Land of the Boar

In Kodagu children were often told many mythological stories at night. Likewise during my childhood my maternal grandfather told me the story of a mythical prince. One of the most common Coorg tales narrated, this story was that of Chandra Varma, the legendary ancestor of the Kodavas.

Legend has it that there once lived an Emperor of Matsya Desha called Siddhartha. Matsya Desha, meaning ‘Fish country’, was on the banks of the river Ganga in North India. Siddhartha had four sons and the youngest and most capable among them was Chandra Varma. The surname Varma was an ancient title associated with Indian warriors. Chandra Varma, the ‘Moon Prince’, sought conquest, like the ancient knights of yore. So he gathered a privy army around him and wandered the sub-continent, until he reached the dense jungles of Kodagu. Here he settled down with his army and founded a new kingdom. This was to be called Kroda Desha, or the ‘land of the boar’.

The ancient kings married several times. Chandra Varma, the first king of Kodagu, got married twice, once to a princess and once to a common girl who, however, was of celestial origins. While the princess was childless, the second wife bore eleven sons. The eldest among them was called Deva Kantha. Years went by and the eleven sons grew to become young men. Then the king sent messengers to various lands to find brides for his sons. The messengers searched all over until they came across Vidarbha Desha, a region in Central India. Vidarbha Raya, the king of Vidarbha, had married a peasant woman and had several daughters. He was seeking suitors for the princesses when the messengers arrived. King Vidarbha was pleased and agreed to get his daughters married to the sons of Chandra Varma. There was great cheer in both the kingdoms and the marriage festivities began.

The sons of Chandra Varma led their brides away to their kingdom. They later came to have many children. King Chandra Varma grew old and so abdicated the throne in favour of his eldest son Deva Kantha. The progeny of Chandra Varma prepared new fields for themselves and cultivated them. Meanwhile King Vidarbha passed away.

Women in the Coorg Sari

Years later Kaveri, also known as Lopamudra, the wife of Sage Agastya and the daughter of Kavera, was to take the form of a river. Deva Kantha was still the reigning king of Kodagu at that time. He had been informed two days prior in a dream that the river Kaveri would take birth in his kingdom.

On the auspicious day Deva Kantha and his people assembled to welcome the river. The women of Chandra Varma’s family were standing there when the river Kaveri came flowing towards them. The force of the water moved the folds of their dresses behind. This gave rise to the Kodava sari and hence, it is said, that the Kodava women wear the sari likewise even today. The river flooded the place and turned right. Thereafter the place came to be known as Balamberi (also known as Balamuri or Valamberi) meaning ‘the Right Turn’.

The Kaveri then flowed through the Southern Deccan plateau until it reached the Coromandel coast and emptied itself into the sea. There is another Balamuri (near Mysore) along the course of the Kaveri. Later King Virata, of King Siddartha’s lineage and a relative of Chandra Varma and Deva Kantha, would rule the parent kingdom Matsya Desha and help the Pandavas during the Mahabharatha war.

Tala Kaveri temple in a mist

The tale of Chandra Varma had been part of the Kaveri Sthala Purana. The Puranas were ancient classical mythology while the Sthala Puranas were local legends. Versions of this story has also been written down in English by Rev. G. Richter in the Manual of Coorg (1870) and recently in a Kannada book called Kaveri Vaibhava by Yedurkala Shankaranarayana Bhat.

The feast day of Kaveri occurs on Thula Sankramana, around October every year. This is the day when the sun enters the Libra Zodiac sign. With this day begins the month of Tholyaar in the Kodava calendar. On the same day water rises up from underground as a spring and flows forth to sustain the river. This spring occurs in a small pond within the temple of Tala Kaveri, the place of origin of the river. Priests sit around the pond and chant as the water comes forth on that day. People assemble in large numbers to take a holy dip and to collect a little water to take home for the purpose of certain holy rituals.

