Tales of Temple Festivals (Unique temple festivals of Kodagu)

 

(This article was published in the Spectrum, Deccan Herald on 20th April, 2023)

There are many annual village temple festivals happening in Kodagu in the months of March, April, and May. The temple idols, called thadamb, are carried by a priest on the head and taken in processions. Therays where performers wear colourful red costumes, imitate deities or ancestors, dance in trances and advise devotees, are organised in the temples and some of the ancestral homes of some clans. 

The main festivals are the Bhagwathi Namme, and the Boad Namme, happening in honour of village deities, among others. Two important temple festivals got over in the second week of April this year. One was at the Puthu Bhagwathy temple in Birunani village. The other was at Pannangalatamme in Yavakapadi village. 

During the Puthu Bhagwathy festival, the people of Birunanni make vows to the goddess in order to fulfil their wishes, often for the good health of their children. Parents who have made such vows get their children cross-dressed and have a ceremony done for them. Boys will be dressed as brides and girls as grooms. They will have a single muhurta ceremony done, a wedding done without a partner. 

Boys are dressed as brides in Kodava saris and girls as grooms in kupya-chele (Kodava male attire) at the Puthu Bhagwathy temple. Photo courtesy: Nellira Ananya

Legend has it that once five sibling gods – two brothers and three sisters – came to South Kodagu from Kerala. The eldest brother Mattlappa settled in Mathur near Ponnampet. The eldest sister Puttilamme devi, also called Putha Bhagwathy, settled in Birunani. The younger brother Ogerelappa settled in the forests of Ogerelappa. The youngest sisters, twins, settled in Rudraguppe near the Kammaratappa temple and hill. They were known as Rudraguppelamme or Jodi Bhagwathy. 

Members of the Kembatti, Kodava, Airi, Kudiya, Kaniya and other communities participate in the Pannagalatamme festival. They bring bolle kall (toddy) umbrellas and other articles to the festival. During this festival, a few members of the Kembatti community wear red or white kuppyas (native coats) and perform thirale, i.e. go into trance. 

The thadamb of Pannangalatamme. Photo courtesy: Anjaparavanda Sharan

Long ago, seven sibling gods - six brothers and one sister - lived in Kerala. The eldest brother settled in Tali Parambu and built a famous temple there. He sent his younger siblings eastward towards Kodagu to establish temples. Today, three of these other temples are in Kodagu while the other three are in Kannur and Wayanad. 

Among the seven it is four - three brothers and one sisters - who came into Kodagu. When they were hungry in Kakkabe, the brothers asked the sister to cook rice for them. Igguthappa, the eldest among them, provided the rice grains. The sister agreed to cook the rice without a fire if the brothers would eat it without salt. Salt was added to plain rice for taste, since there was no other curry or dish to accompany the rice. 

The farm they were camping in belonged to the Pardanda joint family in Kunjila. The sister milked a cow belonging to the family which was grazing there. She used the milk to cook the rice. The rice was placed in a clay pot and buried in the hot sand beside a stream. 

There were banana trees growing on the farm. The siblings cut a few leaves to use as plates. Ummavva of the Pardanda family saw this and scolded them. The sibling gods then cursed the family that no bananas would thereafter grow on their farm. Muthanna the head of the Pardanda family then came and sought their forgiveness. But the curse took effect. However, the Pardanda were made the deva thakka (hereditary temple managers) of the Igguthappa temple which was built in the nearby Padi hamlet. 

After lunch, the siblings chewed betel leaves. They spat out the betel onto their palms to see whose was reddest. After that, in a sleight of hand, the brothers flung the betel behind their heads. The younger sister who was beside them saw this from an angle where they seemed to put the betel back into their mouths. Trying to imitate them, she put the betel back into her mouth. The brothers found this disgusting. They decreed that this act caused her to lose her caste. This way, she became the goddess of the Dalits and the low castes in Kodagu. 

Upon the advice of Igguthappa, she took the form of a crane and flew down to the nearby hamlet of Pannangala. There she found a labourer working on a farm belonging to the Karthanda family. She took possession of the labourer and he then danced in a trance. A temple was built for her in that hamlet and she became known as Pannangalatamme, the mother at Pannangala. 

Another brother settled in Palur and became known as Palurappa. The last brother settled in Thirunelli across the Kodagu border in Wayanad and is called as Pemmaiah. 

