Tulunada DEVI SIRI

                                            

India has a heritage of unique diversity. It Prevails different kinds of worships from its ancestors. While speaking about worship, we are attracted towards south India. Here people have different methods as well as gods to worship. Among the coast of Arabian Sea we find KARAAVALI region. This place is dwelled by the people who speaks language named as TULU. This place also has a name named as TULUVANADU.

According to people of this region TULUNAADU was created by one of the incarnation of lord SHRI RAAMA. His incarnation named as PARASHURAMA created this TULUNAADU. The story goes like this. When PARASHURAMA, the god with divine axe went in search of a deep calm place for his meditation he could not find any. So he decided to create a land by pushing the sea(this kind of method was implied in NETHERLAND by pushing sea in order to increase the surface area of the land). So he threw his divine axe into the sea. As a result the sea moved from that place and land was created. People also say that the land created by PARASHURAMA’s axe can never experience any kind of natural disasters. And this belief is still not been altered.

Here people rather than praying to gods they worship the holy spirits the most. According to some thinkers the arrival of spirits took place during the PARASHURAMA’s incident. Since the sea moved away, The creatures and spirits who were living under the sea chose the left land as their home. Well this cannot be proven I guess.

So as we come across the worship of the holy spirits, there are different kinds of spirits which are being worshipped in temples named as DAIVASTHANA.

Among these spirits I am going to write about a spirit whose worshipping in this modern time is very interesting. And instead of calling them as spirits I would like two refer them as god itself.

So the name of this god is “DEVI SIRI”. This god is obviously a woman. She was not born as humans. she took her birth in an holistic method.

Long ago in earlier ages there was a province in this TULUNADU named as “SATYANANDA PURA”. This province was famous for its rich culture, heritage and wealth. But the unfortunate thing is that the king of this province named as BIRMUBALLALA had no children. He had performed all kinds of rituals to have a child. But all was in vain. He failed.

 He was disappointed very much with this. He never used to meet anyone outside his palace. He always remained Inside his palace. He had ordered his maid that not to open the front door of the palace so that no one could meet him. But the rear door was to be kept open. His maid named DARU followed his order well. The king had slept inside the palace for many days.

As time passed once a Brahmin comes to this palace. As a matter of fact god himself had come in disguise of Brahmin. The Brahmin comes to the place and asks for alms. So the maid attends him. But the Brahmin denies the alms from her hands and asks the maid to call the king out. She refuses. But with no other options she calls  him. The king was in a deep sleep from many days. They say that when the king woke his stomach had decomposed with the mud of the floor and his hands had become as numb as the branch of banana plant. The king comes out of the palace to see the Brahmin. The Brahmin comes to know the grief of the king. So the Brahmin consolidates the king and gives him a suggestion. He advices him to worship lord NAGABRAHMA(nagabemme). And he also says that the king must place a “PINGAARA”(pingaara is a part of areca nut tree which bears the preliminary stage of the arecanut) and a lump of “SANDAL PASTE” in “KALLA KALEMBI”(Kalla kalembi  is a wooden vessel used by olden people to store grains). So the king does as the Brahmin says. After doing this the king takes a look at the same vessel after a day. To his surprise he finds a girl child in that vessel. The child was radiating with divine glitters indicating its divine powers. No other child in the world was as beautiful as her.The king fills with joy, and accepts the child as his daughter and takes care of her.

There was a nearby province names as” KADENGAADI GUTTU”. The queen of that province gets the news of this child. So she rushes to that province and makes a relationship proposal with the king. She asks the king to give his daughter to his son in marriage. The king accepts this proposal and the marriage takes place in her cradle childhood itself. Here ends the childhood story of the child.

As time goes the girl grows and she lives happily with her husband “KAANTAPOONJA”. Their family spends a well time. DEVI SIRI becomes pregnant. But for unfortunate her husband KANTAPOONJA develops an unhealthy habit. He starts to court a prostitute named as “SIDDU”.

Some say that he had not courted the prostitute willingly. The prostitute had used black magic to attract him towards her.

So this goes on…

 In our culture there is an occasion named as BAYAKE(tulu), SEEMANTHA(kannada). This is celebrated when a woman gets pregnant and her baby becomes of 7 months.

