By Isla Quinn
The toys are carved from a wood the sources call Tella Poniki, and almost everything else about them seems to be held together with paste.
Kondapalli sits in the western part of Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh, in the Ibrahimpatnam mandal of NTR district. Wikipedia gives a 2011 population of 33,373 on 30 square kilometres. The same article says the town is renowned for wooden toys carved from local light softwoods, Tella Poniki, and painted with vegetable dyes and enamel colours. It lists incarnations of Vishnu, elephants and palanquin-bearers among the popular figures.
The wood and the paste
The Wikipedia article on the toys says the soft wood comes from the nearby Kondapalli Hills. Individual parts are carved separately and joined with makku, a paste of tamarind seed powder and sawdust. A Tata Trusts account says the same about the wood and the paste. Colouring, Wikipedia says, uses oil and water colours or vegetable dyes and enamel paints. The Tata Trusts piece goes further on the natural dyes: yellow from dried marigolds, deep red from pomegranates and peach from palm leaves. Each of these appears in only one source, and neither says whether natural dyes are used for every toy, so ask.
Who makes them
Wikipedia says the craft is a 400-year-old tradition, and that the artisans, called Aryakhastriyas or Nakarshalu, allegedly migrated from Rajasthan in the sixteenth century. It adds that they claim descent from Muktharishi, a sage mentioned in the Brahmanda Purana. The word allegedly belongs to the article, and we cannot confirm either the migration or the descent. The Tata Trusts account says men handle woodcutting and rough carving while women do the more delicate work, that skills pass down generations and that training starts in childhood. Both are one-source descriptions of a household craft, and we have not spoken to makers.
What the toys are for
The Tata Trusts account says the toys depict Hindu mythological figures, animals, birds and rural scenes, and that they are displayed at Dusshera and Sankranthi as Bommala Kollu. Wikipedia names Dasavataram figures and bullock carts among them. Wikipedia says the Geographical Indication was registered under the 1999 Act on an application from LIGHT and the Kondapalli Wooden Toys Manufacturers. It does not give the year, and we have not found the registry entry.
The fort on the hill
The town’s other landmark is the Kondapalli Fort, to the west of the town. Wikipedia’s article on the fort says it was built by Prolaya Vema Reddy in the fourteenth century, though it adds that some historians give 1360 and credit Anna Vema Reddy after he took the fort from the Mudigonda Chalukyas. The two accounts disagree on who built it and the dates broadly overlap. We have not checked either against an archaeological survey. The same article describes the hill range as about 24 kilometres long, between Nandigama and Vijayawada, made mostly of charnockites, with other rocks. It says the Archaeological Department of Andhra Pradesh has restored walls, a prison, ponds and a museum, and has built a ropeway and amenities. Those are the article’s descriptions, and we have not confirmed what is open.
A forest next door
The town article describes the Kondapalli Reserve Forest as about 30,000 acres, with leopards, wild dogs, jackals, wild boar and wolves. It is a reminder that this is a craft town on the edge of a protected forest, and we have not found a source that links the forest to the wood supply. The wood is said to come from the hills, and we have not seen whether it is cut from the reserve or from elsewhere. That is a sourcing question for a maker, and we will not guess.
Trade, middlemen and a platform
The Tata Trusts account says middlemen historically bought toys at low prices and resold them in several large cities, and that a platform called eBharathi was launched in December 2018 with the state rural development society to train artisans in pricing, packaging, branding and promotion. It says three self-help groups in Kondapalli currently sell online and that the platform handled more than 1,900 orders. We are not quoting its revenue figure. Wikipedia lists the craft’s challenges as lack of profits, the time each toy takes, outside influence and younger generations being discouraged from taking it up. The same account says the handicrafts sector employs nearly seven million people across India, which puts a small toy colony in context. These are two accounts of trouble, one from 2020 and one undated, and we cannot tell how things stand now.
What we have not found
We did not find a dated count of workshops or artisans, a list of toys by price, or a source for which workshops welcome visitors. We are not naming any maker. A toy colony called Bommala Colony is named in the Wikipedia article as the place where the craft is practised, and we have not confirmed that visitors can walk it.
What to ask
Ask who carved the figure and who painted it. Ask which wood and which paint. Ask whether the joins are makku or glue. Ask how long the piece took. Ask whether the figure is made for display or for a child to play with, because the sources do not tell us, and ask how the finish should be kept clean.
We are not naming a workshop. We have not sourced one for this piece.
Roam first. Shop later.
If you make toys in Kondapalli, the process for getting listed is at /sell-with-sephari/