A typical Tamilian household with the decorated clay dolls that are integral to the nine-day-long festivities. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Oct. 18: Those who are not Tamilians probably know little about Bomai Kolu — Tamil Nadu’s own version of Navratri.

The unique feature of this 9-day-long festival is the worship of clay dolls — each signifying different gods and goddesses.

During the festival time, all Tamil households are transformed into delightful fairyland places with wooden staircases (with three, five, seven or 9 steps) all sporting clay dolls dressed as gods and goddesses.

Unlike Gujaratis, who fast for all the nine days during Navratri, the Tamilians do not fast on any day.

For Padmawati and her son Ramkrishnan, a resident of Pee Pee Compound, all nine days are meant for intense prayers and worship. “It’s our tradition to build stairs in odd numbers. The basic idea behind celebrating Navratra in this way is to recognise all beings — humans, animals and plants — which have been created by goddess Durga or Shakti. Hence, we worship them all in their clay forms.,” explained Padmavati, while arranging the dolls.

Usually statues of Krishna, Vishnu and Lakshmi are placed on the top steps, while lesser gods and goddess occupy the second ones. Likewise the third, (and if present) the fourth and fifth steps are occupied by humans, animals and plants — signifying a chronology of importance.

Near the staircase, five small earthen pots are placed in a circular arrangement, filled with earth, where grass is grown. “We start growing the grass on amvashaya before Navratri. The pots are immersed on Vijay Dashami night,” said Ramakrishnan.

“We worship all the goddess during these nine days. We begin with Durga, who is worshipped for three days, followed by Lakshmi in the next three and the last three days we worship Goddess Sarsawati. In south India we celebrate Basant Panchami, too, in this period. But in north it is celebrated in the month of February,” informed Padmavati.

For all nine days the families recite Chandi Panth in the mornings and in the evenings. “We serve jaggery, lemon rice, puri halwa and kheer as prasadam. Besides, we also present sindoor, betel leaf and turmeric to girls and women who visit households. And then there are new dresses to be worn,” said S. Mani, owner of Mysore Store. Mani’s family has made the state their second home. Mani further adds that the celebrations are not complete with special food — laddoos in this case. Also, there are songs that lend it that touch of tradition.

Some of the households boast of dolls that are years old, as every year new dolls are purchased while the favourites are recycled. However Padmavati rued that down the years this navratra festival is only celebrated by few Tamil families in city.” It requires lots of patience. As a result those who are observing this they visit houses where the rituals are taking place,” she quipped in. It should be noted that there are only 40-50 families residing in the city.