Hot blood of fowls offered to anthills in Chamarajanagar

The devotees here offer fresh blood of fowls to please the snake god. It is believed that by offering sacrifice of fowls to the anthill they would be protected from ‘Nagadosha.’ This will help them not to spot snakes in their fields or suffer snake bites during the year-long agricultural activities.

The tradition is seen at Chandakavadi, Mallaianapura and surrounding villages as it is considered to be one of the important Hindu festivals.

The members of the family gather near the anthills on the outskirts of their villages from early morning. Along with the puja materials a chicken is also brought. After performing the routine puja an egg is placed on one of the openings of the anthill and the fowl is sacrificed by women and blood poured into the anthill.

These villages where the backward and dalit people reside in large numbers are following this tradition. Though the other communities also offer prayers they limit themselves to offering milk and do not indulge in sacrifice.

It is common to offer banana-sugar, milk-sugar as ‘naivedya’ and also offer silver and bronze figurines of snakes as part of the ritual.

The devotees here offer both sweets and hot blood of the fowls at the same place and the ritual is being held since generations mirroring harmony.