How many steps should a Golu have?

Traditionally an odd number — three, five, seven, nine or eleven. Three or five is a comfortable size for a first Golu, and families add steps as the collection grows.

What goes on the top step of a Golu?

The presiding deities — Devi in her forms, or the family deity — together with the kalasham. Other gods and goddesses follow on the steps below, and everyday village scenes go at the bottom.

When is the Golu set up and taken down?

It is arranged on the first day of Navratri, which falls in September or October, stays up for all nine nights, and comes down on Vijayadashami, the tenth day.

What is Bommala Koluvu?

Bommala Koluvu is the Telugu name for the Navratri doll display — the same tradition called Golu or Kolu in Tamil homes and Gombe Habba in Karnataka.

Hesvika Handi CraftsHandmade Kondapalli, Etikoppaka & clay bommalu · ECIL, Hyderabad

Golu Setup Guide: How to Arrange Your Bommala Koluvu

Navratri is when the bommalu come out of their boxes. Whether your family calls it Golu, Bommala Koluvu or Gombe Habba, the idea is the same — an odd number of steps, dolls arranged from the divine at the top down to everyday life at the bottom, and a house open to visitors for nine nights. Here is how to set one up, and what belongs on each step.

In short

Build an odd number of steps, cover them in fresh cloth, and arrange your bommalu from the top down: gods and goddesses on the highest steps, saints and royalty in the middle, and village life, animals and toys at the bottom. Set it up on the first day of Navratri and take it down on Vijayadashami.

What is Golu (Bommala Koluvu)?

Golu is the tiered display of dolls that families arrange during Navratri, the nine nights dedicated to the goddess. Telugu homes call it Bommala Koluvu, Tamil homes Golu or Kolu, and in Karnataka it is Gombe Habba — the same festival and the same idea under different names.

The steps are read as an ascent. The lowest stand for the everyday world, the highest for the divine, and the arrangement in between traces the journey from one to the other. That is why the order of the dolls matters as much as the dolls themselves.

Navratri falls in September or October. The display stays up for all nine nights and comes down on Vijayadashami, the tenth day. Customs vary from family to family, so treat what follows as the common pattern rather than a rule.

How many steps?

The number of steps, or padi, is traditionally odd — three, five, seven, nine or eleven. Odd numbers are held to be auspicious, and beyond that the count comes down to how much space you have and how many dolls you own.

Three or five steps is a sensible first Golu, and families add tiers as the collection grows. A ready-made wooden stand folds flat for storage; the older alternative is planks laid across stacked boxes or trunks, which is how most Golus were built before stands were sold.

What you will need

A step stand (padi) with an odd number of tiers, or planks and sturdy boxes to build one.
Fresh cloth to cover the steps — white, or a colour dark enough to let the dolls stand out.
A kalasham: a metal pot, water, mango leaves and a coconut.
Your bommalu, including a Marapachi pair if the family has one.
A lamp, kumkum and turmeric, flowers, and rangoli or kolam powder for the floor.

What goes on each step

Working down from the top, the usual order is:

Top step — the presiding deities: Devi in her forms, or the family deity, with the kalasham beside them.
Second and third — other gods and goddesses: Dasavatharam sets, Ashta Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Ganapathi.
Middle steps — saints, gurus, kings and queens, and scenes from the epics.
Lower steps — the Marapachi pair, wedding (Pelli) sets, Gruhapravesham and Sankranti sets.
Bottom step — village life: the potter, the tea stall, bullock carts, animals, birds and children’s toys.
Floor — the park: a tray of sand or sprouted greens, a small pond, trees and grazing animals.

Setting it up

Clean the space and lay the rangoli. The Golu usually goes against a wall in the pooja room or the main hall.
Assemble the steps and cover them with cloth, pinned flat so the edges hang evenly.
Prepare the kalasham — fill the pot with water, set mango leaves around the rim and a coconut on top — and place it on the top step.
Light the lamp, then place the dolls from the top step downwards so nothing already arranged gets disturbed.
Put the largest and heaviest pieces at the back of each step and the smallest at the front, so every doll stays visible.
Build the park on the floor last, once everything above it has settled.

The nine nights

Once the Golu is up, the house is open. Families invite neighbours, friends and relatives, and visiting women and girls are given thamboolam — betel leaves, nuts, fruit, kumkum and turmeric, often with a small gift — along with sundal, the prasadam made from a different legume each day.

A lamp is lit each evening and songs are sung in front of the display. Saraswathi Puja falls near the end of the nine days, when books and instruments are placed before the goddess.

On Vijayadashami the Golu comes down. In many homes one doll is laid on its side to mark the end, and the bommalu are wrapped and put away until next year.

Building a collection year on year

A Golu is not bought in one go. Most collections begin with a Marapachi pair or a single deity set and grow by a few pieces a year, which is part of the point — the display carries the history of the household.

Kondapalli Bommalu suit this well: carved figures run from a few inches to full sets, so a collection can be extended a step at a time. One good set a year builds a better Golu in five years than filling every tier at once.

Looking after the dolls

Wrap each piece in soft cloth or paper rather than stacking them together.
Store somewhere dry — damp is the main enemy of both soft wood and clay.
Dust with a dry brush or cloth at the start of the season; water lifts hand-applied colour.
Lift a figure by its base, never by an arm or a projecting detail.

Where to start your Golu

Hesvika Handi Crafts stocks wooden step stands in three, five and six tiers, along with Kondapalli, Etikoppaka and clay bommalu — deity sets, Ashta Lakshmi, Dasavatharam, wedding sets and the village scenes that fill the lower steps. Everything is bought direct from the artisan families and sold from our shop in Kamala Nagar, ECIL, Hyderabad, with delivery across India.

Order early. The weeks before Navratri are the busiest of the year, and handmade sets are made in small numbers.

Common questions

How many steps should a Golu have?: Traditionally an odd number — three, five, seven, nine or eleven. Three or five is a comfortable size for a first Golu, and families add steps as the collection grows.
What goes on the top step of a Golu?: The presiding deities — Devi in her forms, or the family deity — together with the kalasham. Other gods and goddesses follow on the steps below, and everyday village scenes go at the bottom.
When is the Golu set up and taken down?: It is arranged on the first day of Navratri, which falls in September or October, stays up for all nine nights, and comes down on Vijayadashami, the tenth day.
What is Bommala Koluvu?: Bommala Koluvu is the Telugu name for the Navratri doll display — the same tradition called Golu or Kolu in Tamil homes and Gombe Habba in Karnataka.