User:Rishi Muni/sandbox

Gokak was once famous for its wooden and paper toys. Artificial fruits, vegetables, animals, birds and more are made up of wood and are popularly known as Gokak toys. These toys are predominantly used as display items at homes and are rarely used by the children as toys. Varieties of wood, including hariwala, polki and hale are used to carve out the toys. These toys are found in 144 variants. The craft of toy making in Gokak is more than 200 years old and is being practiced by the community of jingars(The word Jingar is derived from the Persian 'Jin' a saddle, and the traditional occupation of the caste was saddle making) since the last decade of the eighteenth century. Toy making in Gokak has been a hereditary occupation in nature since decades but since 1956 onwards it is also being carried out by other persons who are trained in the craft and the tradition. The Bombay Gazetteer of 1884 refers to Jingars as follows:- ''They are said to have been brought into Belgaum about a century and a half ago by one Bhimrav son of Anandappa the headman of Kagal in Kolhapur. Bhimrav's grand-son Bapu Jingar, a skilful painter and wooden toy maker was patronised by a chief of Kolhapur about eighty years ago. He lived for ten years in the service of the prince and after his patron died he went to Gokak and lived among his relations, maintaining himself by making wooden toys, palanquins and the Abdgirs or ornamental umbrellas which are carried over native chiefs. It was he who taught his relations how to make wooden toys''