By Team Mangalorean - Mangalore

Mangalore Feb 5, 2008: Come February and the night times turns into a wonderland of folk rituals in Dakshina Kannada. Individuals, families, communities and societies get together to worship the Bhootas (spirits you may call them) The spirit cult is an important socio-cultural phenomenon of coastal  Karnataka, which  is viewed  in the  form of rituals and beliefs, music  and narratives, dances  and  dialogues, social  gatherings  and entertainments trances and oracles, miraculous healing of mental and physical disorders and settling of disputes and quarrel, this spiritualistic culture which is  immigrated  from earliest inhabitants of the Negroid  and Veddoid  races were later  mixed with Australoid,  Mediterranean and other races which are  responsible for the evolution of Dravidian and Aryan communities. The Tulu language is a Dravidian language did not develop a written literature is the reason not much known outside  the  district.

The Bhootas are those spirits which once long back in time used to be in blood and flesh like any human being but nevertheless they were endowed with special and extra-human powers to do and undo things as per their will. They were known as demigods which were fit for worship by ordinary mortals. The event is called Bhootaradhane or Bhoota Kola. The season of Bhootaradhane begins usually by the first week of February which also signals the arrival of summer. The Bhootaradhane of  various bhootas might go well into the fag end of the summer - upto May 15. The first couple of bhootas to arrive on the scene are Kallurti and Panjurli and the last one to be worshipped Bobbarya and Jumadi. There are others namely Dhoomavathi Malaraya, Arabi and Brandi and many more. The Regional Resources Centre at MGM College Udupi has an entire library of audio and video and documentary evidence of the various bhootas in Dakshina Kannada and the neighboring Kasargod district in Kerala.

The cult or spirit worship is known as Bootharadhane.  It is believed that the "Bhootas  are ferocious and malignant spirits bent upon harming human beings  and  their  job  is  only  to  bring harm to the people to extract  offerings  from  them." The spirits treat human beings as their foster-children,  safeguard  their  interest,  grants them  freedom from fear, protect their cattle  and  crop  and  look after   their  health  and welfare. The people  in this area  worshipping   Puranic  Gods  in the temple  under  the  leadership  of  Brahmin priest and local spirits are personalized  deities who influence  the lives of devotees in a more intimate relationship.

The origin of the cult can be traced from ancestor worship, mother goddess, serpent and trees are incorporated. There are certain spirits originated from Hindu God Shiva who sends the Bootas or Ganas  to earth and ask them to receive offerings from human beings. The spirits like Panjurli, Pilichandi, Nandikona (pig,tiger,bull)   are the best example. When the wild pigs began to spoil the crops the primitive man of the land might have thought it worthwhile to appease the spirit of this animal as a result of which  cult might  have come to vogue. Same thing with the tiger and the bull. Also Ullalti  is   worshipped  as mother goddess-she grants prosperity and  fertility to the  soil and controls epidemic diseases . Jamudi,  Lakkesiri and Mariamma are connected  with  Puranic Deities  like  Dhumavathi,  Rakteswari and Parvathi.(Jamudi is considered as half male and half female goddess), Vishnumurthi daiva  represents Narasimha incarnation of God Vishnu.

The Bermeru is the spirit not connected with puranic god Brahma. Koti-Chennaya, twin heroes who became divinities after their heroic death are worshipped as martial gods, sculptor Kalkuda and his sister Kallurthi, Bobbarya of maritime achievements, Koddabbu the  champion  of  downtrodden  have  all  become  spirits  after their death. The spirit Annappa, Abbage-Darage,Kalkuda, Koti-Channaya are raja daivas. The Guliga and Chaundi are ferocious spirits and in the ceremonies associated with them, sucking of the blood from a live chicken can be observed. The Koraga, Taniya, Kamberlu, Koddabbu and  Tanimaniga  are the  spirits exclusively  worshipped  by  Harijan communities.

Pardhanas

The paad-danas are narrative legends describing the stories of spirits, its origin and heroic deeds and prowess. It also tells how spirits influence over wider region, how it is appeased, how it grants the wishes of devotees and how it depicting the story of spirit concern, spectacular dance by priest-impersonator possessed by the spirit, wearing gorgeous costumes, masks   and high crowns making awe-inspiring cries, performing miracles, heroic feats and delivering the message of divine spirit  curing diseases, settling village disputes all these make a grand festival leaving a lasting impression on a spectator even  if he is a non-believer.

It could be recalled here that the Nordic scholar Lauri Honko and his spouse Anelli Honko have created the second longest song out of a pardhana performed by Machar Gopal Naika of Belthagady taluk in Dakshina Kannada district. The first one was Homer's Illiad. The Siri Pardhana as it is called is only four lines lesser than Homer's Illiad. If one had gone deeply into the legends of Europe particularly the Greeks the Homer's Illiad could be remembered as the story in a song narrating the legends of Greek demi gods of Achillies and the war of Trojans.