Mukul Dey's Letter from Sankeien

	Contemporaries	Chitralekha.org MUKUL DEY ARCHIVES

Dolls
by Abanindranath Tagore

We have dolls as playthings for children; marionettes for play-acting of larger size; life –size, and sometimes larger than life, caricatures, effigies and clowns. Toy dolls are about span high, thumb long, and smaller, down to the miniature size.

A Doll from Bengal

This is a typical wooden doll found all over Bengal. It varies in its decorations and colours in different districts but the form remains the same.
This particular one was bought in Kenduli in Birbhum district. The colour of the head, arms and feet is yellow. Upper garment covering the body below the waist is blue and green. The details and decorations of the figure are drawn with black and red thick brush lines.
Mr. Nandalal Bose says it is not possible for him to say when this toy was introduced in Bengal but the back of this toy resembles the back of the stone statues of Vishnu and other gods. He also feels that they somehow look like Egyptian mummy cases.
Size of the original doll: 10 inches high x 3 inches wide approx.

Clay, wood, pith and paper are the materials of which our dolls are made. Toy dolls are first made in the rough by the potter or carpenter, whereupon the decorator steps in to do up the features and put in the colouring, before they finally find their way to the shops. The making of idols for worship is much on the same lines. The potter makes the figure according to tradition, with dress folds, ornaments, and crown, complete. The decorator then adds the colouring of body, features and robes, the tinsel halo and other appurtenances. In the case of the play-acting marionettes, the carpenter makes the body and limbs separately, and the play- actor loosely fastens the

The dresser follows, colouring and dressing them up, on the eve of the performance, for the parts they are intended to play.

limbs to the body with strings, so that they may be moved as required. The dresser follows, colouring and dressing them up, on the eve of the performance, for the parts they are intended to play. The animals and birds that are to come on the stage are designed by the carpenter on a common pattern, and subsequently made up to suit the occasion…the addition of mane or stripes, for instance, converting the same dummy into lion or tiger. This kind of co-operation between the several artists is made to serve all the purposes of the play.

There are mainly three kinds of dolls or toys:

(1) Immobile—such as a figure of Ganesh, or a fat woman-figure with a stump in place of legs to be dressed up by the playing child.

(2) Partly mobile—such as palm-leaf sepoys with jointed arms and legs jerked into martial attitudes by strings attached to a bamboo spring; pith birds and fishes, dangling on strings from a supporting frame, swaying to the breeze.

(3) Toys on wheels—such as clay carts, wooden or metal horses; etc.

Whistling tin birds or squeaking celluloid babies are beyond the resources of our toy makers. Our marionettes go through their movements in obedience to the string-pulling of the play actor and do their squeaking by proxy through his assistant.

Our marionettes go through their movements in obedience to the string-pulling of the play actor and do their squeaking by proxy through his assistant.

Our old doll types are no longer to be seen in all their variety; some have even changed their forms and decorations to suit modern taste. Some idea of the different kinds of dolls or toys that were in use may be gathered from our nursery rhymes. I give a few examples:

(1) The Moon Doll: --“Moon on her arms, moons on her feet, a moon on her forehead doth shine.”

(2) The Car of Thirteen Spires: --“O look sister, how wonderful! The confectioner over the way has made a car with thirteen spires, and a monkey holding the banner.”

(3) The Nodding Old Man: --“The aged one’s head nods and nods, with a myna perched on top.”

(4) Gopal (Krishna): --“Who says Gopal is flat-faced? I have brought clay from Sukhchar to make a straight nose for him. Who says Gopal is dark? I have brought turmeric from Patna to make his complexion shine.”

(5) Animals: --“The Shy Cat”, “The Royal Elephant”, “The Black and White Cats of Shasthi”, etc.

(6) There are the Smiling Doll, the Jolly Doll, the Merry Doll, the Crying Doll, and other descriptions…the meanings of which cannot now be traced.

There are the Smiling Doll, the Jolly Doll, the Merry Doll, the Crying Doll, and other descriptions…the meanings of which cannot now be traced.

(7) A Queen Doll made of fire-wood is still to be seen in Kalighat shops.

The following portion of a fairy tale gives us a picture of the making of a doll queen:

The king’s son woke last, and in the fourth watch chanted a magic spell, learnt from a holy man, which gave her life; then placing her in a palanquin, he took her away with him.”

“Four companions were going from one village to another. Dusk fell while they were passing through a wood before their journey’s end, and they had to stay the night under a tree. The carpenter’s son took the first watch. To while away the time he cut off a branch and carved a woman doll. The decorator’s son took the second watch. He shaped the eyes and nose, gave golden colour to the body and rose colour to the palms and soles, and seated the naked doll under the tree. The weaver’s son took the third watch and dressed her up, veil and all. The king’s son woke last, and in the fourth watch chanted a magic spell, learnt from a holy man, which gave her life; then placing her in a palanquin, he took her away with him.”

To him comes a magician, and invokes a super-human being, tall as a Palmyra tree, with sword to match, who leads by the hand a beautiful maiden.

Kalidasa’s drama called The Thirty-two Dolls was evidently intended to be played with marionettes. The stage directions show that the dialogue had to be rendered by the play actor called “the speaker”. The king sits on the throne with due pomp and circumstance.To him comes a magician, and invokes a super-human being, tall as a Palmyra tree, with sword to match, who leads by the hand a beautiful maiden.

Gods come on the scene, and engage in a terrific battle with demons, in the course of which the floor is strewn with headless trunks, whereupon all the dolls on the stage register different degrees of alarm; and so on…

Why should we not take a leaf out of Kalidasa’s book and have our own marionette plays even today?

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