Page 6 - Oct-Dec 2018

DID YOU KNOW?
TradiTional Toys educate all children, source
Microsoft, in their drive to
As children, we enjoy wood in its most attractive form – as a lot of Channapatna toys
bright, colourful toys! Today, these toys are not just tools for as mathematical games and
entertainment, but are a classic symbolization of the ancient art. puzzles. Some Channapatna
toys can also be found Illustration by: Sanjana
AndHrA ArTs at the White House. Shyamsundar, VII A, Delhi
Public School, Sec. 45,
In the Etikoppaka region Gurgaon
of Andhra Pradesh, toys are CoLoUrFUL KoLU
made with lacquer colour and are
traditionally known as Etikoppaka In South India, the Dasara festival is
toys or Etikoppaka Bommalu, called Bommai Kolu or a display of
and Nirmal toys. The toys dolls. Wooden dolls are given to a girl
are made out of wood and from her parents during her marriage
are coloured with natural dyes Illustration by: Nishchay Saini, and are called Marapachi Bommai. It
derived from seeds, lacquer, bark, IX B, Vishva Bharti Public is also said that these dolls made of
roots, and leaves. The craft is School, Jagadhri sandalwood are gifted to a newborn.
almost 400 years old. They have been given the GI tag. In When the child bites or licks the doll, an extract from
Kondapalli, various scenes from local lives are translated the wood gets absorbed into its system. They are also
into dolls and toys. made in Kondapalli as Raja Rani Dolls.
Yash bharti, X, Pine Hall School, Dehradun; Alena Gautam, IX I, Delhi Public S. Swetha Viswanath, VIII D, SRVS National Hr. Sec. School,
School, Mathura Road, Delhi; Anisa Sultana, Subha Niketan School, Kakinada Nagapattinam; Arya Soni, IX A, Suditi Global Academy, etawah; Nithya,
IX C, Oxford Grammar School, Hyderabad; Yuvika Mehta, V C, Scholars
Home Sr. Sec. School, Dehradun
VArAnAsI Wonders

In Varanasi, wooden toys are quite GLorIoUs GAMes
famous. These toys often depict
village landscape, bullock carts, We also see the usage of wood in other things
village people, and even cooking which might interest children, such as board games.
vessels. Religion and cultural Pallankuzhi is a 2 player game with a wooden board
themes are also sometimes which has 14 pits in 2 rows and 7 columns, and 146
depicted through these toys. counters. The aim of the game is to capture all the
The wood for these toys is counters. The first one to do so wins.
sourced from the jungles of
Chitrakoot and Sonbhadra.
Samriddhi Singh, XI F, Sunbeam School,
Varuna, Varanasi; Avaneesh Mishra, IX,
Vidya Gyan School, Sitapur

rAJAsTHAnI PUPPeTs

These dolls are wooden figures attached to a string, controlled by human
fingers. The neck, face, and heads of these dolls are carved out of a single
piece of wood. The stories narrated through this art have been passed down
from generations verbally. It is believed that these puppets were first made
around a thousand years ago by the Bhatt Community.
Japjot Singh bhatia, VIII, Jankidevi Public School, Jaipur; Ojasvy, X, Green Fields School,
Safdarjung enclave, New Delhi; Davina Agarwal, IX, Neerja Modi School, Jaipur Illustration by: Ojasvy, X B, Green Fields School, Delhi

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20