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)