The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal recently held a press conference announcing that they would not allow Mahisha Dasara — the worship of Mahishasura — to be held in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. Isn’t this an attack on the culture of coastal Karnataka and forms of Hindu worship? The worship of Mahisha existed in coastal Karnataka — Karavali — in ancient times and continues to exist even today, and several historians have documented this. Ironically, the self-styled protectors of the Hindu religion do not know that both coastal Karnataka’s bhootaradhane and the system of aliya santana kattu have their roots in the worship of Mahishasura.
Aliya-santana (nephew as heir) or aliya-kattu refers to a particular kind of matriliny mainly followed by non-Brahmin communities in coastal Karnataka. Mahisha is one of the original daivas of coastal Karnataka and is worshipped in many homes and villages through daily and annual rituals. Bhootaradhane or daivaradhane, is a form of spirit worship unique to coastal Karnataka. There are numerous daivas or bhootas (spirits), each with stories and rituals of their own.
Different stories have different names for Mahishasura: Kundodara, Mahisandhaya/Maisandhaya and Nandikona. These stories and popular public beliefs are all associated with Mahishasura, who once ruled Mysuru and has many links with coastal Karnataka’s bhootaradhane.
Coastal Karnataka’s aliya santana kattu owes its very origins to Kundodara/Mashishasura daiva. Historian Ganapathi Rao Aigal has traced the origins of this system in his book Dakshina Kannada Jilleya Pracheena Itihaasa, which was published in 1923. “When the last king of the ruling dynasty of Barkur, the wealthy Devapandya was without an heir, the public decided to grant power to his nephew Jaya. Once he was throned, he was given the title ‘Bhootalapandya’. Because the Tulu people were worshippers of spirits who believed that all that they did was due to the benevolence of Kundodara, they gave him (Jaya) that name (Bhootalapandya),” Aigal says on page 44 of the book. Kundodara is another name of Mahishasura.
Since ancient times, coastal Karnataka and Mysuru have had a mutual cultural relationship, historian Gururaj Bhat notes on page 179 in the chapter on Jains in his book Tulunadu (1963).
If Mysuru has a story about Chamundi having killed Mahishasura, Karavali has a story about Durgaparameshwari resting on the waist of the Nandi river (also known as Nandini river) at Kateel (20 km from Mangaluru) after killing Mahishasura. But before Chamundi or Durgaparameshwari kills Mahishasura, she kills Chandamunda. Chandamunda is not a rakshasa but the well-known Karnata Rakkasa (people of Karunadu). The killing of Chandamunda is thus a tale of the wiping out of the Munda people, who were the original inhabitants of the land. In his book Edegalu Heluva Konaada Kathe published in 1947, Sham Ba Joshi references the Karnata Rakkasa chapter of the Skanda Purana. On page 111, in the chapter on Konada’s peoples, he says: “The Chandamunda that Durga killed was not a rakshasa but the people named Chanda, the people named Munda…” Karunadu and Konaadu are both names for Karnataka.
It is common for those killed or disappeared by Karavali’s daivas or gods to become daivas. Because Mahishasura/ Mahisandaya/Kundodara/Nandikona was killed by Durga, he may have become a daiva. It is also important to note that the worship of the Maisandaya daiva is most common in villages and the guthu mane in villages along the banks of the Nandini/Nandi river. Guthu mane refers to the houses of certain families who organise the kola, or annual worship of daivas/bhootas.
While the stories about Mahishasura and Maisandaya diverge on many points, the stories converge about the system of aliya kattu and bhootaradhane. For instance, the female daiva Siri — one of the many bhootas of the bhootaradhane patheon — upholds the aliya kattu system, and so do Maisandaya and Mahishasura. The differences in the stories are probably due to the nature of folk stories and paad-danas (folk songs), which lend themselves to different tellings in different villages.
Other than Mysuru, Mahishasura is also connected with Udupi’s Sri Krishna Mutt, the bastion of Madhwacharya’s dwaita philosophy. Kundodara / Mahishasura daiva is also often called Bhootaraja. Dr Ma Sa Achut Sharma mentions in his 1969 book Udupi Kshetrada Naija Chitra Matthu Charithika Hinnele that Bhootaraja — Mashishasura — is worshipped in Udupi’s Sri Krishna Mutt.
The observations in the book Bhootala Pandyana Aliya Santana Kattukattale, published in 1857 by the German Mission Press, underscore the importance of and connections between Mahishasura and aliya kattu. It says, “An appropriate idol is established for Mahishasura, who is a mahipala (lord of the land). When rice, flowers, puffed rice, fruits, coconut, banana, coconut blossoms, incense, lamps and chicken sacrifice are offered to him, his spirit enters a human and (warns) the people and kings to follow the aliya kattu system, failing which the family would be heirless; Mahishasura is also a kshetrapala (guard) of the Ananteshwara temple…” The Anantheshwara temple is located on the premises of the Krishna Mutt.
There is a belief in coastal Karnataka that the families of those who do not believe in the strictures laid down by Kundodara/Mahishasura daiva will be destroyed. Due to this belief, the region’s matrilineal culture is still widely practised.
If one examines Karavali’s aliya kattu as a system, it becomes clear that several elements are connected with stories from Mysuru, according to Dr Padooru Gururaj Bhat’s book Tulunadu. The most prominent of these is that Mahishasura was the patron deity of the aliya kattu system, he says in the book.
While the advocates of Hindutva promote cow worship and cow protection, coastal Karnataka simply does not have a tradition or practice of worshipping cows. It is the worship of the buffalo that is part of Tulunadu’s bhootaradhane. When we talk about Mahisha’s people, we refer to the Turuva community, which worships snakes. The word ‘turuvaru’ means people who rear cattle and are farmers. The term ‘turuver’ (in Tulu) eventually turned into Tuluvaru (meaning Tulu people).
Mahishasura does not mean buffalo, nor does it refer to a person with the head of a buffalo. Mahishasura is the representative of the people who farm with buffaloes. Even today, the rearing of buffaloes is a matter of social prestige in the region. Because the buffalo is a symbol of prestige in both Mysuru (the land of buffalo-rearers) and Karavali (the land of the Turuvas) it is possible that the lord of their land (mahipalaka) was given the name Mahishasura. Mahishasura is worshipped even today because people believe that he protected their ancestors in the past, and today, he is protecting them in the form of a daiva.
The self-styled protectors of the Hindu religion are threatening to prevent the worship of Mahishasura in Karavali. Isn’t this an attack by Hindutva’s proponents on the Hindus of Karavali who follow daivaradhane?
Naveen Soorinje is a senior Kannada journalist and co-founder of the Journalists’ Study Centre. This piece was translated by Anisha Sheth. Views expressed here are the author’s own.