Inside the wild tribal festival of Nilgiris

After an exhausting day (May 13, 2019) in the field, one might only think of an appetizing meal and a good nap at the base camp. But, sometimes taking away a few hours from that special nap for some learning is excellent, which everyone would agree on. One such moment in my field days was when I heard about the big festival of the Irula community from the local villagers of Thegumaradha earlier called as ‘Getthapatti’ (Thengu= Coconut tree, Patti = cattle herd). As my interest awakened, I decided that the best way to explore more about this festival Is to be part of the experience. Irula are the Dravidian ethnic group native to the Nilgiri mountains of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. They are dark people and speak their own dialect Irula language. Moyar Irula’s speech has mixed Tamil and Kannada language. According to the Irula heads, the festival is celebrated for ages and they doesn’t know the exact date when it started. It stopped in the early 90s by the active movement of Bandit Veerapan and Police department of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. After the death of Veerapan (2004), the festival started with the support from local people, Irula celebrating the festival continuously for the past 15 years. 

So, where exactly was this festival being celebrated? It is a 40 Km drive from Bhavanisagar to Mangalapatti, and then a 5-6 km trek to Sree Masikariya panda ayyan temple, Anaikatty, Nilgiris (11.57333° N 76.80714° E, 441 m).

There are only two ways to reach the temple from inside the tiger reserve, one via Thegumaradha and another via the Annaikatty-Siriyur route. We chose the Thegumaradha route, so vehicles were parked in Special Task Force quarters, Mangalapatti. The government started the Task Force to capture the bandit Veerappan. To get to the venue, a river has to be crossed. Only heavy vehicles can cross the river as we could see some ill-maintained vehicles struggle to pass. People usually walk to the temple in groups carrying food items while some unruly local villages from Sujjilkuttai come on motorcycles. They typically give a hard time to the forest guards and quarrel with forest officials. We chose to cross the river by walking. Every difficulty is an experience in itself. Many people were waiting on the bank of the river to gather and form a big group. It was around 4 pm, and 150-200 people had already gathered, which shows their enthusiasm towards their culture and festival. One of the villagers said that this number will soar high before tonight. More than 1000 people use this forest trail to reach the temple. People have to cross three streams by foot to reach the temple. Using this trail during the night time is not safe because of the active wild animal movement. Even there is a chance of people hit or killed by elephants and large carnivores or bitten by snakes. Walking inside the elephant reserve at night times is troubling ourselves and provoking wild animals. One could see the forest path filled with people wearing colourful clothes such as bright coloured sarees, shirts, and dhotis. In the midst of travel, people stopped to cook food and spend some time to relax. I had delicious lemon rice served on teak leaf. Good food, rain, the smell of wet soil and people to talk to, what else one could ask for a mind awakening evening.

 

After the rain stopped, we all started walking. It is always a pleasure to walk after the rain. Dark rain clouds, cool breeze, minor streams roaring, moisture in the air, and undulating mountain terrains are beautiful sights to see in this landscape. We couldn’t observe any animal movement. On the hillocks, we could see scattered Hardwickia binata (locally called Aacha), a favourite of the elephants, and many kinds of grass species (Poaceae members). Hardwickia is also used to make ropes and other materials. Below the hills, these roads and trails are used one or two times in a year by humans, but the presence of Prosopis juliflora in large numbers can be observed. Dispersal of pods by elephants and other mammals is the reason behind this proliferation, earlier, there were pattis (resting place for cows and buffalos) which could be another possibility of dispersal of P.juliflora. 

Fig: a) quick meal b) people walking in trail c) crossing the river d) people making rope out of Hardwikia binata for thatching pallak and other materials.

Myths were shared amongst the people while trekking. There’s a story behind the temple which says that a sacred female cow used to come and give milk to the statues of God. When people saw this incident, they made a temple on that location. The cow is considered to be an angel and goddess. This also happens to be the story of the famous Bannari Amman temple in Sathyamangalam. 

