Hethey Festival (Grand ma Festival)-Badaga festival to commemorate thier grand ma

Here I am giving the first chapter of the book (and which has not gone for a proof reading,printed material will be proof readed and error free), that I have written about the "Hethey festival", it is a Badaga village festival to commemorate thier grand mother. You can contact me to get this printed book.This contains many interesting stories and it will give an insight about the Badaga History.
15.02.2009
It was 10.30 am when we got up from bed and had bath, I felt pain on my feet and thighs eventhough we left to Kothagiri on bike at 11.20 am. It was my first long journey on bike and I enjoyed a lot each and every seconds t the hills, we got spectacles to cover our eyes from dust and other disturbances. We had lunch from Annapoorna Hotel, Mettupalayam because it would be not a right time to have lunch when we reach santhanam’s house. It was verymuch adorable and enjoyable a trip to Kothagiri on bike when It was with santhanam. I feared when he turns every hair pin bends so he shouted on me many times for my silly nervousness. We exchanged a lot of jokes during the journey and he discussed the history and background of his people. I felt coldness and the road was covered with mist as we are climbing the Nilgiris hills. I also exchanged my views on the name of Kothagiri. The name “Kothagiri” may be originated from the tribes “Kotha”, giri means “hills” in Dravidian Language. So the “Kothagiri” is the hills of Kothas. When I told him the meaning of the Kothagiri, he explained me that there are four group of tribes are inhabiting the Kothagiri, they are Kothas, Thodas, Irular and Badagas. They have their own languages to communicate each other and they also sharing their means with among other tribes also. I read in many books that Badagas came from “Badag”(North) side of Tamilnadu, mysore. It is the common view among the people and this view is came from the British historians.
He stopped the bike in view point where we will get a bird eye view of Mettupalayam and the planes. We had started to chew the sugar cane that we had bought from Mettupalayam and saw many people have occupied the view point and having lunch. I saw many monkeys they are fighting for the food left by the people. We also played for a while with the monkeys. I never have seen such a beautiful place before, the view of the hills and the hutties. Santhanam desciribed me the difference between the Badaga Hutties and tamil homes. Badagas live together but tamilians keep their home separately and not together. I took my spectacles out many times to get a real view of the green hills covered with mist. It was getting colder and colder as we are heading to the hills.
It was passed 3 O’Clock when we reached his village “Hutty” kagguchi, I was surprised when I saw the style of the Badaga people , their hospitality, it was like a housing colony. Every one greeted us with “Ullanga Ihtiya (Are you fine?)” , a smile on their face and calling us to have a tea while we were passing through every house. His mother and other relatives in his house welcomed us and greeted us as others done , within seconds we got tea and I took rest on the room allocated for me and santhanam. I felt as entered to my home because of their hospitality. Santhanam took me to have a view of the temple where the festival is going to conduct the next day morning. We left our chappals in his home as he directed me to leave because it is not good to wear chappals when we go to temple. It is a custom that people go bare footed to temple, it is an expression of humbleness. He introduced me to many of his villagers that I am going to write a book on their festival. Many of his friends are there to decorate the temple and they are constructing a homagundham(firing place to perform pooja). Then he took me to his relative’s house, durai mama who is the principal and managing director of “Gireeswara matriculation school”. He has come from another village (degily hutty) and settled here in this hutty and it is their duty to invite relatives to the function. Santhanam and me went to invite him. We got a warm welcome to his home even after nine o’clock and it was very cold, so they offered a hot coffee at the instant. When I told him about my aim of visit to this village, he shared many of his ideas and the stories he heard about the origin of the badaga. But it was not new that the badaga came from mysore during Tippu sulthan regime. When I asked him about the Big tree and about the two erected large stones with a flat stone over them infront of the veerabhadra temple, he replied with a smile that it may be the place where the body of two commanders of veerabhadra ayya buried and the stones are to commemorate them. I found another stone erected very near to the very old tree but other two erected stones with a large single flat stone over them are few yards away from the single erected stone and the tree. I assume that the single erected stone near the tree may be the place where the veerabhadra ayya (it is not veerabhadra of Lord Siva, people may have given the name of veerabhadra to their king because Dravidian considers their leaders as their Lord or God) buried. He shared another incident happened recently that shows the religious concept of the people and it shows the reasons behind the temples in the villages. Once a lady noticed a snake moving around an erected stone when she had gone inside the forests to defecate, because, many of the villagers not have personal toilet. She noticed the snake many days in the same place and started to keep placing milk for the snake. Other ladies also joined with her to put milk for the snake they believed that the stone as Lord Shiva and the snake drinks the milk. People continued to visit the place with milk and spread a story that the snake appear only in front of the good people and eventually people started to put flowers and bathing the stone with milk, then they constructed a temple there with this stone and another Lord Shivas idol.
Santhanm’s grand father,Konga Gowder was a Gowder (leader of that hutty) and the Kagguchi hutty would not have got a government school without his leadership later it became government high school. He struggled a lot and traveled a lot to Chennai to get approval of a government school in their village. Gowder is the position given by the villagers, it is like village leader or king, in tamil this position resembles with the Naattamai. Who takes care of the village and the village people, village courts are also there under his leadership where he takes the jurisdiction. They wear a white turban and a white shall with red line at the ends over the shoulders. The origin of the name “Gowder” may be from Karnataka, it was the position given by Mysore ruler to collect tax from the villagers and it continued even after the generation also. My intuition says that the origin Gowder can reveal something about the badaga origin and I believe that they are not externals but they are the people of the Nilgiris not the mysorian.
I observed every minute thing happening every nook and corner because I was there not to enjoy the festival but to write an account of it. When I saw man boiling and stirring some soils in mud pot, I asked him about what it was, I came to know that he was a poojari and he told me that, he was preparing ashta bandhanam , it is a mixture of six kind of soils collected from six places and it boiling with ghee collected from cow, this mixture is to fix the idol or the shila of that temple. It is temple of veerabhadhra, the son of Lord Shiva. When I asked about the pradhishata of that temple he told me that it it is temple of “Hiryodayya”, who is the bhagavan of them. When I asked again to make a clarification about the veerabhadra, because the shilpam “idol” was of veerabhadra. He replied that veerabhadran and hiryodayyan are same. I confused again, that veerabhadran is the son of Lord Shiva, Lord Shiva is the God of Aryans, but the son of the hills are Dravidians and they would have their own village God, but they are telling me that the Hiryodayyan, that their ayyan (Grand father) was veerabhadran. I asked the same question to many of the old persons present there at that night, but they also confused me that, this festival is of their “Hethey”(Grand mother) and their Ayya was veerabhadra...........


read further on the printed book....which is going to publish very shortly....contact me to get one....