In Kodava homes, a Kalasa is prepared and kept near the prayer lamp that day. The Kalasa is a small metal pot in whose open end is held a peeled coconut (by its base) with mango leaves arrayed around it, all placed vertically. The pot also contains some water and a necklace is put upon the coconut. A picture of the temples at Tala Kaveri and Bhagamandala is placed nearby. The members of the family would have vegetarian meals and refrain from any alcohol that day. A curry is prepared from pumpkins and eaten with dosa.

A Coorg man in 1870

(Pictures are from Google images and are labelled reusable)

The Legend of the Kaveri

Kaveri, the deity associated with the river of the same name, is the patron goddess of Kodagu, or Coorg. Here is accounted the popular version of the tale of the river deity.

Kavera, a king of Vidarbha, and his wife had no children. So he penanced for many years until Brahma appeared before him and gave him a celestial daughter Lopamudra. Before descending to earth, Lopamudra had been the younger sister of the river deity Ganga, who had likewise lived in the heavens prior to her descent. Lopamudra was thereafter also known as Kaveri, the daughter of Kavera. Kavera came to be called a Rajarishi, a king who had turned into a sage.

River Kaveri flowing through forests

Upon coming of age, Lopamudra was married to the hermit sage Agastya. He wandered the forests of South India during the times of the epic Ramayana. Once Rama, his wife Sita, his brother Lakshmana and his follower Hanuman paid Agastya and Lopamudra a visit. Later a temple was built at the place where Rama stayed in Kodagu for a while, near Irpu falls. The temple is called Rameshwara, a nearby hill is called Hanuman Betta while the river of the Irpu falls is called Lakshmana Thirtha.

Statues of Agastya and Lopamudra

From a young age Kaveri had wanted to turn into a river and flow like her sister Ganga. But Agastya feared this and wanted her to instead serve him as a homemaker. Agastya would go on long journeys while he left Lopamudra alone at home. He would keep her in a kamandalu (a holy jar) and have his disciples guard his dwelling. They were living on the Brahmagiri hill range of the Western Ghats.

One day when Agastya left Lopamudra to wander alone, she grew upset and decided to turn into a river. She became the river Kaveri and flowed out of the jar. (Some versions of the legend claim that Ganesh came in the form of a crow and tipped the jar over) When Agastya returned home he found that he couldn’t stop her. The place came to be known as Tala Kaveri, the origin of the Kaveri.

A Kamandalu

Some years ago another sage called Suyajna had also penanced and received a foster daughter Sujyothi. She too desired to become a river. Her constant companion and guide was a celestial woman called Kannike. One day Indra, the king of the gods, saw Sujyothi and wished to have her as his wife. But Sujyothi refused to marry him and instead she and Kannike flowed away as rivers. Indra was displeased, so he cursed Sujyothi to flow underground where daylight could not reach. As a result Sujyothi then flowed below the ground. She wept bitterly and pleaded to Indra to forgive her. Indra then pitied her and granted her a boon that she would emerge from the ground at Bhagamandala and merge with the Kaveri and the Kannike. This became known as a Triveni Sangam (confluence of three rivers).

Kaveri the patron goddess of Kodagu

The Kaveri Purana has now come to be known as the Kaveri Mahatmye as well. The Puranas were ancient classical mythology which were passed on through generations by word of mouth until they were written down in Sanskrit. There is no such standard format and hence many versions of them exist. Many Sthala Puranas, or local legends, also came into being. Scholars like Dr. N. H. Hebbar claim that the Kaveri poem was written in Tulu in neighbouring Dakshina Kannada (South Canara) in the 17th century. In 1864 the chief Coorg official Bittianda Nanchappa of Madikeri, had commissioned Srinivasa Iyengar to translate the Kaveri Mahatmye into Kannada. Rev. G. Richter’s book ‘Manual of Coorg’ (1870) claimed that the Kaveri Purana formed four chapters (the 7th to the 11th) of the Skanda Purana.

(Pictures are from Google images and are labelled reusable)