Tell a tale with a doll at Dasara's Bombe Mane

Mysuru: The introduction of GST on handicrafts may have impacted the sale of dolls this year, but it has clearly not dented the enthusiasm of the visitors to the month long Bombe Mane expo hosted by Ramsons Kala Prathishtana in Nazarbad on the occasion of Dasara.

This year Ramsons has a collection of over 8000 miniature dolls, moulded, carved, made of clay, paper, gypsum, wood and cloth, from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The dolls tell a 1000 stories  related to Dasara traditions, weddings  the Ramayana and  Mahabharatha among other subjects.

A view of the miniature dolls on display at Bombe Mane or the doll exhibition, hosted by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana

There are miniatures of the eight  palaces of the city, the Mysuru palace, Jaganmohan, Lalit  Mahal, Rajendra Vilas, and Lakshmi Vilas palaces and  busts of all eight poets, who have received the Jnanapeeth award to commemorate the 50th year of the awards. As a tribute to  the 1000th birth anniversary of Sriramanujacharya, the expo has miniatures of the saint and dolls  associated with the Srivyshnava philosophy propounded by Sri Ramanujacharya. And to mark the 250th birth anniversary of Sri Thyagaraja, there are also miniatures of the poet. There are  several  varieties of bells and lanterns that can be used for decoration on show as well.

  Palace priest, Srihari , who has always bagged the first place for his unique dolls display at his duplex house, ‘Aasare,’ which was converted into a Gombe Mane for the occasion, has over 3500 dolls on display, some of them  over 150 -years- old.

 "It took 15 days for my  family ,including my wife, Geetha, our son Tejonidhi and daughter, Aishwarya to come up with this show," said Mr Srihari who is a third generation priest at the Trinayaneswara temple in the  palace grounds.