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Earthen toys still find takers

BERHAMPUR: Even in the days of electronic toys, a two-century-old traditional fair of earthen toys still survives in the city. A fair called ‘Kandhei Jatra’ is celebrated every year on full moon day that begins the Hindu month of ‘Sravana’.

The fair was organised the whole night at Khaspa street on Monday. A large number of earthen toy-makers from the city and rural areas of Ganjam district and Andhra Pradesh opened up their road-side shops. An organisation called Kandhei Jatra Committee was formed to keep alive the tradition.

Its secretary Gopal Patnaik said the fair was an extension to the Rath yatra celebrations in the city as the Jagannath temple too is located in the same area.

Decades ago, people used to buy earthen toys and decorative earthen pots to pack sweets from the fair as they were part of marriage gifts in the region. Wooden toys were also part of the fair. With time, wooden toys completely vanished from the toy fair. The market of earthen toys was also dwindling.

Muna Behera, a child selling earthen toys, said as attractive plastic and metal toys were available in the market, even children were not getting attracted to earthen toys. Now, people were buying earthen toys not as playthings but as decorative pieces in their drawing rooms.

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