So as custom when this time came the palace was filled with joy and celebration, preparation was at its height.  DEVI SIRI asks her husband to bring a saree from BANTWALA PETE. She refers the saree as “PATTAD MELAINA SEERE” which means saree of highest rank among all sarees. So as wished he goes to the BANTWALA PETE where the saree asked by DEVI SIRI was for sale. After buying the saree he travels back to his province. On the way he happens to pass by the house of the prostitute SIDDU. While seeing the king she deliberately pulls him to her house. Even though the king refuses, she takes out the saree from his bag. The king could not do anything since he was under her infatuations or black magic control.

She wears the same saree which was meant for DEVI SIRI. She wears it and then gives back it to the king. The king folds it as it was in the earlier state and returns back to his palace. Instead of giving the saree in DEVI SIRI’s hands he keeps it folded in a table.

On the day of occasion DEVI SIRI asks for her saree. So the king brings it to her. But while seeing the saree due to the divinity in her she realizes that a prostitute had already wore the saree before her. She gets into anger and in her fury she throws the saree to the front door of the palace (as a tradition people of tulunadu don’t put their saree in the front door even now)

As this take place her husband, the king gets in anger, and rages his fury on her. As she did not accept the saree brought by her husband she asks her father, the king of SATYANANDAPURA to bring her wedding saree which is called as the DAAREDA SEERE in TULU. She wears her DAAREDA SEERE in that occasion in spite of her husband’s opposition.

As tradition after this occasion the pregnant woman goes to her parent’s house to give birth to her child. DEVI SIRI also goes to SATYANANDA PURA with her father. But days passed, and her husband never came to SATYANANDAPURA either to visit her nor to inquire of her health. So after a sequence of time she gives birth to a boy. They name him as KOTI KUMAARA. The palace of SATYANANDA PURA fills with joy and they celebrate this moment, except for the father of DEVI SIRI. Because an astrologer had warned the king that if he sees the face of his grandchild he will end up with death at the same moment.

So DEVI SIRI never lets her father to have a look at his grandchild’s face. This was a pain for the king. As time skips the child grows with nature. DEVI SIRI had appointed her maid DAARU to look after the child and her father so that he does not come near the child.

Once when DEVI SIRI was not near the child and the maid DAARU had gone out for some other palace chores, the child starts to cry. The child cries so badly that the king could not resist himself. He went near the child to take care of it. After consoling the child when he returns back the aged king slips down at the palace door and dies. This news spreads like wild fire in whole SATYANANDAPURA. Hearing this DEVI SIRI rushes to the palace. Even when the news of death reaches the palace of KANTAPOONJA, he never visits DEVI SIRI’s palace.

As custom when a king dies there are several rituals to be performed. But what happens here is that the king KAANTAPOONJA never lets any of the citizens of both the province to take part in the final rituals of the king. So as a result DEVI SIRI had to do all the rituals herself. She alone lifts the dead body of the king and performs the final rituals.

Now since the province of SATYANANDA PURA has no king left the wise men of SATYANANDAPURA calls for a royal meeting called as KOOTANDA KALA.  In this meeting only men were allowed and no women had ever taken part from history. But to insult DEVI SIRI they invite her too to the KOOTANDA KALA.

Raged DEVI SIRI attends the meeting. when the wise men calls her to get inside the meeting she hesitates at first. So the men say that not to hesitate that no harm shall be done to her and also added that even they have wife, children who are also women.

As an answer she strikes a lightning with her words. She says that even they might have women in their house, but they will be working and doing the chores at their house and are not attending meetings like I do.

She denies the meeting and goes back to her palace renouncing any right to the palace i. While reaching the palace door DEVI SIRI asks DAARU to bring her son out and to abandon the palace. While going out she curses the SATYANANDA PURA as “let the grains which had ever grown in the province go rotten, let the coconuts in the trees decay and when the cow is brought for milking let it turn into an bull and when a bull is brought to plough the field let it turn into an ox”.

 This made the SATYANANDA PURA a useless province.

While returning she also curses that let the palace burn and turn into ashes except the place where her son KOTI KUMAARA used to sleep.

And also she warns her maid not to look back while going out. But the curious maid happens to turn back and to her astonishment she sees the entire town burning and turning into ashes.

