South India’s Navratri takes several different forms. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, home-based doll displays such as Golu and Bommai Kolu are an important tradition, while Saraswati Puja and Ayudha Puja connect the festival with learning, work, and craftsmanship. Karnataka also marks the season through the large-scale public celebrations of Mysuru Dasara, while Telangana has its own distinct floral festival, Bathukamma. South India isn’t one cultural unit here, each state brings its own emphasis to the same festival season.
Golu: the festival of dolls
The best-known South Indian Navratri tradition is Golu, an elaborate home display of dolls and figurines depicting deities, mythological scenes, and sometimes everyday life. The dolls are traditionally arranged on tiered steps, often using an odd number of tiers such as three, five, seven, or nine, though arrangements vary between families. It goes by different names depending on the region: Bommai Kolu in Tamil Nadu, Bommala Koluvu in Telugu-speaking Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Gombe Habba in Karnataka.
The collections are often passed down through generations, with families adding new dolls, repairing older ones, and creating new scenes each year. It’s customary for women to visit each other’s homes during the nine days to see one another’s Golu, exchange small gifts, and sing devotional songs together.
Tamil Nadu: Bommai Kolu, Saraswati Puja and Ayudha Puja
In Tamil Nadu, Golu (known here as Bommai Kolu) sits alongside Ayudha Puja and Saraswati Puja as the festival’s central threads. Ayudha Puja, traditionally observed around Navami, honours the tools, instruments, machinery, and other objects connected with people’s work, craftspeople, farmers, and professionals across many trades take part. Saraswati Puja separately places the focus on learning, music, and the arts, and Vijayadashami is widely treated as an auspicious time to mark a child’s early steps in education, though the exact ceremony and name for this vary by family and region.
Karnataka: Gombe Habba, Ayudha Puja and Mysuru Dasara
Karnataka observes Gombe Habba, its own version of the doll display, alongside Ayudha Puja, a prominent part of the festival season here too. Karnataka’s Navratri also culminates in Mysuru Dasara, the state festival, celebrated over ten days from Navratri through Vijayadashami. Mysuru Dasara has older South Indian Dasara traditions behind it, but took its distinctive present-day royal form under the Wodeyar rulers of Mysuru, who continue to shape the celebration’s ceremonial identity. The festival includes the illumination of Mysore Palace, cultural programmes, and Jamboo Savari, the grand Vijayadashami procession in which the idol of Goddess Chamundeshwari is carried in a golden howdah atop a caparisoned elephant.
Andhra Pradesh: Bommala Koluvu and Dasara traditions
In Andhra Pradesh, Bommala Koluvu is the local form of the doll display, observed alongside the state’s own Dasara and Saraswati Puja traditions, which place particular emphasis on learning and the arts during the festival’s later days.
Telangana: Bathukamma
Telangana has its own major floral festival, Bathukamma, celebrated during the same autumn period and overlapping with the Durga Navratri season. Women arrange seasonal flowers into distinctive tiered formations, sing and dance around them, and carry the tradition through community and family gatherings across its own nine-day sequence, culminating in Saddula Bathukamma. Bathukamma is a distinct Telangana festival with its own history and identity, it isn’t another name for Navratri or a regional form of Golu, even though the two overlap on the calendar.
FAQ
What is Golu and why is it celebrated?
Golu, also called Bommai Kolu in Tamil, Bommala Koluvu in Telugu, and Gombe Habba in Kannada, is a festive display of dolls and figurines associated with Navratri and Dasara. Families arrange the figures on tiered steps, often creating scenes from mythology, community life, or everyday life, and traditionally invite relatives and neighbours to see the display.
What is Ayudha Puja?
A ritual traditionally observed around Navami, honouring the tools, instruments, machinery, and other objects connected with people’s work. It’s a prominent part of the festival season in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, with related practices varying across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Is Bathukamma the same as Navratri?
No. Bathukamma is a distinct Telangana floral festival, but it’s celebrated during the same autumn period and overlaps with the Durga Navratri season. It has its own rituals, symbolism, and nine-day sequence, culminating in Saddula Bathukamma.
What is Mysuru Dasara?
Karnataka’s state festival, celebrated over ten days from Navratri through Vijayadashami. It combines worship of Goddess Chamundeshwari with palace illumination, cultural programmes, and the Jamboo Savari procession on Vijayadashami.