 

One another story is of Ayyan (male deity) and Siriyur Mariamman, his wife (a nearby village deity) who are the most worshipped and powerful deity among the Irula. They say Ayyan had seven wives, one in each village. These seven women deities are in the center of each tribal village. Ayyan is the most potent deity situated at the center of the forest, where according to the local belief, the wishes are granted to the people with good hearts. People believe that their wishes are directly conveyed to Masi karuvanrayan (Ayyan). 

 

There’s a story behind karuvanrayan being called as Masi karuvanrayan (Ayyan). According to a belief, there was a witch named Masi aka Rakkachi who used to torture the local villagers. Once, she attacked karuvanrayan inside a dark cave and left him unconscious. Later somehow, he managed to escape from the cave, with the help of a few local villagers. He performed yagyas and pooja to kill the witch Masi aka Rakkachi. Then one day, near the Anaikatty village, Ayyan chopped off her head, which he threw 18 km away from the place named Bokkapuram. Another story says, Ayyan was killed by witch in the dark and in reincarnation he took the revenge against Masi aka Rakkachi. Because of this, Ayyan become the principal deity of the seven villages and Head of Irula. They used to describe the love scene of Ayyan and siriyur mariyamman, how he followed and proposed. It was interesting to hear from the locals as they narrate the story with so much enthusiasm and full of expressions that depict their strong belief in these stories. It is left to the listener to believe it or not. That day I saw in their eyes how myths and taboos are uniting people in large numbers without any doubt. As a non-believer of myths and religion, it makes me question what is in these stories that unite people? It's quite debatable! 

 

The temple is a concrete structure situated on the bank of river Semmanatham (Semman = red soil river), a tributary of river Moyar surrounded by hills. Semannatham denotes the stream which has red soil, tributary to Moyar river, changes the crystal water of Moyar to red-coloured soil mixed water. Outside the main temple, many statues made of stone are present under the trees, which are also worshipped. The good thing about these statues is that they are under native trees such as Puthranjiva roxburgii (Puthranjiva), Azadirachta indica (Neem), and Cordia myxa (Sellamaram) which have medicinal values. Trees near the temples are usually exempted from chopping down by the villagers due to their religious beliefs. The statues of Masi karuvanrayan (Ayyan) and his wife siriyur Mariamman, were made by thatched flower by the Irulas community. They consider Ayyan and Mariyamman were super humans, they makes the statue with the height of more than 6 foot. No one can see the making and process of the statues, which were secretly done by the temple priest and his  troop. The whistle (peepi) was made from Paalaimaram Wrightia tinctoria tree. For the deity, Jhala poo (Binomial not known), Crysanthimum, Jasminium etc. were used. The auspicious flowers were collected by the priest. 

 

Around 300 families are in charge of the festival in Anaikatty. The temple committee comprises of a mixed community but the main in charge are Irulas. Earlier, Uppulinayakar community who stayed inside the pattis, gave millets (ragi, cambu, solam) to temple priest take in charge for some years back. Now, the whole festival is conducted and management by Irula community alone, no other community people cannot take part/interrupt the proceedings. Irulas from Karnataka, Talavadi, Talamalai and nearby surrounding used to come in groups. The forest department, Police department purely supports the festival. Irulas and badugas community people are the majority who attend this festival. This festival is so important that not only people come from nearby villages but also come from Erode, Coimbatore, Karnataka, and Tirupur in large numbers. 

 

As it gets darker, the number of people reaching the temple increases to more than 5000. By the time everyone gathers together for food, the number increases a lot. But the most surprising thing was the calmness and patience in people, that it would be hard to imagine in an urban gathering.

 

Approximately 6000 people sit to eat in a single stretch. Everyone patiently waits for the food to be served on their leaf. Serving the food to such a huge crowd is a herculean task, which is beautifully done by villagers of Anaikatty. The menu comprises of white rice with rajma, and potato curry poured with ghee. There is no restriction on the amount of food that is served. One can eat as much as one wants too. Stalls with ice cream made of vermicelli and snacks were also set up in the temple side. Seeing people gathered, sitting, and eating together with food being served by every age group ranging from young girls to older people without any discrimination automatically brings joy to everyone’s heart which could be seen on their faces.

