Thanjavur Big Temple And The Dancing Dolls

Thanjavur Dancing Doll is one of the old, traditional, world famous Indian cultural Doll purely handmade doll with paper Mache, wax, plaster of paris /cement, coloring agents, Cardboard. In Tamil language it is called as Thanjavur Thalayatti Bommai originated during 19th Century under King Saraboji’s reign. It has been given Geographical Indicator status by Government of India for its origin in culture rich Thanjavur.

This type of doll welcomes you by shaking its head and its body like oscillating head. It looks like a girl is dancing. The beautiful movement of the doll’s head adds feather to its uniqueness. It is one of the unique traditional arts of Thanjavur. It is unique and only available in our Thanjavur district. This Thanjavur dollis a type of traditional Indianbobble headorroly-poly toymade ofterracottamaterial.

Itscentre of gravityand total weight is concentrated at its bottom-most central core all the time so as to present a dance-like continuous movement with slow-damping oscillations. Hence it comes back to its normal seating position automatically after being tilted/disturbed anyway. Round-bottomed toys are unique, but other standing types are available too. Traditionally these toys are handmade and their exteriors are painted to an intrinsic sense of humor.

Have you ever wondered why these dolls are being exclusively made only in this place? And the most surprising thing is that, there is a reason linked with this Thanjavur dolls and Thanjavur Big Temple.

Thanjavur Dolls are made from a exclusive sand (washed away sand that is obtained from river during flood or during any heavy water flow), and this sand has a unique and a special quality of maintaining the equilibrium of the structure built on it. And thus when the dolls are made from it, naturally they maintain their equilibrium though they are toppled in any direction.

This same thing holds for the foundation of Thanjavur Big Temple. The foundation for the temple is made from this unique sand that maintains the equilibrium of the temple when meet with earthquakes. Thus the temple can withstand any vibrations underneath and finally it restores its original position.

This is the magnificent link between the Thanjavur Big Temple and the Dolls that are made in this area.