Navraatri.


Navraatri - "Festival of Dolls" is what I have known this festival for however it is literally translated to "Nine Nights".
I come from one of the southern states of India ~ Karnataka, where these 9 auspicious days are termed collectively as a festival of the state - naaDa Habba ~ Dasara.

This year's Dasara was special for me for a simple reason that it was the first festival I celebrated at my in-laws.[So that gives away the reason for my absence from blogging arena].

I had no time to set up anything great but did not want to let go the festival dry. So finally managed to find the Royal wedding dolls[Pattada Gombe ~ as we call them ] - which denotes the bride and groom from Mysore empire. I love the way they are decorated. The lady is adorned with a red saree and the jewels neatly placed  made her look more than perfect. The groom wears a mysore peta to match his silk kurta and dhoti.

Navaratri in Karnataka is not just about the pooja and rituals but more of fun and activity. In several homes  the dolls are collected year after year and arranged in a fashion that it speaks a story by itself for all its viewers. School kids have their mid-term vacation. The older generation pour in information from history and mythology while they involve the kids in the process of decorating and prepping for the Navraatri. That's how the facts trickle down the grape vine. Every evening there is a pooja done for the Dolls set and the prasad [naivedhyam] is distributed to all the kids who visit  to see the dolls.

This year I've planned to make 9 different variety of savories/sweets, 1 each day. The first day I made Coconut barfi - a simple Indian delicacy. Here is a click after the pooja on the third day day - thats when I made KodubaLe.

Copyright: A.N. PHOTOGRAPHY

6 comments:

Jack said...

Ashwini,

My heartiest Congratulations. I am sure you will settle down well in your new abode and make everyone proud of you. Informative post on how this period is celebrated in Karnatka.

Take care

Ritesh Agarwal said...

OMG, you got married.......congrats, says my heart....and this piece of info was interesting....for the Calcuttans here in Bengal, the entire week is more like a festive hullabaloo surrounding the Durga puja revelries. :)

ಗಿರೀಶ್.ಎಸ್ said...

I feel this kind of celebration as amazing,as in our native we wont celebrate by decorating dolls and all...anyhow,Nice dolls Ashwini... And wish you Happy Married life....

Rachna said...

Wow. Congratulations and hugs -- you got married! And,that is such a wonderful way of celebrating Dasshera. Having lived in Bangalore for almost a decade now, I love the festivity here. Dasshera is big here and the doll display in various homes wonderful. You are preparing 9 dishes. Wow again!

Bikram said...

first of all navratri is a festival of dolls .. now I had no clue ..

and you got married .. Now I know why the absence from blog but there is also another reason for you not putting it up, you would have had to invite us .. hence you kept quiet,, so when do we have a party :)

all the best and congrats once again .. my hearties wishes to you and your hubby

Bikram's

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Jack,@Ritesh,@Girish, @Rachna , @Bikram: Thank you so much for the wishes :)

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