Fig: large crowd eating food.

After feeding one round of people, then comes the turn to feed the next round. One can see how patiently people wait without causing any disturbance. The wait could extend up to 3 hours, which was in my case. After the first round of people who ate food, the ground no longer remains clean. One could see food littered everywhere, but this doesn’t stop people from appreciating and eating together in the same field.

 

The rituals and practices of the temple are unique. The central theme of the festival was to worship Ayyan and his wife, siriyur Mariamman. The two deities were depicted as sitting on a tiger. The deities are decorated and carried in a palanquin (pallaku) dancing around the corridor from stream to temple. People carrying the deities also dance to the beat of the music. The music was so energizing that it gives goosebumps to the spectators. After the dance ceremony, deities were taken inside the temple and then rituals, pooja, chanting was done. All the people were open to worship the deity till mid night. By the time pooja is completed, people were filled with so much energy. Everyone danced all night to the Badugas song and folk music and also burned crackers while dancing. There is so much energy filled in the air. Everyone enjoys the festival. Some even enjoy food and tea from nearby small shops. Young males also come with hope in search for their soulmates in the vast crowd. Later, people sleep for some hours on the open groud with a mat, newspaper or tarpaulin for the fresh morning.

Fig: Dancing of deities on the tiger statue, firecrackers, and people dancing

 

The Next day (May 14, 2019). After taking a bath in the morning, people start preparing for another big ceremony, which is the highlight of this festival. It was now time to prepare for the fire walking ceremony, locally known as thee midi or poo midi. The work was divided among the people. The branches of Azadirachta indica (Neem) tree and Cassine spp(Karachi) were collected to prepare a fire bed for walking, and firewood was raised from dead trees for cooking purposes. The woods of these trees don’t become ash easily and form hard coal for some time. The temple priest (the Irula head) and their followers are the first ones to walk on the fire bed. They are followed by the people carrying deities in a palanquin, which is over 150 kg. Seeing them walk on fire bed was overwhelming for spectators like me. I kept wondering how strong a belief can be that people forget everything and just indulge in the spirit of belief. There is a myth that one can see the tiger in the nearby hillock associated with the ritual that after the completion of rituals. People eagerly try to see, and some claim that they witnessed the sight of a tiger after the ceremonies. The goat and hen sacrifices given to the deity, are then later eaten as the afternoon feast. The Banana leaf, Butea monosperma (Purasu) leaves, and teak leaves were mostly used. The use of plastic was minimal. After the feast, some people start going back to their home, while some stay for the night and prepare for their meals near the bank of the river.

Festivals like these are not bound to any religion or castes; instead, they accept and cherish everyone without any discrimination. Their belief is not only on deities but also on unity and biodiversity. These local traditions and festivals are unique but are restricted by certain boundaries. Not many people know about them, and with time and generations passing these traditions might lose its essence. These festivals are raw and pure, which aim to unite people from all religions, caste, and tribes. They are thus far untouched by the corrupted minds of people who seek opportunities for money-making and ruining the biodiversity. 

Fig: a, b) deity (male & female) puppets at rest after last night’s massive dance moments  c) Sree Masi Kariya Panda Ayyan temple, Anaikatti, Nilgiris d) Anti-poaching watchers on camouflage uniform. Laughter after the festival among the frontline staff of the Tamil Nadu forest department, who holds a storehouse of indigenous knowledge within them, knowing more about the forest and landscape than anyone else.

 

I decided to attend this festival with one thought to know how biodiversity and humans can co-exist together without anyone compromising since this festival was held inside the forest reserve. Being deep inside the forest reserve with people united in such large numbers can quickly overrun other species. Still, one cannot ignore the fact that how people are united and bonded by festivals like these, in their way helping the people to maintain their link with nature.

Review by: Krishnaveni S, Shipra K and Karthy S