Over a hundred pairs of beady eyes look at us. Some of them freshly painted, they belong to golu dolls that stand rubbing shoulders at a golu doll-making unit in Madhampatti village, 32 kilometres from Coimbatore. Inside, M Sankaralingam and his son S Jaisurya are overseeing packaging of the finished dolls. This is the busiest time of the year with Navaratri set to begin from October 15. The family has been making golu dolls for 85 years, and 26-year-old Jaisurya is from the fourth generation of artisans.
“Our ancestors worked in the temples built by Raja Raja Chola in Thanjavur,” says 53-year-old Sankaralingam, adding that they did ‘sudhai’ work. “They worked with a mixture made of kadukkai powder, limestone, clay, and karupatti to create intricate patterns on walls and pillars,” he explains.
