A Rare Story Telling using Clay Toys in Telangana - "Mandahechchu" Community

Telanagna is a rich state in India with diverse folk arts and oral narratives. One such being the "MANDAHECHCHU"-oral form of storytelling of Shepard hero "KATAMRAJU", for "YADAVA COMMUNITY". Yadavas are the "Gollas"  basically cattle and sheep breeders. They narrate the story of their ancestors and also about the origin of their community-as part of oral history. They are called by different synonymy names like "Mandapichollu" or " Mandichulu" and even "Bommalata vallu". By and large they are mendicants belong to a Yadava-Golla community, but are known by different names across the region of Andhra Pradesh.

Mandhechuor Mandahechchu again a sub sect or community of Buduga Jangama Community of artists.

They narrate the story of "KATAMRAJU" known as "YADAVA PURANA" and receive alms/ donations from Golla community members. For narration of the story they use different  "CLAY TOYS" to demonstrate the story. As Prof. Thirumal Rao says  that in Telangana region these Mandhechu's are known as "GOLLASUDDULU".

Every Mandhechu group has a copper plate which they produce before Yadava community members as an identification certificate. There are other storytellers in a Yadava community like "YERRA GOLLA" or so. They also narrate the stories related to yadava community, but the right to narrate the katamraju story is only to Mandhechus. Again, this is not an ordinary copper plate which anyone can have or produce. It is the one given to them by the Shepard King Katam raju himself to Mandhechu followers in the 15th -16th century.

Mandahechchulu or Mandagoualu of Telangana state use the wood dolls-puppet with a size of one foot . But they don't use the strings or rods. And moreover, they perform during the day time. They don't use screen or any particular stage. They are the traditional story tellers to Yadava community and their performance delivery in the dramatized form with dialogue and conversation. They use the dolls (wood dolls) to show them to the audience according to the story sequential. This can be seen in the Nalgonda, Warangal and Kareemnagar regions  of Telangana State. 

Mandhechu receive alms at the rate of  one lamb per "Manda". Manda meaning flock of sheep and one cow if they have more than seven cows. They are Non-vegetarians and even engage in hunting birds.

In Telangana, Mandhechhu are spread across the region of Miriyalagudam, Ramanapet, Bhubanagiri, Suryapet and Nalgonda region. They are also present in other district of Andhra Pradesh but are again known by different names. From these places they move from place to place for story narrating.

The group is touring across Mahaboobnagar district from Achampet, Vanaparti, Kalvakurthi and other parts of Ranga Reddy region use colourful Clay toys like Bull, katamraju and other toys for story narration. They carry nearly 100-150 toys or even more in a box called "DEVASTHANAMULU PETTI"-Petti means box and Devasthanamu means- Temple or place of worship. So, it is advent that the profession of story narration is regarded as equal to worshiping God in a temple. Apart from katamaraju story, they also narrate stories of   "Krishna". "Krishna" again belongs to the Yadava Community, according to the mythological references.

The last picture is the Pat-Painting also depicting Katamraju Story, which is used along with the cloy toy for narrating the story orally.

By and large these Mandhechus lead happy lives of narrating Katamraju stories and accepting donations from Yadava Communities.

These are the individual collections of clay toys by Prof. Thirumal Rao at his residence