Gaja-Vyala Kondapalli

These small decorative wooden toys were made in Kondapalli, Andhra Pradesh. Kondapalli and Nirmal were centers famous for producing toys and other wooden artifacts made of a light punki wood and painted with vibrant colours. It is believed that the production of these toys started at Kondapalli in 1362, when around 200 families migrated from Rajasthan and settled in Andhra. These toys were created for decorative purposes, as the region had a tradition of using toys for decoration during festivals.

One of these toys is a miniature Buraq. In the Islamic tradition the Buraq is said to have transported Prophet Muhammad to heaven. It has the head of a woman, the body of a horse and the legs and wings of a bird, with a camel-headed tail. Such Buraqs are seen to be a popular subject in Persian miniature paintings from the fifteenth century. Early Islamic representations do not give the Buraq a humanoid face, but this feature appears in Far Eastern, Persian and Indian art.2 This subject was often addressed by Deccani artists, who not only painted it on paper, but also executed the motif in other mediums i.e. wood, metal, textile etc.

The elephant-headed, tiger-bodied and winged gaja- vyala (gaja is elephant and vyala is tiger) are lively examples of Kondapalli art.