Puttari, the harvest festival in Coorg will be celebrated on December 3rd 2017. Nere Kettuvo at 7.30 PM, Kadh Edpo at 8.30 PM and Dinner at 9.30 Pm ( all times in IST)
Puttari is derived from pudiya = new and ari = rice. This festival is one of the three main festivals for Kodavas and celebrates the harvest of new paddy/rice and takes places in late November or early December, approximately three months after the Onam festival in the Malabar region. It is celebrated over a number of days starting with eed, the rehearsal for the kol dances and ending with Puttari Poudh, the actual day of the festival and the kol dances the following few days.
Eed (pronounced with less emphasis on “E”) means something that goes in advance and is a rehearsal for the Puttari dance and story-telling that takes place during the week before Puttari Poudh. It usually commences at about 8:00 PM each day and goes on till about midnight. At the scheduled time, at least one member of each okka in the village goes to the takka’s (deva takka is the hereditary office given to the okka responsible for maintenance of the temple and organization of festivals) house where they are all treated to a meal. Then they all proceed to the mandh (an open ground in the village) with four of the villagers beating the dudi (small drum) and singing the batte paat. The rehearsal for the dance is preceded by games and story-telling.
The takka or in his absence, a representative from his okka, can summon anyone from the village to play the dudi and sing along with it. The person asked so is obliged to do so but no one has the right to ask the takka or his representative to sing. The takka’s authority in such matters is not confined to festivals only. He also exercises this authority during weddings and maada (11th day ceremony following a death) and other ceremonies in the village. When the villagers go singing to the mandh, they are preceded by the medas and poleyas (original inhabitants of Kodagu who have co-existed with the Kodavas) who beat drums and play music.
After singing the song all the villagers call out to the gods and in some villages the story-tellers play a game called chend kutthi (ball and peg) before narrating the stories. In some other parts of Kodagu they (stories) but do not play the games. There is no uniformity either in the nades that are narrated or in the way they are narrated.