Ichanda Okka

About the Okka

In the early 1600s king Viraraja asked his Parpathigar to go to every village and meet every land-owner and give his okka a name to identify it for tax collection and for keeping records. In Devanageri, when the Parpathigar asked for the name of the owner of this land, he was told that it belonged to one ‘Icha’. So he gave them the manepedha ‘Ichanda’. Icha means minister/helper/instructor.

• Ichanda -1 -Devanigeri

This okka under Dodda Viraraja supported the British and fought Tipu when he came to Peggala to wage a war against the British (1788/89). Their ancestor Karanava Aiyappa died in the battle. A moplah (Muslim from Kerala), along with the spirits of Male Choundi and Korthi brought his body from the battle-field and buried it near the ainmane. Later, a kaimada was built there.

In another version of the story, Karanava Aiyappa, was known to be a brave soldier. Mathanda Diwan Appachu gave his daughter in marriage to him. Soon after the wedding, Chikka Viraraja fought the British in his last stand against them (1834). Karanava Aiyappa who was in the King’s army stood in a strategic spot in Peggala and beheaded 61 soldiers of the British army. When the British army commander heard of this, he sent soldiers with guns to attack Aiyappa. Aiyappa had a thiri thok that could not be loaded fast, whereas the British soldiers had more modern weapons that used bullets and were quick to fire. He was mortally wounded by the shot and ran to the Achappanda fields in Peggala and cried for water. The people of that okka helped him. Before he died, he asked them to inform his okka in Devanageri. His brothers brought his body to Devanageri and cremated it there. After his death, he became a beera and was recruited by god Sarthavu as his companion. When the Ichanda okka went through a lot of trouble, the kaniya who was consulted said that it was due to their Karanava Aiyappawho had no nele to rest in. So they built the kaimada and gave him a nele there.

Because Karanava Aiyappa was very capable, Madayya, although he was older, was not allowed to assume responsibility for the okka. Madayya therefore left the ainmane in anger and built the ainmane, (not far from this ainmane) called mek mane for his bhaga (Ichanda-2).

• Ichanda -2 Devanigeri

Ancestor Ayyappa ajja was very brave. He fought against Tipu in Peggala when his leg got cut off. He returned here limping, and died in the ainmane. He has a nele where he was buried, near the kaimada

• Ichanda-3  Devaṇageri (Thalakatkeri).

This okka is not related to the Devaṇageri Ichanḍa okka, and there have been intermarriages between them.

This Ichanḍa okka has three bhagas that separated long ago. This bhaga is now the only one with an ainmane. One of the other two bhagas had an ainmane, which has been rebuilt as a modern 2-room structure. The other bhaga never had an ainmane. About 25 years ago, when one of those two bhagas had no male members and would have become extinct, a man from the Medura okka of Madapura (who had land in KedamuỊỊur) married one of the two daughters left in the bhaga, according to the okka paraje custom, and continued the lineage of that bhaga.

Puggera were the first okka to come here. Monnayya, the first adi purusha of the Puggera okka, gave 200 bhattis of wetland to his friend Ichanḍa Somayya who built this ainmane in Thalakatkeri,near that of the Puggera okka.

 Once, when a tiger was terrorizing the villages in the area, the Ichanḍa and Puggera okkas went together to hunt it, having heard that the tiger had come to the forest in Thalakatkeri. When Ichanḍa Somayya shot at the tiger, the wounded tiger sprang on him and they were locked in a mortal combat. Somayya could not re-load his kep thok (gun loaded with gun-powder and ignited with a metal cap containing an explosive composition) and the other hunters did not shoot for fear of hitting Somayya. Finally both the tiger and Somayya died.There is a sthana for Somayyajja in the kaimada, next to that of karanava Achappajja.

Moolapurusha

• Aiyappa -Ichanda-1
• Madayya Ichanda-2
• Achappajja Ichanda-3

Ainmane

• Ainmane