Toy design using Channapatna Craft
Purpose of the toy: For free time fun activity, to fiddle with
Channapatna is a small town in Karnataka between Bangalore and Mysore. This town is popular for its cute and impeccable craftsmanship depicted in these toys. The toys are made with wood mainly ivory wood giving a polished look to the wooden toys adding colors and another beautification. Channapatna toys are made of wood and vegetable dyes and are safe to be used unlike the toys available in the market.
Concept 1.
Mythological story telling through 'Channapatna Toys'
The main characters of this story are LORD SHIVA , PARVATI , KARTIKEIN and LORD GANESHA. Once upon a time Kartikein and Ganesha bet upon who can take the round of the world faster. Kartikein immediately runs and starts taking the round of the earth. While lord Ganesha takes one full round of Lord Shiva and Parvati saying that they are my world. Since he was metaphorically correct and showed sass in his thoughts, he won.
Concept 2.
Mythological story telling through 'Channapatna Toys'
The main characters of this story are LORD GANESHA and his Vaahana Rat named Ākhuketana. Hindu deities are seldom depicted without their particular ‘vahana’ (vehicles) on which they travel. These vahanas are either animals or birds and symbolises the various forced they ride. Lord Shiva’s vahana ‘Nandi’ represents strength and virility, Goddess Saraswati’s vahana ‘Hamsa’ represents wisdom, grace, and beauty. Shani’s vahana are vulture, raven or crow that represses thieving tendencies. While Lord Ganesha’s vahana is a mouse which symbolises crushing useless thoughts. Have you ever wondered why the elephant god rides on a tiny mouse? Well, there’s a story behind it.
According to Ganesha Purana, there was a celestial musician-god named Krauncha. He accidentally stepped on the foot of Muni Vamadeva who cursed him to become a mouse. However, after he recovered his temper he promised Krauncha that one day the gods themselves would bow down before him. The giant mouse damaged everything that came in its path. The prophecy was fulfilled when the mouse became the vahana of Ganesha.
Once, when Lord Ganesha was invited to Maharishi Parashar’s ashrama. Krauncha ended up stepping on the ashram and destroyed it. Lord Ganesha decided to meet the giant mouse and teach him a lesson. He unleashed one of his weapons called ‘pasha’ which ended up looping around Krauncha’s neck and brought him to Ganesh-a’s feet. Kroncha asked for forgiveness and asked Ganesha to accept him as his vehicle. However, Krauncha co-uldn’t bear the weight of Lord Ganesha and he requested him to become light-weight which is bearable. Since then the mouse is the vehicle of Lord Ganesha.
The toy shown below depicts Ganesha and his Vaahana Rat in a funny interactive way for remembering this relation-ship and story behind it.
Concept 3.
Story telling through 'Channapatna Toys'
This toy came out of quirky thought struck while making the other toy concepts. Its not based on mythological stories but it does evokes this eternal question, "WHAT CAME FIRST?" Egg or Hen??
