Culture
Festivals
Three observances structure the Kodava year: one for arms, one for the river, one for the harvest. Each is held at the ainmane as much as at any temple.
The calendar
Three festivals
Early September (commonly 3 September)
Community TraditionKailpodhud
ಕೈಲ್ಪೊದ್
Marks: Weapons
Held once the transplanting of paddy is finished, when the fields no longer need constant attention. Arms are taken down, cleaned and honoured, and the day is marked with shooting at a target, sports and a family feast. The festival's continuity is bound up with the community's customary exemption from parts of Indian arms legislation.
Mid-October (around 17 October)
Traditional AccountKaveri Sankramana
ಕಾವೇರಿ ಸಂಕ್ರಮಣ
Marks: The river
The Kaveri is said to well up at Talakaveri at a precise moment, and pilgrims gather at the spring on Brahmagiri hill to collect the theerthodbhava water. Kodava households treat the day as the river's own festival; the timing and the welling-up are matters of devotional tradition rather than measurement.
Late November or December, at the full moon
Community TraditionPuttari
ಪುತ್ತರಿ
Marks: Harvest
The new-rice festival. The first sheaf is cut at an appointed hour with the family gathered, carried to the ainmane and cooked; the days that follow bring village dances and games. Of the three festivals this is the one most closely tied to the agricultural calendar and to the ancestral house.
Sources & Further Reading
- Kodavas.org, Namme Naal — Kodava festivals: Kailpodh, Kaveri Sankramana, Puttari
- Nadikerianda Chinnappa, Pattole Palame (ಪಟ್ಟೋಲೆ ಪಳಮೆ) — Kodava culture, folksongs and traditions, 1924 / 2003
Note