Kodavas celebrate 'Kail Pold' with traditional gaiety

The Kodavas celebrated the annual ‘Kail Muhurta’ (also called Kail Pold) with traditional fervour and gaiety in the district on Saturday. The festival also signals the end of an agricultural season.

People cleaned up agricultural implements such as yoke, ploughs, burnished firearms and worshipped them on the occasion, with elders setting the tone by lighting the lamp at the  ‘Ain Mane’ or ancestral house.

The festival was observed at the house of Kodava Sahitya Academy former president Bacharaniyanda P Appanna in Kushalnagar and Ain Mane of Putharira family at Chettalli on Saturday.

As part of the festival, Appanna had neatly arranged the agricultural implements, firearms used in the past and other antique household utensils in front of the house. The weapons of yesteryears like ‘Odikathi,’ ‘Peechekathi,’ ‘Pilkathi,’ ‘Koyakathi,’ ‘Balkathi,’ ‘Maradudi,’ ‘Cheppu,’ ‘Noputtora,’ ‘Kanjikala,’ ‘Chekala,’ ‘Bellakomme,’ ‘Mumbatta,’ ‘Latin,’ ‘Karikuttu,’ ‘Kaikane,’ ‘Taave,’ ‘Gujai,’ ‘Poliya,’ ‘Koopar,’ ‘Nengi,’ ‘Karagante,’ and lamps were put on display.

Pork and ‘Taliyaputt’ (a pudding made of rice dough) apart from ‘Kadumbutt’ (rice dumplings) are the dishes prepared specially during the festival.  Apart from this,  they savoured ‘Paniputt,’ chicken curry, idli among other dishes. 

In a contest held on shooting the coconut placed atop a tree at Kushalnagar, Dr Vikram Appanna and Dr Shanila Vikram emerged victorious. Speaking on the occasion, Bacharaniyanda P Appanna said that modernisation is affecting the tradition of the land. There is a need to preserve the tradition and culture of the land and pass it on to the future generation.