The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Kadlekayi Parishe at Basavanagudi today

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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Kadlekayi Parishe at Basavanagudi today

Staff Reporter

The festival is a much-awaited event in the old areas
It coincides with the last Somavara of the Kartika masa

BANGALORE: An aspect of culture that takes the quintessential Bangalorean on a nostalgic trip is back. The footpaths and bylanes near the busy Bull Temple Road are covered with mounds of freshly harvested groundnuts for the two-day Kadlekayi Parishe, which commences on Monday.

The festival is a much-awaited event for many in the old areas of Bangalore. One of the few remnants of the city’s intangible heritage, the Kadlekayi Parishe attracts the young and the old alike, and is associated with childhood aromas and expeditions. Even though the parishe commences on December 3 to coincide with the last Monday of the Kartika masa, Bull Temple Road was overrun with visitors and shoppers on Sunday itself.

Many turned up hoping to beat the rush before the commencement of the fair. Dhanalakshmi, a regular, said: “Kadlekayi Parishe symbolises the beginning of the preparation for Pongal. Whatever is required for Pongal is available here. The parishe resembles a village fair that we miss in Bangalore now.”

She is spot on. Fresh groundnuts are being sold at Rs. 15 a litre, three rupees more than last year.

Up for grabs are not just groundnuts. On either side of the Bull Temple Road, several stalls selling colourful glass bangles, kitchen utensils and traditional toys have come up. And what is a fair if there are no snacks? Bajjis, bondas, sugar candies locally called bathaas, and bendu or kalyana seve, the sugar-coated gram.

For Mani, the footpath opposite the Dodda Ganapathi Temple on the Bull Temple Road has remained his favourite spot to sell farm fresh groundnuts during Kadlekayi Parishe. As a young boy, he would travel to Bangalore from his village on the Tamil Nadu border to assist his grandfather, and later his father, to sell the nuts during the fair. The family tradition has continued even after several decades, and Mani, now around 60 years old, brings his children who assist him in selling the groundnuts.

“I come to Bangalore to sell groundnuts only during the fair. There is a big demand for groundnuts grown in Dharampuri, Salem and Krishnagiri area of Tamil Nadu and the fair is the best place to sell them,” Mani told The Hindu.

The belief

The legend behind the fair is well known. Still it bears repeating. On every Full Moon day a bull would charge into the groundnut fields in Guttahalli, Mavalli, Dasarahalli and other places located in the vicinity of Basavanagudi, bringing grief to the farmers. To prevent the animal from attacking their fields, farmers offered prayers to the bull (Basava or Nandi) and pledged to offer their first crop to it.

After Kempe Gowda dedicated a temple to Dodda Basava or Big Bull on the top of the hillock in Basavanagudi, the farmers in the surrounding villages started coming here to offer the annual harvest of groundnut to Basava and thus was born Kadlekayi Parishe, which literally means groundnut fair.

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