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In <199610041756.KAA04290, Vasudha Narayanan wrote:

>"kolu" as we know it? Maybe there is information in personal

>recollections-- for instance there are stories of some porcelain dolls

>being

>given during my great grandmother's first navaratri after marriage--

>so that

>pushes it back some years! More and more "social" themes seem to be

>represented in India-- in the fifties I vaguely recall seeing scened

>PS The reason I requested even personal recollections is because it

>gives so

>much pleasure just to hear about it. For instance, this summer, when

>the

>bhakti group was on "hold," I had asked Sri Sadagopan about patinettam

>perukku and he gave me such a lovely answer about how the ladies in

>his

>family would take "kalanda sadam" to Mother Kaveri "who was rushing to

>her

>Lord's house" and celebrate the day. Reading that note, I kept

>imagining

>the scene so many times, along with the memories I had of the

>celebrations

>of the day. Thank you.

>

>

 

I am from Bangalore and indeed I have many wonderful memories from

Kolu Pandige or Bombe Habba or Navarathri Habba or Dasara. When I was

young my mother used to dress me up in different alankaras like

Radhalankara, Krishnalankara, Moggina Jade alankara or as Shakuthala

etc for each of the nine days and my friends (also dressed up in one

or other alankaras - come to think of it most of us were

Ayyangars!). We would visit each other's house and the

neighbour's houses to see Kolu or Bombe. Everyone would have varieties

of kolu displayed and we

would get special snacks as treats in each house. My mother would

prepare mini murukus, kodubale, laddus etc each day a different

variety of snacks specially for the kids coming to see kolu. Some

kids would just go out in a group to see Bombe and stand in front of

your house and ask " Ree Bombe Ittiddeera?" meaning have you displayed

kolu! This was the most joyous of festivals that I thoroughly enjoyed!

 

The festival starts on padyam and ends after Vijayadashmi. I remember

in our house preparations starting two days prior to padyam, my father

would put up the Padis or Mettals for the kolu. We usually

had seven to nine padis in our house, people used to have upto 25

padis depending on the space and amount of kolu you had to display.

 

In Karnataka I think this is closely linked with the Mysore Maharaja's

celeberations of Dasara. In the palace a whole room

(big) is dedicated for displaying wonderful dolls from all corners of

the world! There are lots of festivities in the palace for 9 days

culminating with the famous grand dasara procession!

 

In my house on the top padi in the center we kept the Raja Rani made

of wood and another small pair of raja rani made of vangalam. My

grandmother gave thse along with other dolls to mom for her

first navarathri after her wedding. (and my mother gave to me). This

is the custom in many houses in Bangalore and Karnataka.

The kolu padis will be decorated and the Raja Rani and the dolls will

get new outfit. I remember making saree for the Rani with the crepe paper and

cut out

tiny mango shapes out of shiny paper to make design on the saree and make

little matching blouse. I also made jewelry with 'rasagundus' for the

dolls. We had many porcelain Krishnas and dolls clad in sarees and we would

arrange these as Gopis surrounding Krishna in the Brindavan. And a

Chettiyar setting up his shop with all the bags of rice wheat etc and

many such little themes. The best part was making the Park. We would

bring sand and pour on the ground in front of the kolu and sow Ragi

in it. In two days time it will grow to two to three inches and in the

park we would have several themes like Raasakreeda with a pond and

railroads, bridges , froest with elephants lions tigers grraffes etc

and little park with a lady walking her dog (this was my favourite

doll) and cat with kittens and groundnut or a peanut vendor , oh I

can go on and on I loved doing all that! By vijayadashami the Ragi

would grow so thick and tall now I would make a rainforest theme!

Sorry , I got a little carried away there!

 

One of the days, I think sixth day is the Saraswathi pooja. We keep

saraswathi patam and silver idols on a platform next to kolu padi and

keep veena or any musical instrument and the books and do pooja. Next

day is Ayudha puja and in the streets of Bangalore all the buses and

all vehicles are washed and painted and shiny adorned with flowers

valakambams(bananaplants) and Maaveles (mango leaves) and kunkumam

manjal vibuthis etc. People would do pooja to all the machinery,

tools and just about everything from a nail to sewing machine will have a

flower and kunkumam on it!

 

Then after Mahanavami is Vijayadashami. The day Vijayadashami as the

name implies (vijaya or victory) is considered as very auspcious day

to start new businessses etc.

 

In Mysore of course this would be the most colorfull and grandest

time. The whole city would be decorated. The late maharaja had

festivities at the palace and fed many poor people at the palace

I think the Ayudha puja concept came from rajah because being

kshatriya he did puja to his ayudhas or weapons. And on Vijayadashami

morning to cleberate Victory he would go to Chamudeshwari temple and perform

special puja. This also signifies the Victory of chamundeshwari of

mahishasura mardini over the demon Mahishasura thus signifying the

victory of good over evil.

 

In the evening ofcourse the most famous colorfull wonderful dasara

procession the grandeur of which can only be comprehended by

experiencing it! Those days tons of people converged to Mysore from

all parts of India and I am told the neighbouring countries. I

remember my father putting me on his shoulders and saying "look there

is his highnesss on the royal elephant"! First there would be a set

of king's colorfully dressed soldiers with swords marching and then

the horse mounted soldiers and then more soldiers on foot and then the

Royal elephant Iravatha (or Gajendra I don't remember the

name) wonderfully decorated with the best of jewels will gracefylly

walk carrying a 180 kg pure gold simhasana or ambari studded with gems

on which the maharaja sat in all his finery, with folded hands!

Most wonderfull almost a fairy taleish sight and unforgetable!

Last month when we visited India I showed my kids the ambari in the

palace and also the Dasara procession paintings.

 

Vasudha Naranyann's posting brought a flood of

pleasant memories and I couldn't stop typing!

I hope I haven't bored you all with this.

 

Thanks

Indira