Gombe habba ( dolls arrangement ) is celebrated in Navaratri , in some parts of India, especially in Mysore,Bangalore , Andhra and Tamilnadu. We don’t have this tradition. I had seen this , in some Kannada Movies, and always liked this.
Once Navaratri starts, in some of the shops the dolls are sold. As a preparation of the Dolls Arrangement, people buy the dolls from shops and add it to their existing collection of dolls. Every year, I visit these shops, just to have a look of dolls. Its really nice to see people, excitedly buying the dolls for the dolls arrangement.
Even though, we don’t have this tradition, I could not resist myself from buying a miniature of house. I have collection of miniatures, about which I will share in the coming posts.
Last year, one of my friends had invited to see the dolls arrangement. This year also I was eagerly waiting, that someone would invite me. But didn’t get any invitation 🙁 . So I was little disappointed. Yesterday morning, one of my friends called and invited for the same. “Oh! Finally I got an invitation” .I was very excited. Though I reached home late from office due to traffic , I visited her house, accompanied by my son.
It was really fun to see the lots of dolls arranged. The dolls are arranged on steps, and the number of steps varies from 3,5,7,9 etc, depending on the collection of dolls.
Such a colorful view!. You can see, dolls of different sizes, colors. Dolls of Gods ,Goddesses, sets of dolls depicting different cultures, different customs etc. I don’t know much , about how this tradition started. The dolls are collected over the years and every year few new dolls are added to this. My friend told me, when girl gets married, she gets the Pattada Gombe ( dolls of King and Queen) , from her mother. And the girl continues this tradition.
Here is the decorated Pattada Gombe
There were many dolls of Krishna.
Kalinga Mardana doll, which had brought loveliness.
Below row has Vishnu with Laxmi, Nataraja , Gayathri devi and Varaha with Bhoodevi
Oh! Shiva and Parvati seated on their Vahana( vehicle), Basava , have come on earth to bless us. Beside Maa Durga , giving assurance to protect us .Vishnu on his vehicle Garuda. Don’t you feel heaven has fallen on earth!!
The series of dolls, Krishna playing different musical instruments caught my eyes.
Below you can see, very pretty set of dolls, which depicts Shashtipooti .
Beside Krishna, Meerabai , singing a Bhajan. But I could not understand , why is the Teddy sitting there 🙂
Krishna’s Bala leela; Definitely they are taking us to Gokula.
Do you want to buy vegetables and grocery for the festival. Here are the vendors selling them:
Most of us played, with dolls, Do you remember, Dolls marriage? Our favourite one!We used to play making, one doll as bride and another as bridegroom. These dolls cherish your childhood memories of dolls’ marriage.
There were many more like this . Looking at the dolls,I had become like a kid. At least for half an hour I was lost in this wonderful world of dolls. I asked my friend, how do they keep these dolls after the festival. She told, the dolls would be wrapped in cloth or paper and kept in a box. I imagined, the dolls will be waiting for the next Navaratri to show off their charms. Do they talk to each other? If so what would be that? Oh, just imagination! Remembered the movie Toy Story? 🙂
Hello, are you lost in this world of dolls? I knew this!
Wishing you all Happy Dasara.
I could not post all the photos here. Some of the photos you can view
here.