While the main temple of Pannangalatamme is in Pannangala, there are two other Pannangalatamme temples in Kedamallur and Armeri villages of Kodagu. 

Pannangalatamme temple devotees in trance wearing red and white kupyas (regional coats) and holding weapons, in front of the temple deity. A devotee holds the thadamb. Two long parasols are leaning against the wall in the background. Photo Courtesy: Sachin Uthappa Ketolira

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The Sandooka-makers of Kodagu

by Mookonda Kushalappa

In the village of Bilugunda, is a Bhadra-Kaali temple. At its annual festival, Airira Devani goes into trance, like his father Boju before him. He then accompanies the kudure procession, a group of Kodavas centred around one boy wearing a hollow frame with the head and body of a horse.

Kodava is both the name of a tribe and a language. Around twenty castes of Kodagu, besides the Kodava tribe, speak the language. The Airi are one of them. Airira is the most common family name among this community’s members.

According to researchers Boverianda Nanjamma and Chinnappa, the Airi were skilled artisans, often either achari (carpenters), thatta (goldsmiths) or kolla (ironsmiths) by profession. Many of them are now farmers.

Kodagu has a local mythology around six gods and one goddess. Lord Igguthappa is the chief among these siblings. Pannangalathamme, the younger sister of Igguthappa, has three main temples in the villages of Yavakapadi, Kedamallur and Armeri.

Near the Armeri Pannangalathamme temple, lives an Airi family. Kaveriappa, an elder from this family was my guide and he led me from the temple to his ainmane in Ettmani hamlet. It was an old, two-storeyed house with a red-tiled roof and in need of maintenance.

The front yard was roughly paved with large stones. The veranda has traditional wooden pillars rising from a low wall and a plank used as a seat between the pillars. Inside the house, there were pictures of various Hindu gods on the wall behind a Gajalakshmi hanging lamp. A wooden container to hold holy powder applied on the forehead was hanging from the ceiling.

This family in Armeri is called Mookairira. They were also called Moopairira or Moothairira. The word Mooka means eldest in Old Dravidian. The family got its name because they were the elder of two branches of an Airi clan. The younger branch was called Ele (younger) Airira.

The Mookairira clan used to make sandookas and troughs for the kings and lords of Kodagu. Sandooka is a wooden box used to store jewellery, documents, and other objects and has a hinged lid. It is called a chandooka in Kodava. The family showed me an old one in their possession which had several small compartments inside.  

Kaveriappa got his family members Sujay Cariappa and Kiran, a ninth standard schoolboy, to help him explain things to me. “We were originally from the Vishwakarma caste. We brought our family goddess Cheerambe with us and established her nearby. Every year, around April 25th , we offer her paal-pann (cow’s milk and fruits).” A woman in a Kodava style sari offered a plate of kodubale and another plate of biscuits as snacks.

They were given to hunting in the past. A large odikaththi war knife, probably made and used by their forefathers, was shown on a yellow, plastic stool. Like the Kodavas, the family worships their Guru Kaarana (principal ancestors) and offers them food and drink during an annual ceremony. They showed five small metal plates with crude human figures in relief on them representing their deceased relatives.

During the month of Adare (June-July), the family has offerings made to the guardian deity Kuliya. They preside over a few annual rituals at the nearby Ponnangalatamme temple. They visit the Beppunaad Bhagwathy in the same village regularly. The family members also worship a spirit deity called Pashanamurthy.

The periphery of their settlements was lined with stone piles. They had two small stone troughs in their garden. There was an old bent stone post in the yard. A pair of old stone posts and a lane with stone steps which led down to the fields were nearby. There was a large stone trough in their fields. It was said that this was made for the elephant of Uththa Nayaka, a Kodava ruler from Armeri.

Kiran led me across the fields to a stone quarry nearby. This must have been the place where the family procured stone for making troughs and other objects in the past.  The quarry forms a depression in a hillock and hence holds a large pool of water.

The family reportedly used to make traditional knives, and the woodwork in ainmanes, temples, forts, and palaces. They were employed as goldsmiths and carpenters by the kings. Largely forgotten, these skills are no longer being learnt by the family descendants and their community. But there are people from across castes making some of these articles nowadays.

(This article was submitted to the Deccan Herald and a version of it was published on 9th February 2023)