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Dolls play an important role during the Dasara in Karnataka. Every house in Mysore becomes a mini doll museum during Dasara. The mother or the grandmother climbs to the attic and brings down the box containing dolls, cleans them and arranges them in the drawing room in an elegant way.

The dolls used to be worshipped daily and the neighbouring children used to be invited to see the dolls. The special attraction for the children was the sweets given to them on their visit. Hence to the children Dasara meant doll exhibition.

Actually doll expos had a religious purpose. Among various dolls, the most important would automatically be called “Pattada gombe”, symbolizing the royal couple, the Maharaja and Maharani. They would have the attire and ornament imitating king and queen. This pair had the most prominent place in the arrangement of dolls.

Those were the days when Maharaja was considered a living god by the subjects. Thus the exhibition and worship of dolls symbolized respect to the Maharaja. After Vijayadashami, dolls would be packed in the old box and kept safely in the attic to be opened only for next Dasara.

Worshipping the dolls during Dasara by the Mysore Wadiyars has a tradition going back to Vijayanagara times. Mysore Palace has a doll gallery called “Gombe Thotti” which was meant to exhibit dolls in the Palace. Any visitor to Mysore Palace can see this expo even now. This has a good doll collection.

Normally dolls refer to human figures while toy connotes objects including animals. In fact, dolls and toys are as old as man himself. The prehistoric people used dolls for magico - religious purposes. They made toys of animals and pierced them with a big needle and they believed that the animal would easily become a target in their hunting. Many female dolls have been found in France and Southern Russia belonging to Aurignacian age (40,000 BC). Perhaps these are the earliest dolls. Dolls have been found in Egyptian tombs and are suspected to be symbolic of the family members. In some cases, they were the dolls used by family members.

In ancient China of 3000 BC, the Emperor banned the practice of burying the living human beings in the graves and ordered that clay miniature dolls or images be buried in the graves. Thus dolls were substituted for human victims in ancient China. This gave encouragement to the production of dolls in ancient China.

Indus valley culture is especially famous for dolls and toys of human beings, animals like monkey, squirrel, parrot, mother holding her child, dog, hen, cart, tree etc. Thus the children of Indus valley culture had the pleasure of playing with these dolls of great variety as early as 3000 BC.

Dolls have been discovered in Indian graves also. The graves of megalithic period which abound mostly in South India have yielded clay dolls with other grave goods like iron weapons, ornaments, beads etc. along with human skeletons. Thus dolls which began with magico - religious and sepulchral significance came to be the objects of play for children in later periods.

Parts of Atharva Veda deal with black magic and sorcery. Naturally it is practiced through dolls and miniature images of animals, and chanting the hymns or the mantras. Many excavations in India have revealed the use of dolls for black magic.

Excavations at Sannati, Banavasi, and Maski etc. have yielded a large number of dolls and toys used by children. In ancient and medieval paintings, children are shown as playing with dolls. Begram and Bamiyan of Gandhara culture (now in Afghanisthan) were famous for ivory dolls. They are the best dolls found in ancient times in India.

Coming to modern period, Germany and America are the major producers of dolls as an industry. The first patent for a particular type of doll was obtained in 1858 in USA. Commercial production of baby dolls began with the initiative of a person called Montanaris.

Edison invented a doll in 1889 that could sing nursery rhymes. Then a drinking doll was invented. Now dolls do all sorts of things that human beings do by using battery power. This is a great revolution in doll industry.

The Barbie dolls introduced in 1969 created a revolution because they resembled teenage girls. This has a sales of more than 1,000 million dollars. Barbie family is now growing with different varieties.

There are more than 1,200 collections of dolls in different parts of America. In India, many folklore museums have collections of dolls. However, the International Doll Museum in Delhi has an excellent doll collection from all parts of the world attracting visitors from all over the country and abroad.

Nearer home, dolls of Channapatna are unique for their bright colour and design. Their themes vary from traditional to modern times. In our own city, the well - known Ramson’s Kala Pratishtana has organised its annual Bombe Mane exhibition as part of Dasara, open to public till the end of Dasara. This has a wonderful collection of colourful dolls of various themes including Dasara procession. It is worth seeing.

Thus dolls have a long history of over 40,000 years.

Prof. A. V. Narasimha Murthy
Courtesy: Star of Mysore