Kāntāra, Panjurli and Guliga
Coastal Karnataka, North of Kasaragod and some parts of Western Ghats are part of Tulu culture, though all of them may not be Tulu speaking regions. These places were tiny pearls of villages strung together in a thread of dense forests of Malenadu.
Kāntāra is Apabhramsha of Kandara (ಕಂದರ), that means valley between hilly terrains. Valleys are always mysterious and hence Kāntāra also means "mysterious forest" in local culture. Apt name for the movie.
Bhoota may belong to family (Kula Daiva), estates (Gadde / Totada Bhoota), the hills (Guddada Bhoota) or village (Grāma Daiva). Most of them are from local fables. Many are connected to major temples like Dharmasthala or Subramanya.
Panjurli is believed to be one from "Shiva Gana" of Dharmasthala. Hence he is also called "Annappa Panjurli". Guliga (Guligan in Kerala) is spirit of Yama Dharma and displeasing him is supposed to bring horrific death.
More than the Gods, Tulunadu is united by the Demigods or "Bhoota" or "Daiva". There are number of Daivas with strong and fascinating local fables associated. Most Bhoota temples are small to medium sized structures called Bhoota Sthāna or Bhoota Gudi.
Many are attached to larger temples like Dharmasthala, Subramanya, Pandavapura temple etc. Most estates and large farms have their own Bhoota Gudi or temples.
If we try to dive deep into the world of Bhoota, we may meet our ancestors.
Reverence to ancestors turning into worship is known across the human race. We can draw parallels with Māsti Kallu (ಮಾಸ್ತಿ ಕಲ್ಲು) and Veera Kallu (ವೀರ ಕಲ್ಲು) traditions from other regions of Karnataka. Dargahs and Chapels dedicated to different Saints too are similar evolutions.
Brahmeru, Kodamanitaya, Odityaya, Duggalaya, Mahisandaya, Jarandaya, Urundarayya, Kukkintaya, Jumadi, Sarala Jumadi, Pancha Jumadi, Lekkesiri, Siri, Varte, Panjurli, Kuppe Panjurli, Rakta Panjurli, Hosadēvata, Dēvanajiri, Kalkuḍa, Kallurti, Tukkateri, Guliga, Bobbariya,
…Nicha, Koragajja, Chāmundi, Rakteshwari, Baiderukulu, Ukkatiri, Shiraadi, Ullalthi, Okkuballala, Korddabbu, Ullaya and Korathi are some of the famous Bhoota from Karavali - Malenadu regions.
Jumadi is supposed to be small-pox Goddess Māri-Amma. Some of the Bhoota are aligned with different castes. Okkuballala and Dēvanajiri with Jains. Kodamanitaya and Kukkinataya with Bunts, Kalkuḍa and Kalloorti are Blacksmiths. Bobbariya is a Mogaveera.
Nicha a Koraga or from Dalit community.
Controversies regarding some Bhoota identities aren't new. Some sections have chronicled Bobbariya as a benevolent Muslim sailor and son of a Muslim father and Bunt / Jain mother. But the Mogaveera community strongly believes…
…..Bobbariya is Babruvahana, son of Arjuna. Many PāDdanas too suggest such a history. But counter stories too exist.
Leftist Historians have branded Bhoota-Ārādhane as secular and Dravidian phenomenon.
But they go silent when long standing references to Vishnu, Garuda, Varāha, Rakteshwari, Chāmundi and Babruvahana are mentioned. Shiva Gana connections, usage of Om, Swastika and such "so called Aryan" symbols too goes against the "Secular Dravidian" narratives.
There are male, female and androgynous Bhoota too. Varthe, Kalloorti, Ullalthi, Chamundi, Lekkesiri, Rakteshwari and Korathi are some of the female Bhoota. Jumadi is a Bhoota with female body and male head, including a huge handlebar mustache.
Ullalthi, Bobbariya, Kalkuḍa, Kallurti, Siri, Koti and Chennayya are ancestral spirits. They were human beings of the yore elevated as Daiva.
Deified animals like wild boar - Panjurli (the female counterpart is Varte) and the tiger - Pilichaṇḍi are there too.
Though we don't know how and when it happened, Panjurli, represented by wild boar is also connected to the Varāha Avatāra. The fables sing praise of Varāha Swamy.
Vishnu Murthy, Rakteshwari and Chāmundi are perhaps the only Daiva "names" with pure Purana background. Vishnu Murthy is worshipped as Dharma Daiva among Gowda communities of Kodagu district. There's no Tulu language but ritual influences are similar.
Most Bhoota are believed to protect the people, their properties, crops, cattle and the forests. "Bhoota Kola" is animist form of worship. It's called "Theyyam" in North Malabar and parts of Wayanad. The nearest Kannada word is Devva (ದೆವ್ವ), which originated from Daiva.
There are over 450 Theyyams in Kerala. Kuttichathan, Muthappan, Vishnu Murthy, Padamadakki Bhagavathy, Kathivanoor Veeran are some of the famous Theyyams. Chathan and Kutty Chathan are names born from the western word Satan.
India's first 3D movie "My Dear Kutty Chathan" was based on one such Theyyam.
Bhoota can be protector or destroyer depending upon how we treat them.
Kola is an expensive and expansive form of spirit worship that involves culture, art, festival, entertainment, faith and almost always acts as Courts.
People believe the word of Daiva and follow the order when the Daiva speaks. Colorfully painted Pātri is assisted by trained men and women called Gurikara, Gurikarthi and Mukkaldi.
These rituals are watched by hundreds if not thousands as the Pātri works himself into a frenzy with the help of drums, Nādaswara and other musical instruments with artificial lights (Petromax in the olden days, LED tubelights in current era).
These people who get "Āvesha" of Bhoota during "Kola" are from Dalit communities like Nalike and Parava. They get to know the history of places and people by observing everything. Unlike other Dalit communities, these people had better access to the caste communities.
While caste differences are progressively getting blurred, the reverence for Bhoota worship has sustained to a large extent in the Tulunadu regions.
Scientifically, there cannot be a satisfactory explanation to this phenomenon. But quite a lot of problems have been solved and even cases have been settled out of court by "Daiva Vachana" during Kola.
One possibility is the "Pātri" allowing his subconscious mind to take over with the help of music, drums, dance and songs in praise. They are called PāD-dana (ಪಾಡ್ದನ) and are elaborate rhyming songs in Tulu language transferred orally from generation to generation.
When the subconscious mind takes over with the Pātri detached from his present, he is likely to search the past for answers to the questions posed before him. The Bhoota speaks mostly in gestures (ಸಂಜ್ಞೆ) and cryptic words.
The assistants (Mukkaldi) decode the words and explain in detail to devotees.
Believing or not doesn't matter when it comes to Kola. They are thrilling experiences. Yakshagana (ಯಕ್ಷಗಾನ) of Kanara and Kathakkali of Kerala have evolved from Kola.
They took the animist worship out and turned them into Nātaka form of story telling. Dr. Kota Shivarama Karantha did a lot of research on all these and wrote a lot too.
Rishab Shetty has worked really hard to make Kāntāra a reality. His presentation of both Panjurli and Guliga during climax are as authentic as possible. The last 20 minutes of Kāntāra are elevated by the sheer genius of the actor.
I've written this for people who might like to know more about Bhoota, Kola and Kāntāra. I've borrowed from my own memories of our family Kola, from some precious blogs and from articles on social media.
There could be errors in this article because it is difficult to find 100% authority on these matters. Hopefully, this will be of some use to people when they watch Kāntāra.
Thread written by @Govind Raj Sir
Missing some tweets in this thread? Or failed to load images or videos? You can try to .