Festival of Aadiperukku

Another important festival for the people living on the banks of the River Cauvery is Aadipperukku which is celebrated every year on the 18th of the Tamil month of Aadi. At this time the river would be overflowing with new flood after the summer months. From time immemorial, this festival has been celebrated to welcome the life-giving water from the distant hills of Coorg where the river is born.

In the days before dams and disputes, the natural course for the river was to flow anew during this period as the monsoons set in in the month of June at the West coast and Western Ghats. After the hot summer the monsoon rains start in June bringing the parched lands on the banks of the river, manna in the form of new flood. Farming would start and the fields would be green with newly transplanted paddy.

This festival is celebrated all along the towns and villages on the banks of almost all the rivers in TamilNadu as the monsoon rains in the Western Ghats bring new flood in the rivers of the state. Of course, nowadays, the man made dams and reservoirs stop this natural flow of the river and has made this festival meaningless:-( But I recollect, that in my childhood days we could be sure of new flood during this period. Maybe then nature was more bountifull.

Much like the festival of Kaanum Pongal, we would prepare a picnic lunch and set off for the banks of the river. Small children would be pulling 'chapparams' (a small pull-cart with an imitation of a temple-like structure which can be pulled with a string by small kids) adorned with colourful streamers. Women would offer the River Cauvery which is personified as a woman, flowers, bangles and earrings made of palm leaves ( the most common earrings for women in days of yore). Rice and jaggery would also be part of the things offered. The women would treat this festival as yet another occasion for a get-together among the ladies. Besides offering puja to the river, they would offer puja for all the various deities in the small temples on the banks of the river.

Usually there would be big neem trees and peepul trees entwined with each other on the banks of the river as it is everywhere-trees that grow from the seeds sown by birds eating the small berrylike seeds of these trees-and so having acquired a holy status would be having various statues of snakes (worshipped as deities-Nagas) and the Seven Virgin Goddesses (Saptha Kanni) placed under them hundreds of years back. For good measure the women would offer pujas to them also. After the puja they would tie yellow threads dipped in turmeric and kept in the puja offerings, as a mark of their prayers. Men would tie these threads around their wrists.

Newly wed couples would be offering puja to the river for the first time. The bride would be staying in her parents' place during the month of Aadi and the groom would have been invited to her place for the festival and would be showered with feasts and gifts. The womenfolk of the house would change the 'thaali' made of yellow thread around the neck of the bride (which has been tied as the 'Mangalasutra' by the groom on the wedding day) to a gold chain on this day, as it is considered an auspicious day.

Various vendors and merchants would camp on the banks to sell their wares. Of course all the usual sticky boiled sweets and pink cotton candies would be the attraction for us kids! Boys and young men would show their prowess in swimming by climbing to the tallest branches of the trees on the banks of the river and diving from there. I recollect how boys jumped from the bridge on the River Cauvery in Trichy. It was a thrilling sight to see them diving even from the train just as it was crossing the railway bridge. Of course many stories of death by drowning in the floods would also be heard when these thrill-seeking youngsters meet with unfortunate accidents.

The thing I recollect most about this festival is the sight of my maternal grandfather building us a 'Chapparam' . Though they were sold commercially he prided himself in recycling the old ones made of wood with colourful papers and streamers!

Tips: For puja we use:

For Kaveri Thai Puja on the banks of the river:
Small black bangles used for newborn babies
earings made of palm leaves ('kaadholai)

For house puja:

Soaked and drained raw rice, mixed in melted jaggery (kaapparisi)

Banana
coconut
Betal Leaves
Betal Nuts
Flowers
Turmeric

All puja offerings should be placed on Banana Leaf or Silver Plate for offering.

Then do the usual puja ceremony with incence sticks and camphor lit and water sprinkled clockwise over the offerings.







Banana