North Mada Street Navaratri Golu Doll Market

Every Navaratri season, North Mada Street - the historic lane flanking the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore - transforms into Chennai's best-known open-air Golu bommai market. Independent hawkers set up temporary stalls wedged between the street's regular shops, unpacking boxes of painted clay and plaster dolls depicting gods, mythological scenes, royal courts, animals and everyday village life for households building their annual Golu (kolu) display of steps. The trade is entirely seasonal and informal - vendors arrive as the festival approaches and clear out once Navaratri ends - but it has run for decades and pulls buyers from across the city who make an annual trip to the street specifically for dolls found nowhere else. Evening footfall peaks as Navaratri nears, with the narrow street packed shoulder to shoulder past the temple's eastern gopuram. Source: https://www.mylaporetimes.com/2023/09/sales-of-kolu-bommais-first-set-of-hawkers-set-up-shop-on-north-mada-street/