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Toys fair keeps tradition alive

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Fun time: Children taking a look at the toys made out of clay at the annual toy fair in Berhampur, on Friday night.

BERHAMPUR: Traditional toys made of clay, coir, paper mache or even cow dun’Gobar’ have a chance of survival even in this electronic age due to traditional fairs like ‘Kandhei jatra’ which was held in the city on Friday night.

The festival keeps alive the relation of people of Ganjam district with the toys made of age-old traditional mediums through traditional ritualistic beliefs. A fair of traditional toys is held every year at Khaspa street of the city on the full moon day of Sravana. The tradition is over 200 years old. No one in the city can make a perfect guess about the reason behind the staring of this unique fair of earthen toys. Many feel it may be related to tradition of holding exhibition of toys at homes during Dushera in Karnataka. In Berhampur this unique fair of traditional toys is also held just a few days after Rath yatra. The idol of lord Jagannath at the oldest Jagannath temple in the city at Khaspa street also gets decorated with toys of mythical characters to convey their importance.

Although earthen toys or toys made of coir have a very few takers during modern times yet the families of Ganjam district who have marriages of their daughters scheduled to be held within a year surely reach this fair to buy these toys. As per a tradition in Ganjam district, earthen toys bought from this fair are part of the luggage that a bride taken with her to her in-laws’ house. There are also many who buy these toys as decorative pieces for their drawing rooms. Old memories compel parents to buy these traditional toys for their young generation although they feel the children brought up on plastic toys may not like them.

A large number of traditional toy makers from the city, rural areas of Ganjam district and adjoining Andhra Pradesh reach this fair to cash in on the tradition. They open up their makeshift shops on both sides of the road passing through the Khaspa street. Earlier toys made of wood also used to be part of this fair. But during past few years no wooden toy maker is opening his shop in the fair.

The fair continues throughout the night. Recently the local people formed an organisation called Kandhei Jatra Committee to keep alive this unique tradition. Now cultural programmes have become adages to keep alive the celebrations throughout the night. They do not want to shift the location of this fair although the Khaspa street is quite congested as the fair is related to the old Jagannath temple in the street.

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