Festival at the Bhadrakali temple Halligatt – Kookanda Prithvi Aiyappa 

An article which was the part of the essay writing competition on festivals of kodagu organised by kodavaclan during the lockdown.

Submitted

Kookanda Prithvi Aiyappa

Story of Bhadrakali temple Halligatt

Halligatt is a village situated in Botiyath Naad of Kodagu at the intersection of Ponnampet, Kunda and Arvathoklu. Sri Bhadrakali is the main village deity and the BOAD festival honoring the godess and the other village deities is celebrated during the 3^rd week of May every year. The name Halligatt is derived from the 8 families (palli yeatt) who were the original Jamma holders of the village (Chendrimada, Chammattira, Kookanda, Maakanda, Machiyanda, Mookalera, etc)

 

The festival begins a week before the main festival at the Bhadrakali temple where villagers gather to announce the ‘Namme katt”. Villagers are not supposed to kill or harm any plants on animals during the Namme katt, there is also restriction on the kind of food that can be consumed during this period.

The festival begins on Saturday at the sacred grove of Polavappa where a ‘Panika’ gets possessed by the spirit of Polavappa blesses the villagers.

The festivities then moves to the sacred forest of ‘Gundiath Aiyappa’ where the guardian spirit of the forest is worshiped, the village men gather at the sacred place situated inside the forest and offer prayers to Gundiath Aiyappa. This happens late in the evening. The ‘panikas’s perform a ritual dance around the temple while the villagers invoke upon all the village gods and goddesses. The villages fulfill their vow by breaking the hundreds of coconut in front the temple. This usually gets over by 10 pm.

 

Later in the night all the villagers gather at the Chammatira Ain mane for the Kali. Men dressed up as various characters (Choole, Vadda, Kindari Jogi etc) will dance to the tunes of talli paat along with Bhadrakali (the god is invoked and will possess a male member of the Machiyanda family). The village men, Kali and Godess visit Machiyanda & Mooklera ain mane; finally they will disperse and go back to their respective houses (In olden day the kali used to go to all the houses in the village, now its restricted to only 3 ain mane ).

The main festival begins on Sunday afternoon where the two Kudure of the village gods will be dressed and will be taken on a procession along with the Moga to Bhadrakali temple. Boys and kids dress up in various costumes and will dance to the tune of talli paat and volaga. The villagers gather at the field near the temple where everyone dance and throw dirt (band kali) from the sacred pond. Only the village men participate in the ‘band kali’ guests and women are spared. After the ‘band kali’ the villagers along with moga and kudure will come around the temple singing the taali paat. Then the moga & kudure are made to run around the temple. Women and kid who would have gathered for the festival will disperse after taking the blessing of the goddess.  

 

Once women and kids are left the panika’s will ritually sacrifice a goat to the Goddess to end the festival. Most villagers get their own goat or chicken to sacrifice to the goddess. 

 

PS : I have kept it brief and have not gone into details. All information shared is based on my observation. Anyone who is more aware pleases update if I have missed or misinterpreted any event or custom. 

 

Regards

Kookanda Prithvi Aiyappa