Author: A Compilation
Publisher: Centre for Cultural Resources and Training
Year: 2002
Language: multilingual
Pages: N/A
ISBN/UPC (if available): CCRT/CPXXXV
Description
Toys have a special appeal and fascination for children and play a major role in fulfilling the need of the individuals creative expression. This cultural package on Traditional Toys provides inspiration to understand the aesthetics and beauty, the traditional technology and mechanics in the vast variety of toys available in all regions of this country.
This set contains 24 illustrated pictures showing the various types of toys made of terracotta, grass, wood, cloth, paper, metal, shell, and glass. The booklet provides general information of the historical background of the traditional toys and creative activities for school students and teachers.
Toys have a special appeal and fascination for children and play a major role in fulfilling the need for creative expression which is inherent in very individual. In the formative years, toys help in the emotional and physical development of the child. Simple traditional toys allow the child to use his imagination to crate characters and situations drawn from real life or from the world of fantasy.
The traditional figures and toy-like artifacts, with which an average Indian is conditioned, both by participation and observation, have existed all through the centuries. The wide range of such artifacts and figures have maintained a remarkable historical continuity.
Toys can be grouped according to the material from which they are made, for example, clay, wood, bamboo, metal, cloth rags, papers, papier Mache and others. These materials are easily available, inexpensive and safe for children to play with. Toys can also be classified according to the region or states to which they belong. Traditional toys depict animals, birds, fish, human figures, abstract forms and miniature items of everyday use articles such as cooking vessels, ritual objects, etc. There are also musical and mechanical toys, mobiles, dolls and a host of others.
Among the clay toys from the Indus civilization, the bull and the monkey are perhaps the best known. These toys, though more than 4000 years old, have not lost their ability to interest and charm children and adults alike. In Assam, there is a tradition of preparation of clay toys for children. These toys are abstract in from with pinched features and pierced designs. In Bengal, Gujarat and Bihar there are painted clay toys with colourful decorations. From Krishnanager in Nadia district of West Bengal the clay toys are delicately shaped to form realistic human figures and create miniature village scenes. These toys are constumed to depict the traditional dress of various communities and occupational groups.
Technological innovations have overshadowed the traditional toys, yet the art of making such toys still exists in many parts of India.
The collection of toys presented in this Package will provide inspiration to understand the aesthetics and beauty, the traditional technology and mechanics in the vast variety of toys available in all regions of this country.