WEAVER'S WORLD / MYSORE / PLACES TO VISIT -3

WEAVER'S WORLD / MYSORE / PLACES TO VISIT -3

The credit of establishing ‘Folklore Museum’ in Mysore University goes to three great scholars namely P.R.Thippeswamy, Javeregowda and Jeesham Paramashivaiah, who were the students of the poet laureate, Kuvempu. This museum found in Manasagangotri campus refers to ‘Manasa’ mind and Manasa sarovar in Mount Everest from where Ganga River has taken birth. ‘Gangotri’ means purity (Ganges), hence tgether they mean purity of the mind. This museum was established in 1968 in Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion. A large portion in this museum is dedicated to poet laureate, Kuvempu, in "Writers' Gallery". He had given the name ‘Manasagangotri’ to Mysore University campus. The mantapa, an ornamented wooden altar that was used by Jnanapeetha awardee Kuvempu may be seen here.

This folklore museum contains collections of art and crafts from all over Karnataka. P.R. Thippeswamy was mainly responsible to collect these materials. It also contains rudiments of music, dance and drama. We can see an impressive gathering of thousands of exceptional folklore exhibits. They are well organized systematically as per folk art forms and divided into separate wings for folklore, large dolls, folklife, literature, art and so on. These are really rare and valuable collections.

The visitors can see costumes of Yakshagana and accessories of both Thenka thittu and Badgu Thittu, including northern and southern forms. A rare object like valuable crown of Lord Hanuman of Kugala Balli village in North Karnataka , costumes of Kathakali from Kerala, folk dramatists from Andhra Pradesh; masks, puppets, leather dolls, sawdust dolls are on display.

The Soliga community is pre-dominant around Biligiri Rangana hill and have their own style of living, akin to a kind of folklore. There are certain items representing that Soliga community. The villagers in Dodderi village of Chitradurga were well versed in preparation of ink about 200 years ago. Some of those items are displayed here. There is a separate section or wing for ‘Folk musical instruments’ including kinnari of the Jogi string, percussion and wind instruments. We can witness images of gods, kings, queens and soldiers, Folk deities, ceremonial headwear, religious objects, village deities called Soma and Bhutha. The implements used by farmers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, boatmen, fishermen, potters, cobblers and other artisans are exhibited in folk life wing. We can observe the preservation of cooking utensils, measures, churns, weaving implements, pots, beads, baskets, items of folk games and clothing. There is large doll wing holding statues and large dolls used in dances related to Soma, Talebhutha, Kaibhutha, Maari, and Gadi Maari.

A water park that is compararitively less-crowded and where one can spend quality time. Compared to Wonderla, near Bangalore it is smaller, Yet one can enjoy a lot. They have proper bathrooms and storage facility for belongings. If you've had too much of play in the water, there's "land-based" rides as well. There's this special kind of ride, wherein, they have a kind of a canal in a wide circle all through the place. You are supposed to sit on tubes and travel the entire distance.