Navaratri Golu

Golu - a divine pageant of dolls

Maha Navratri, the grand festival of nine nights and ten days, is celebrated all over India amid a variety of customs, rituals and traditions to depict the triumph of good over evil. Of these traditions, Golu (also known as Kolu, Bommai Kolu, Bombe Habba or Bommala Koluvu depending on which south Indian state you are in) is an exhbition of wooden or earthen dolls and figurines arranged in odd-numbered tiers of 7, 9 or 11. The figurines are of various deities, but always presiding over the arrangement are the dolls of the Mother Goddess in her various incarnation -- Lakshmi Devi, the goddess of wealth; Sarada Devi or Saraswathi, the goddess of learning and wisdom, and Maha Durga, the vanquisher of all evil in the cosmos. Along with this tableau other gods of the Hindu pantheon are in attendance, and the Golu is often creatively arranged to depict various stories and parables from the Puranas and the great epics.