Wild Children’s Bedu Festival Scheduled for May 27 and 28

*Gonikoppal, May 26: The Bedu Festival (Kunde Festival), one of the unique festivals of the tribal people of South Kodagu, will be held on 27th and 28th. This festival, which is celebrated through Baigula, Veshabhushan, Talamela and Sambaram, is one of the most unique tribal festivals of Kodagu.

The tribal people celebrate the festival by wearing special costumes, making Talamela out of the things they find in their hands, dancing and begging for donations. As part of the tradition, begging for money while begging for money is the specialty of this festival. The celebration will begin from the morning of 27th.

The festival will be inaugurated by putting the money begged for for two days in the hundi of the Bhadrakali temple in Devapura. Thousands of people will gather near the Bhadrakali temple in the afternoon of 28th. The costumed people, who arrive in groups, will enjoy dancing around the banyan and goli trees in front of the temple with tamal melas.

Accidents have occurred when people stopped vehicles on the highway after drinking alcohol and demanded money. In addition, the district administration has banned the costumed people from entering the main road and town for the past few years due to some people behaving obscenely as costumed people. Now, the costumed people will go directly to the temple area and perform the rituals. In addition, the District Superintendent of Police has advised them to behave with decency and has warned that legal action will be taken if indecent behavior is found.

At the Ayyappa temple in Devapura, the T. On the 28th at 2.30 pm, all the costumed people will come together in the presence of the gods, singing and dancing and offering their vows.

Background and special features of the festival

There are many festivals in Kodagu related to the protection of the gods' forests. This festival of Devarapura is the most important of them. The families of the tribal hill tribe community, the Taragu, play an important role in the festival system.

They perform various services including cleaning the temple with Taragu plants and making a bamboo horse. On the 27th, the Pattani festival will be held, and on the 28th, the horse-riding festival will be held.

Pattani

From the morning of the Pattani day, the villagers who are subject to the festival rules give up food and eat only fruits. They also observe the Devarakattu by not eating non-vegetarian food and not torturing animals. All the villagers gather at the Ambal (the place where the paraphernalia of the gods are kept) near the temple in the afternoon and purify the sacred objects such as the katale, the turban, the silver offerings such as the horse, the dog, the baby cradle, etc. and offer them to the Ayyappa temple. These sacred objects are used to offer offerings. A clay hunting dog is offered to the hunter's seat and the devotees go to the Bhadrakali temple with a wooden stick, worship the Bhadrakali goddess and offer the clay dog ​​that is loved by the Kurumba god. Among the young men who have offered the offerings, two young men are selected according to their preference with the translation of the god to take the horse and go to the Ayyappa temple, get fruits and eat a meal made from rice, grains and vegetables offered by the devotees in the temple.

Taking the horse

From the next morning (Thursday), the devotees in disguise go to the houses and towns of the village and receive offerings to the god. In keeping with the past culture, only the devotees who carry offerings and the bee herders living within the village dress up in costumes and praise the deities of Ayyappa, Bhadrakali and Bote Karumba and ask for offerings. At 2 pm, all the devotees in costumes come to the Ayyappa Bhadrakali and Bote Karumba temples, dance in the premises, praise the deities and offer offerings. At exactly 2 pm, two young devotees carrying offerings to remove the horse, wearing the Kodava tradition's Mandetuni, carry the bamboo horse collected by the hunters who have not been dragged, worship it in the Ambal with the blessings of the village head and elders, and arrive at the Ayyappa temple with the Bhandara box and the moga used to remove the panika.

After worshipping the head and the horse of Goddess Bhadrakali, the priest, the headmen, the elders of the village and the devotees in disguise, along with the head, go to the Bhadrakali temple in the forest of the god. After the food offering, Ayyappa comes to the temple and the devotees offer their offerings, offerings, and go to the Bhandara to Ambal and place the worship accessories there and offer the head to Goddess Bhadrakali.

This Bedu festival is mainly being conducted by the Sannuvanda family as the head. These families are supported by other families of the village such as Kallichanda, Kanajipanda, Chakkera, Ajnikanda, Kanjithada families.

This year too, like every year, more than 10 thousand people will be offered food and drink to the devotees and the disguised people.

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