Most young children the world over enjoy playing house and doing pretend cooking. This handmade wooden set of toy cooking pots is from Andhra Pradhesh in southeastern India. Each item is a perfect miniature reproduction and is hand painted with lacquer paint in glossy blues and purples. The village of Etikoppaka is famous for the production of these wooden toys.

Today, children might play with these toys in a nursery school or at home. In the past they were used for a popular traditional game called Gujjana Goollu (also called Buvvalaata). Traditionally the boys would collect small amounts of cereals, puffed rice, salt and other dry goods. The girls would then pretend to cook them in the wooden containers. Afterwards both would sit down to eat the food. Sometimes this was followed by a pretend wedding at which two teams representing the bride and groom would share out these Gujjana Goollu. This game dates from ancient India and the time of the Ramayana and Mahabharata when the game was believed to be played by Rukmini, the wife of Krishna.