My  Visit to  Janapada Loka

by Nandita Guruswamy

Sunnyvale, California

This year I spent my summer vacation in Bangalore.  While I was there, one of the places I visited with my parents and cousins was Janapada Loka. "Janapada Loka" means "the world of folk art." Janapada Loka is located about 30 miles from Bangalore. It is near the town of Ramanagara on the way to Mysore. It was a pleasant drive from Bangalore to Ramanagara.  Throughout the journey it was green when I looked outside.  On the way, we went by the village Bidadi, where my great-grandparents lived.

When we got to Ramanagara, I saw a colorful gate, which was the entrance to Janapada Loka.  Janapada Loka is a museum.  On display in the museum are items about the folk art of and village life in Karnataka. Ancient objects, such as coins, handcrafted pots, dolls, and a lot of other interesting items, are displayed. I saw the history about the folk dances and the costumes used by different types of dances.  Inside they also have tools, jewelry boxes, mouse traps, cabinets, cooking supplies and a lot of other items they used in the olden days. We also saw models of houses, temples, god's chariot ('ratha'), an oil-extracting machine called 'gana,' etc.  They represented a typical ancient village in Karnataka. There was a demonstration of pottery making.  I heard that they have a folk art camp and festival during the early part of summer. 

I had a nice time boating and running around in the open-air theater.   I also got to see the 'touch me not' plant while walking around.  When you touch it, the leaves will close up. I enjoyed eating in a nice Udupi restaurant just next door. Also, we bought wooden toys at nearby shops.

I learned a lot and had a lot of fun visiting Janapada Loka.