An annual festival of Bangalore where mounds and mounds of groundnuts take centre stage at a two day fair celebrated at the historical Bull Temple in Basavanagudi. This year its held on 21st and 22nd of November 2011.
The Bull Temple houses the Nandi bull revered as the vehicle of Shiva. Legend has it that this temple was built to appease a bull called Basava that would raid the fields and destroy the crops just before the harvest in and around Basavanagudi, which was then known as Sankenahalli, a village predominantly surrounded by groundnut fields, thus causing a lot of apathy to the farmers.
Once this temple was built, it is said that the bull stopped damaging the crop and the grateful farmers gathered to offer prayers for the protection of their crops and pledged to make a symbolic offering of groundnuts to the idol. The tradition continues even to this day and the Kadalekai Parishe is held on the last Monday of the Kartika Masa. Groundnut farmers across Karnataka and the neighboring states come here and offer their crop of groundnuts to the idol of the bull (Nandi). On the first day of the festival, the Maharudrabhisheka is held at 6.30 a.m. at the Basavanagudi temple followed by a Mahamangalarathi at 9.30 a.m. and a Deeparadhana at 6.30 p.m.
During the fair that is held for two days the entire temple complex and the surrounding areas are decorated and have a festive atmosphere . One can witness the hustle and bustle of people throughout the day enjoying and witnessing the fanfare with balloons, merry go rounds, sweet stalls and heaps and heaps of groundnuts spread across the street. The festival also provides the rural folk a platform to showcase their talent at makeshift stalls. The groundnut sellers mainly come here to make money. All kinds of groundnuts are sold here; usually the purchases are made in bulk. But every devotee who comes to the temple makes it a point to buy groundnuts on their way back home. This is truly a festival for the farmer where he can directly come and sell his produce to the people and make money.
Even if you do not want to buy groundnuts, one has to feel and see the place during the festival which is filled with people from all walks of life.
This blog entry is contributed by Bengaluru Parishe – Bangalore’s first online magazine you can check the online magazine at www.bengaluruparishe.com
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