Origin of the Wooden Dolls

The craftsmanship is always excellent. Their honesty and the labour distinguish this art from the others. Wooden dolls to stools, each and every product  can be distinguishable by their different colours and the placement of colours. Colour can change the character of a same looking product. The owl is the brand product of this village. On the white background of the owl is painted a distinctive design of red, green, yellow, black lines. Besides owl Radha-krishna, and King and Queen Dolls are traditionally made. The dolls are carved from one piece of wood. A big chunk of cylindrical wood is cut off according to the size of the item and chiselled out. Somewhere it can be seen as a 3d shape with adjacent three surface or round headed. Dolls are mainly made out of gamar wood, mango wood, shimul wood, ata wood, chatim wood. Men are cutting and carving the wood as per the requirement and women are painted the products with various colour. The sizes of each product differ from each other and the cost can be decided according to the size and the intricacy of carving. . The traditional designs are based on culture and mythology, the richness of ideas, the brilliant combination of pure simplicity and glamour combined with the master craftsmanship of the craft persons, result in an amazing work of art.It can be said that every child born in that village,can make an owl out of the wooden cut piece. It is in their blood.

Till now they earned their money by making these typical types of wooden dolls and live their livelihood. Owl sculpture from Natungram shares the iconic status in representing Bengal’s handicraft. In 1935 Abanindranath Tagore wrote a story about the source of wooden dolls in Visva Bharati quarterly patrika. In this newspaper the mention of ‘Bou putul’ and ‘Bor putul’(bridegroom) was there. Besides replications of owls, Krishna and Radha, king and Queen (Raja- Rani), Gour- Netai, lord Ganesha, Shiv -durga are traditionally made. The small village is full of its pastoral beauty, rural charm and great artistry. Primarily the dolls wear called ‘Mummy putul’ by the British Raj because they wear looking like the mummy of Mishor and these type of dolls wear made for the children. But today 90% of the people of Natungram sell these products and it is becoming their occupation.

As well as it is to mention that some of the new generation is also losing faith in wooden doll making because there is no permanent market .The govt has taken several initiatives but in this era of apps and tabs, the exposure and the expenditure for such arts is gradually fading. Although the artisans are involved in creating their own art inspite of the ups and downs in the market.