After this DEVI SIRI with her son and maid goes to KADENGAADI GUTTU.

While seeing DEVI SIRI coming, her husband KAANTAPOONJA hides himself inside the palace and sends his mother to welcome her daughter-in-law.

When DEVI SIRI reaches the palace doors SHANKARU POONJA welcomes them with AARATHI (it is a type of welcome given to newly married couple, newly born baby, or at any special occasions in HINDU custom. Here a plate with a cotton roll is lightened and is moved to and fro in front of the person who is welcomed.)

DEVI SIRI requests her mother-in-law to call KAANTAPOONJA out. But she lies saying that, He had gone out for an official work of the province. But DEVI SIRI knowing the hideous plan, now rages her voice against SHANKARUPOONJA. She says that at first place she will address SHANKARU POONJA as mother-in-law, at second place she will do the same, but when the situation extends till third place she will not hesitate and just shout aloud as SHANKARU POONJA in her own mouth. Hearing this KAANTAPOONJA hiding inside gets angry and without patience comes outside.

When DEVI SIRI sees he husband coming out, she asks her husband to liberate her from the marital bond from him by declaring BARA against her. BARA is a TULU word, which means as a divorce.

So he challenges her to bring any of her ancestors in front of him so as he can provide BARA to her. He asks this, since he knew that her only ancestor was the king of SATYANANDAPURA.

Hearing this DEVI SIRI realizes his nasty plan and she suddenly breaks a twig of GOLAMBURU plant from a nearby fence and states that this twig is my ancestor.

Without any hesitation she leaves that place and continues her journey away from her former relatives and her land. As she was walking along the fields the women who were working in the paddy fields observes her and insults her badly saying that “shoontimeeri kashaaya, tameri meeri ponnu jatted popuna porl toole”. Remaining women present there laughs at this statement. DEVI SIRI could not tolerate this.

 She curses them that, the people who were working let work for lifetime and who were laughing let laugh for lifetime. Suddenly women at the paddy turn into stone and the women who were laughing did not stop laughing forever.

As travelling, they reach a river. The ferryman of the only boat present there was bribed by KAANTAPOONJA. He denies the will of DEVI SIRI to ferry her across the river. So DEVI SIRI just goes to a plantation, brings a long banana leaf, and she places it on the river…suddenly the river breaks into two and a walking passage gets created in the middle. Seeing this ferryman realizes that she is not an ordinary woman. He rushes towards her and asks her to forgive him. And he also weeps that he will be left with no job if this passage is present, so he asks her pardon. But DEVI SIRI says that the passage will be open for 6 months in a year so that he may work only half a year and another half would be his punishment.

Saying this she crosses the river with her son and maid.

Now they reach a province named as BOLANDAPADAVU. It was a beautiful place blessed by mother nature. Seeing the beauty of that place she decides to rest a while there. She makes a cradle and puts her son in that. She sings a sweet melodious lullaby for her son.

While she was singing her voice spreads across the forest. The melodious voice travels far and it strikes the ear of two brothers who were the kings of that province. Their name was KARIYA KALINGA and BOLIYA DESINGA.  They come in search of this sweet voice and reaches a mountain top. From there they find a radiant beautiful woman. Both at once get mad of her beauty and in infatuation they quarrel with each other for the woman. At last they come up with a solution. They set up a race in which the first one to reach the woman would marry her. So they start running towards her.

 DEVI SIRI notices the two men running towards her and she determines their intentions. As soon as the first king reaches the place she proclaims that the first one to win the race would be her elder brother and the second one would be her younger brother. Hearing this, no words utters from both king’s mouth. They surrender to her as her brothers. They ask her to come to their palace with them. But when DEVI SIRI accepts this, her son KOTI KUMAARA says this:”mother, I am a son of a divine mother. And also a prince .if I come with you to your brother’s palace I would be treated as a slave in future or now so please liberate me from this human life”.

So seeing a crystal clear motto in her son’s words she liberates him off the human bond. As this happens  the maid DAARU also asks for the same wish and DEVI SIRI grants the same.

