of playful narrative and joyful element in much of our cultural and historic underpinnings. Games and play have a childlike innocence, and sometimes in that innocence we find deep spirituality and answers to our questions.