Court Dancer - Pink

Dimensions: 18cm high, 11cm wide.
Code: CLAY 1022

A terracotta bommai of a court dancers from the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This joyous dancer is wearing a gagra choli or ghagra choli, which is the traditional clothing of women in many of the North Indian states. The figures wear cholis (tight fitting blouses) with long embroidered and pleated skirts (gagra) that allow for the movement of dance. The dancers also have a duppatta (shawl), and wear necklaces, bracelets and headdresses. Their hair is worn in a long plait that drapes over their shoulder to the front. India has a long tradition of classical dance that was performed both in temples as part of worship and in royal courts as entertainment.

Bommai are figures used for the display of dolls and figurines that takes place in South India during the Hindu festival of Navaratri, which is a nine-day festival celebrating the victory of good over evil. In Southern India the bommai are presented in the home on tier shelves, and friends and neighbours are invited to visit to view the displays and exchange gifts and sweets. There is evidence of this tradition dating back to the fourteenth century. Today, the exhibits are typically thematic, narrating a legend from a Hindu text or a secular cultural issue. The dolls are collected and passed on from one generation to another as an heirloom and new figures are added each year. These terracotta figures are also known as Kolu, Gombe Habba, Bommai Kolu, Bommalu Kolueru or Bommala Koluvu.