Berhampur: In the age of digital games for children, a two-century-old practice to promote traditional clay toys still survives in Berhampur of Odisha’s Ganjam district in the form of “Kandhei Jatra” (festival of toys).
As per tradition, the Kandhei Jatra is held in the Silk City on the full moon night of Sravana Purnima every year. This year it was held on Monday.
The oldest Jagannath temple in the city on Khaspa Street, where the festival is organised, was decorated with toys of mythical characters to convey their importance. The fair continued throughout the night.
Though the Kandhei Jatra aims at saving clay toys, now-a-days toys of different materials have flooded the festival. But the traditional clay toys withstand the competition.
The recently formed Kandhei Jatra Committee organised cultural programmes during the jatra to keep the celebrations alive throughout the night. The committee does not want to shift the location of the fair though the Khaspa Street has become congested as the fair is related to the Jagannath temple.
Traditional toy makers from the city, rural areas of the district and adjoining Andhra Pradesh opened their stalls in the fair this year. Like a village fair, the open makeshift shops were set up on both sides of Khaspa Street.
The interesting part of this Jatra is that all the 10 temples in Khaspa Street including Nrusinghanath, Narayan, Jagigosain Chaitanya Math remain open throughout the night during the yatra.
The process of making clay toys is very simple. The craftsmen make a paste of clay, cow dung, tamarind seed powder, ‘khadi’ stone and wheat flour. They prepare toys out of the paste in a traditional style with their hands. The toys of raw clay are dried in the sun and coloured. “We were using natural colours for these toys about three decades ago. Now, we are using water colors as the natural colours have become very expensive,” said a craftsman.
Tripati Nayak a researcher and a cultural critic of the Silk City said during earlier days the vendors used to sing aloud in Odia “Nia nia niare bhai, Mahuri raija kandhei ehi, Budha tharu pua, Budhi tharu jhia, sabhinka manaku nie bhandei” (Oh! Brother, take these toys from Mahuri estate. These toys attract people from all the age group from old man to little boy and old woman to little girl).
