In the last decade of the 18th century, the most formidable military adversary the British East India Company ever faced in South India looked at a small town 60 kilometres from his capital and made a decision that would outlast his empire, his wars and his death in battle by over two centuries.
Tipu Sultan decided to make Channapatna the toy capital of India.
He created an international export market for the wooden lacquerware toys that local craftsmen had been making in this small Karnataka town. He provided land for artisan workshops. He established trade connections with Persian, Egyptian, Chinese and Turkish merchants who visited his capital at Srirangapatna. The toys that left Channapatna on those 18th century trade routes were made from locally-grown ivory wood, coloured with vegetable dyes made from turmeric, spinach and beetroot and finished with lac melted by friction from a spinning lathe in a technique that was already ancient when Tipu Sultan patronised it.
In 1904 the Maharaja of Mysore sent a craftsman named Bavas Miyan from Channapatna to Japan to study its advanced lacquerware and toy-making techniques. Bavas Miyan returned and introduced the Japanese-inspired doll form that you now see on every Channapatna toy shelf, the rounded wobbling figure that children of every culture reach for instantly.
In 2006 the Indian government gave Channapatna toys a Geographical Indication tag, placing them in the same protected category as Darjeeling tea and Kanchipuram silk.
In 2010 Michelle Obama bought Channapatna toys during her visit to India. In 2015 Barack Obama received them as a gift when he visited the country.
From Tipu Sultan's 18th century export market to the White House. In two centuries.
In this episode we take you on the complete Channapatna toys tour from Bangalore. We tell the full story of how a king's aesthetic passion created a craft tradition that has survived wars, colonial rule, the near-death experience of cheap Chinese plastic toy competition and two centuries of economic turbulence to arrive at the present day with over 1500 artisan families still making what Tipu Sultan's craftsmen made, in the same town, with the same wood, the same dyes and the same spinning lathe technique. We take you inside a working Channapatna toy workshop and describe the mesmerising process of watching lac melt onto spinning ivory wood in real time. We take you to Asia's largest silk cocoon auction market, one of the most extraordinary and most completely unexpected commercial spectacles available on any day trip from Bangalore. We explore Janapada Loka, the Karnataka folk art museum that is one of the most underappreciated cultural institutions in South India. And we visit the Big Banyan Tree at Dodda Aalada Mara, a single tree over 400 years old whose aerial roots cover three acres of ground and whose canopy was once used as a village marketplace.
This is the Channapatna toys tour from Bangalore with 5 Senses Tours. And it is unlike anything else available on a day trip from the city.
What You Will Discover in This Episode
The full story of Tipu Sultan's extraordinary role in creating the international market for Channapatna toys in the 18th century, including the Daria Daulat Bagh trading pavilion he built specifically for meetings with overseas merchants, the 25 to 30 acres of land he provided for artisan workshops and the export connections to Persia, Egypt, China and Turkey that made Channapatna toys a global product two centuries before anyone used the word globalisation
The remarkable story of Bavas Miyan, the Channapatna craftsman sponsored by the Maharaja of Mysore to travel to Japan in 1904 to study advanced lacquerware techniques, and how the Japanese doll-making tradition he encountered there produced the rounded wobbling Channapatna doll figure that is now one of the most recognisable craft objects in India
The complete toy-making process at a Channapatna workshop, from the sourcing of locally-grown ivory wood through the lathe-spinning technique in which lac sticks are pressed against spinning wood to melt colour into the grain, to the vegetable dyes made from turmeric for yellow, spinach for green and beetroot for red, to the palm leaf polish that gives the finished toy its distinctive warm sheen
Why Channapatna toys faced a genuine existential crisis at the turn of the 21st century as cheap Chinese plastic toys flooded the Indian market, how the Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation and multiple social enterprises intervened to save the craft, and how the 2006 Geographical Indication tag formally recognised the toys' unique and protected status alongside Darjeeling tea and Kanchipuram silk
The extraordinary moment when Michelle Obama bought Channapatna toys during her India visit in 2010 and Barack Obama received them as a presidential gift in 2015, and what these two moments meant for the visibility and confidence of the Channapatna artisan community
Asia's largest silk cocoon auction market near Channapatna, where thousands of silk farmers from across the Ramanagara district arrive with their cocoons to be graded and auctioned in real time to silk reelers whose thread will eventually become the Mysore silk sarees and Bangalore silk garments that are exported worldwide, and why this completely authentic working commercial market is one of the most extraordinary and most unexpected experiences available on any Bangalore day trip
Janapada Loka, the Karnataka Janapada Trust's folk art and rural heritage museum on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, whose collection documents the full breadth of Karnataka's village folk traditions from wooden shrine sculptures and terracotta figurines to agricultural implements, musical instruments, textile traditions and performance arts, and why it is one of the most underappreciated cultural institutions in South India
The Big Banyan Tree at Dodda Aalada Mara, a single organism over 400 years old whose aerial roots have grown down into the ground across three acres of land creating an entire forest from a single tree, whose canopy was once used as a village marketplace and which remains one of Karnataka's most beloved and most extraordinary natural landmarks
Why responsible cultural tourism is one of the most effective tools available for the long-term survival of craft traditions like Channapatna's, how 5 Senses Tours structures its workshop visits to ensure that a fair proportion of visitor spending reaches the craftspeople directly and why every toy purchased on this tour is a direct investment in the continuation of a 250-year tradition
How to plan your complete Channapatna toys tour from Bangalore with 5 Senses Tours, what is included, the best time to visit for the most dramatic silk cocoon auction experience and how to combine the tour with Mysore, Hampi, Belur and Halebid and the wider Karnataka heritage circuit
Experience the Channapatna Toys Tour From Bangalore With 5 Senses Tours
Tipu Sultan's craftsmen are still at their lathes in Channapatna. The ivory wood is still being sourced from the same managed forests. The lac is still being melted by friction onto spinning wood. The turmeric is still making yellow. The spinach is still making green. The beetroot is still making red.
Two and a half centuries of unbroken craft tradition is available as a day trip from Bangalore. And the only way to experience it with the full depth of its extraordinary story is with a 5 Senses Tours cultural guide who has spent years building relationships with the artisan families of Channapatna and who delivers the complete history, the craft process and the human stories behind every toy at the exact moment and location where each story has its greatest impact.
Our Channapatna toys tour from Bangalore includes hotel pickup in a private air-conditioned vehicle, expert cultural guide throughout the day, the working toy workshop with complete craft demonstration, Asia's largest silk cocoon auction market, Janapada Loka folk art museum, the Big Banyan Tree and shopping time at the artisan cooperative shops where you can buy directly from the craftspeople. Book at
https://5sensestours.com/tour/channapatna-toys-tour/The craft traditions of Channapatna sit within the broader context of Karnataka's extraordinary living heritage. Our Mysore Silk Tour from Bangalore combines the Mysore Palace, Asia's largest silk cocoon auction and the royal silk weaving factory in a single day that connects Karnataka's living craft traditions directly to their royal heritage at
https://5sensestours.com/tour/mysore-silk-tour-from-bangalore/