In search of the golden flute

I am always in a fix when I visit Kodagu. The Hamletian dilemma presents itself when I see the beautiful landscape spread out in front of me. While my mind wishes to linger on in the luxurious green around me, my feet get all itchy and demand that I explore.

So when I re-visited the coffee country last time, I was in two minds as always. Watching the mist play with the mountains and sipping a cuppa, I wondered if I should step out of the confines of the comfortable home stay or be content by just gazing at the disappearing mist. My reverie was however interrupted by Kishore, my ever-friendly host who offered his services as a guide. Kishore spoke in a very animated tone, about Kodava lifestyle and culture, throwing in a tale here and there. But the stories he narrated sent me on a mystical quest.

I passed by a green montage of forests, plantations and fields, looking for a golden flute of Lord Krishna housed in a small temple tucked away in the hills. “Chinna means gold and only once a year, the temple is opened and the flute is shown to the public,” he said referring to the Chinnathappa temple. I travelled with neither a map nor a route in hand. All I knew was the name of the temple and Kishore’s story. There was not a soul as we drove along and we did not know if we were on the right path. We followed Kishore’s advice looking for arches which had the names of the temples written in Kannada.

Finally, we found an arch and a small adda which was supposedly a bus-stand. We saw a few old men staring at us as we went up. We were the tourist attractions for the day, a couple of girls in a car driving up a hillock looking for a temple which has a golden flute. The route however took us nowhere.

We almost reached a dead-end and there was a small Bhagavathi temple which was closed. We got off and walked a bit and heard a snort. A little perturbed, I saw a small house where some pigs were blissfully playing. A man emerged and told us the temple was further away and one had to climb the hillock as the car cannot get there..

A woman was climbing downhill swaying her hips as we asked her the way. We even offered a drive up hill to anyone who would accompany us. That was when we met retired army man Naniah, one of the fittest men who effectively hid his 80 years and spoke to me about Chinnathappa and the tribes who were his neighbours.

We finally reached the temple. It was a small shelter which would have passed for another humble dwelling inside the forest. The locals were surprised to find tourists at their abode, but refused to show us the golden flute. But to me, it was such a golden opportunity to be there, lost in the green fields and wild flowers that bordered them.

The temple of Igguthappa

I returned to the base when Kishore insisted on driving me down on yet another spiritual route. He went on to narrate the story of four brothers and sisters who had split after a quarrel. One of them was Igguthappa and his sister was Panagalammai.

“Some call him a God, some say he is a saint, but even though he is a Hindu God, we Kodavas worship him,” says Keshav, referring to Igguthappa. We walked towards a small hillock near Kakkabe, where his temple was located. Kishore introduced me to Kush Bhat, the priest who called us over to his house for a coffee. I met his twin Luv and they explained that Igguthappa means giver of food and that the deity is a form of Subrahmanya.  “In the days of the Puranas, Shiva and Subrahmanya came here and loved the hills so much that they decided to settle down here. Igguthappa told the people of Kodagu that you will never go hungry as long as I am here and if you accept me as your God,” explained Kush Bhatt. “No one comes to the Igguthappa temple and goes away without eating lunch,” he added. The temple is known to feed anyone who comes here and almost every festival of the Kodavas starts with the invocation of Igguthappa.

Kishore added to the legends as we sip hot coffee. “Igguthappa, along with his other three brothers split with his sister, Panagalammai after a quarrel. While she pleaded with them, he assured her that he will be around close by although she cannot see or meet him. He then found her a home inside a forest to stay by shooting an arrow into the hills. Even today, you can find the arrow’s mark near her temple.”

Kishore continued in dramatic fashion, “Every April, when Panagalammai goes to the river Kakkabe for her ritualistic bath, you will find the hills of Igguthappa covered in mist. The locals believe that this is Igguthappa’s way of ensuring his sister doesn’t see him.” Kishore narrated that during the festival, an umbrella comes from Igguthuppa’s temple to take the sister to the river. “I’ve seen the umbrella being carried away by such force that we believe it is possessed. As the deity is placed and taken to the river, the possessed umbrella moves away in such great speed, despite our attempts to catch it. There is then a lot of tribal festivities, but throughout the day, the mist never wears away,” added Kishore driving us down to Panagalammai temple.

Mystic moments

A small house had the deity, surrounded by dense greenery, right in the middle of the forest. It looked like a small cabin lost somewhere in the hills. Silence greeted us as the temple was closed. The crickets were loud and the rustle of the leaves was like the hiss of a snake. I stood there, lost for a long time, wondering if this was indeed the Kodagu painted in the tourist guides. Kishore’s narration still rung in my ears as I took in the entire forests around me. For a moment I realised that it was just us and the deity in the jungles. It was not just magical, but a mystical moment as well.