Madikeri/Mysuru: Puthari, the harvest festival of Kodagu, was celebrated by Kodava and Kodagu Gowda communities in a grand manner yesterday in most parts of Kodagu and in Mysuru. Puthari, which translates to new rice, is a festival of harvest and getting the harvested paddy crop home, highlighting the relationship and close bond between mother earth and man. 

Puthari is celebrated in the Kodava month of Birchiyar that falls in November and December — on the full moon day of Rohini Nakshatra. This year Puthari fell on Nov. 30. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic, however could not dampen the spirits of community members and of course, they were taking all precautions to prevent the contagion from spreading. 

The festival marks bringing home the new paddy crop from the fields, a symbolic of welcome to Goddess Lakshmi. As part of the festival, community members, including men, women and children, visited paddy fields in a procession in their traditional attire and harvested the crop — called Kadh Edpo — after offering prayers. 

Before harvesting, they chanted slogans ‘Poli Poli Deva’ (God bless us with more prosperity) fired three times in the air and burst crackers. They then carried the paddy sheaves into their homes and ancestral homes and prayed for the welfare  of the family. 

Though it is a simple harvest festival of bringing the new rice to homes, the festival is steeped with traditions that are strictly followed. At the paddy fields, men were dressed in traditional Kupya Chele, Mande-Thuni and Peeche Kathi and women wore Kodava saree and held Taliyathkki bolcha (a bronze tray with rice, betel leaves, arecanut and a lamp) under the light of the full moon. 

Usually the eldest man of the family called the Pattedara cuts an odd number of paddy sheaves and later large chunks of paddy sheaves are harvested, signalling the harvest season. Firecrackers are burst to add to merriment. Primarily, it is a festival confined to Kodagu. Now it is being celebrated in cities too where there is a considerable population of Kodavas and Kodagu Gowda community members.

In Kodagu, Puthari celebrations first began at Padi

Igguthappa Temple in Kakkabbe and subsequently, all villages and towns celebrated the festival. In Mysuru, the celebrations were organised by Mysuru Kodava Samaja at Sree Cauvery Educational Institutions premises in Kuvempunagar while members of Kodagu Gowda community celebrated the fest at their Samaja premises in Vijayanagar.

As part of the tradition, after the paddy sheaves are brought home, a unique pudding Thambittu is made of ripe banana, coconut, jaggery, sesame, cardamom, ghee and roasted boiled rice flour. It is placed on the peepal leaf and served among the community and family members in front of the Nellakki, the place of worship in homes. Also, boiled kalinji, a type of tuber, is served. Some grains of newly harvested paddy are used to prepare the dishes. 

In Mysuru Samaja, however, the Thambittu was not served due to the COVID contagion. Even the Kodava traditional dances were limited to a few performances.