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)