Daivas: Spirits of the Land
The spirits honoured in kola and nema, and where they appear across Tulunadu life.
Bermer: The First Lord of Tulunadu
Long before the great temples, the Tuluvas honoured Bermer, a god their old songs say made the land itself. Today he rides a horse in the garadis, hides behind other names, and still waits in the corners of temples and fields.
Bhuta Kola: When the Spirits Come to the Village
Once a year, a Tulunadu village gathers through the night as a performer becomes its guardian spirit, to dance, bless, and settle the village's disputes.
Kambala: The Coast's Buffalo-Racing Festival
Pairs of buffaloes race through flooded paddy fields, in front of crowds of thousands. Kambala began as a farmers' thanksgiving, and it has become a sport, a spectacle and a long legal argument.
Panjurli, the Boar Daiva
An orphaned wild piglet, raised by Parvati, tears up Shiva's garden and is sent down to earth, where the wrecker of crops becomes their guardian.
Aati: Tulunadu's Monsoon Pause
In the heart of the monsoon, work slows, bellies run empty and people fall sick. Tulunadu answers with a bitter tree-bark drink on the new moon and a masked visitor who comes to every door.
Nagaradhane: The Serpent in the Sacred Grove
At the edge of many Tuluva family lands stands a small, dark grove where stone cobras rest under trees no one may cut. This is the nagabana, home of the family's serpent deity, and the heart of one of Tulunadu's oldest living traditions.
Rakteshwari, the Earth-Born Maiden
An ancient spirit of the fields with no birth story, who was given a sword, a shield and a fearsome new name, and who once left a neglected shrine and later asked to come home.
Koti and Chennaya, the Twin Heroes
Twin brothers born to a healer, raised in a king's palace and insulted for their caste, who stood up to a cruel minister, left their homeland, and died fighting for the king who took them in.
Kangilu: The Full-Moon Dance of the Arecanut Dancers
On the full moon of Maayi, dancers dressed in green from the arecanut palm circle through the village, seeking protection from sickness. It is a dance for a goddess, and in another telling, for Koragajja.
Koragajja, the Boy Who Was Turned Away
An orphaned Koraga boy, raised by a Billava woman and refused entry to a shrine because of his caste, who vanished at its gate and returned as one of the most called-upon daivas in Tulunadu.
Purusha Vesha: The Comic Koti-Chennaya Play
In one folk theatre, two Gowda men play Koti and Chennaya for laughs, not for worship. It is the epic's comic side, and one of the least documented parts of the tradition.
Pattanaje: The Day the Festival Season Ends
On a fixed day in late May, Tulunadu puts its festivals away. The chariots, the dances, the buffalo races and the all-night plays all stop, and the monsoon takes over.
Siri, the Princess Who Walked Away
A princess born from a blessing, betrayed by her husband and cheated of her father's land, who walked out of her world and became a goddess, and whose festivals are still carried by women.
The Siri Jatre: A Night of Possession and Healing
On full-moon nights each spring, thousands of women gather at a few old shrines to sing the Siri epic, and many of them are possessed by its characters. Scholars read the festival as a ritual of healing, and as one of the few places where women's anger can be spoken aloud.
Jumadi, Neither Man nor Woman
Shiva and Parvati fused into a single body to destroy a demon no man or woman could kill, and became Jumadi, the royal daiva who came to a sixteen-year-old's aid at a single call.
Kori Katta: Cockfighting in Tulunadu
Kori Katta, the cockfight, is still staged on the coast, though it is illegal and the police say they will not allow it. Almost all of what has been written about it is news of raids, so this page is short.
Guliga, the Hunger That Became a Guardian
Born from a stone in Shiva's ash with a hunger that tried to swallow the sun, Guliga was calmed only by Vishnu's little finger, and became the fierce guardian of Tulunadu's shrines and boundaries.
Pilichamundi, the Tiger Goddess
A tiger cub hatched from an egg promised to Shiva and Parvati kills the cows of Kailasa and is sent down to earth, where the hunter of cattle becomes their guardian.
Maisandaya, Guardian of the Herd
The bull-headed daiva of Tulunadu's farms, honoured for the beasts that pull the plough. It has no single origin story, only words of its own, a scholar's map of the wild, and an old argument about a buffalo king.
Ullaya and the Ullakulu, the King Daivas
Two royal brothers, and in some tellings their sister Ullalthi, who come to Tulunadu by a ship of maya, from Kashi, or down the Ghats from a golden palace. Every year at Mandekolu, one of them still steps in to stop a fight.
Kodamanithaya, the Daiva Who Followed His Devotees
A royal daiva who walks home behind the people who worship him: a Jain lord returning from the Ganga, a man who gave up his family name, two pilgrims leading an ox and a rooster. Wherever he arrives, he asks for a shrine.
Babbarya, the Daiva of the Sea
The son of a Beary sea-merchant and a Jain mother, born by a miracle, sails a ship cut from a thousand-year-old tree and vanishes off Kaup. He stays on as Babbarya, guardian of the fishermen, and the people of the coast still argue about who he really was.
Kalkuda and Kallurti, the Sculptor and His Sister
A master sculptor carves the great Bahubali at Karkala, and the king cuts off a hand and a leg so that he can never carve another. He carves one anyway, at Venur. His twin sister comes looking for him, and together they become two of the most feared daivas of Tulunadu.
Kallurti and Panjurli, the Sister and Brother Daivas
In most Tuluva families the boar daiva Panjurli is not worshipped alone. He is paired with Kallurti, the avenging sister of the sculptor Kalkuda, and the two are treated as the family's head and judges.
Kordabbu and Tannimaniga, the Healer and the Sister Who Saved Him
An orphan with the power to raise the dead is walled into a well by a jealous king. A passing woman lowers her sari to pull him out, and he is bound to her as a brother. He goes on to become Babbu Swami, healer and king of the daivas.
Kudupu Ananthapadmanabha: One Shrine, Two Stories
At Kudupu, near Mangaluru, a Vishnu temple with an anthill, a pond and hundreds of serpent images is told two different ways: a king who lost his hands and built a temple in one night, and a Brahmin who wanted a child.
Jarandaya, the Prince Who Could Not Swallow an Insult
The ninth son of a Jain king rides the coast settling quarrels, until a trader at Kapu makes him kneel in the road. His assistant plans a revenge that kills the trader. Both men become daivas, and the story of the feud is told in two ways.
Mayndala, the New Mother Taken into the Unseen
A lord's spirit asks for a gift of a tender coconut from every house. One man refuses, and his sister, three days after giving birth, is lured out of her room in the night. She returns as Mayndala, the goddess women now pray to for an easy childbirth.
Kantabare and Budabare, the Twin Heroes of Mulki
A girl in a sesame field, a queen without children, and a sword that struck water: from these come the twins who guarded Mulki's borders, quarrelled over a piece of land, made it up, and walked away together to a well.