Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 86

In a living room in Chennai, a staircase has appeared where there was no staircase yesterday. It is made of planks, or of steel shelves, or of cardboard boxes, covered in white cloth. Nine steps, or seven, or five. And on every step, dolls. Hundreds of them. Gods and goddesses at the top. Saints and sages below them. Then kings and queens, and musicians, and a wedding procession, and a vegetable seller with her basket, and a cricket team, and a row of animals, and a little park with a mirror for a pond.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 82 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. Golu, Bommai Golu, Bommala Koluvu and Bombe Habba are living household traditions in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and they vary greatly by family. The odd number of steps, the usual order with the Goddess at the top and daily life at the bottom, the wooden bride and groom, called Marapachi Bommai and Pattada Gombe, given to a bride to begin her own Golu, and the links to Vijayanagara and the Wodeyars of Mysuru, follow common published accounts, including the Wikipedia article on Golu. The visiting, the songs, the thamboolam and the sundal are widely described customs. The ladder-of-life reading is a common explanation, not a rule. The reflections are my own.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.