After this she moves to her brother’s palace. But even before reaching the palace the wives of the two brothers envy the woman who is along them. They think that their husband might have married another woman. But the queen of that province consoles them and asks them to wait and watch whether the woman walks behind the kings or ahead the kings. If she walks behind the kings she might be their wife. But if she had walks ahead of the king they might be their sister. So the queen’s watch DEVI SIRI walking. They find that she is walking ahead of them.

DEVI SIRI finds comfort while living in the palace.

BAAMUKILLAYA, a friend of the twin king’s comes to the palace to play games. While playing he happens to notice a radiant beautiful woman. So to find out who it is, he asks for a glass of water. So DEVI SIRI gets a glass of water but only stretches out her arm from behind the wall. BAMUKILLAYA loses his consciousness just by seeing the beauty of the hands.

When his conscious restores, he asks the two kings’s to give DEVI SIRI in marriage to her. The two kings accept it with DEVI SIRI’s consent. So BAAMUKILLAYA gets rid of his first wife from his palace so as to marry DEVI SIRI.  As the marriage takes place and when BAAMUKILLAYA takes his newly married wife to his palace DEVI SIRI stops just in front of the palace gates.

 She refuses to enter the palace. When asked for reason DEVI SIRI demands BAAMUKILLAYA to ask his first wife SWAMIALVEDI to escort her inside the palace. But BAAMUKILLAYA finds this an impossible task. In order to please his new wife BAAMUKILLAYA goes to SWAMIALVEDI’s house and requests her to escort DEVI SIRI to the palace. Since SWAMIALVEDI recognizes the divinity vested in DEVI SIRI she accepts the proposal. She escorts the second wife of her husband to her own palace. After this they both lead a good life with their husband.

As time passes DEVI SIRI gets pregnant. As a custom she gets an invitation from her brother’s palace for a feast. She takes her sister SWAMIALVEDI too along with her. After the feast at the palace both return back to their province. On the way DEVI SIRI gets the pregnancy pain. She struggles with pain in the path. So SWAAMIALVEDI finding the ground not suitable for the child to be born, she takes out an   areca nut and throws it nearby in the soil. And she commands the nature, that let the arecanut germinate and grow into a tree, let it bear a branch with soft leaves and let the branch touch the ground. This took place in a matter of seconds and a bed was created out of areca nut branches in the ground. She gives birth to two twin daughters. After giving birth to the children both DEVI SIRI and SWAMIALVEDI becomes gets liberated from human form.

The twin daughters are left abandoned in the lonely place. A Brahmin happens to pass by there and he notices these two children. The Brahmin who never had a child feels happy to find these children. He takes them home and adopts them. He names them as SONNE and GINDYE. They both grow under the care of the Brahmin and his wife. When the children come to the age of marriage they were given in marriage to a better person. But unfortunately GINDYE does not bear any child. So her parents promise lord NAGABRAHMA that they will serve him with offerings if their daughter gives birth to a child. So god makes this true and GINDYE bears two twin daughters named as ABBAYA and DAARAGE.

As the children grows up the parents forget about the promise done to LORD. The children grow into beautiful young woman and when their parents think that it is time for them to get marry they go in search of bridegroom. As they do so,  god disguises himself as a Brahmin and appears before the parents and reminds them of the promise done by them.

But they ignore it. So god plans to teach them a lesson. He goes near ABBAYA DAARAGE and finds that a gaming instrument named as CHENNEDA MANE was locked inside a cupboard. He opens the lock and suggests the sisters to play with that. It is a tradition; no sisters must play that game. If so they will end up in death. Without knowing this both the sisters ABBAYA and DAARAGE plays the game.

While playing they start to talk about the bridegroom they are going to marry. So they starts to debate that each other’s groom is handsome… and this debate grows into a fight, and in fight elder sister kills the younger one with the playing tool and puts her body to well. And finding herself guilty she also jumps into the same well and dies.

This is the end of the story as far as my resource and knowledge is concerned.

I would like to speak a little more about the worship of DEVI SIRI in this modern world.

The worship of DEVI SIRI takes place at a location named as KINNIGOLI situated at DAKSHINA KANNADA, KARNATAKA. Here a place named as URKITHOTA contains the places mentioned in the above story. In the worship they say that particular women who come to worship here possess the spirit of DEVI SIRI. It is believed that they speak from the mouth of the goddess.

The every detail published here is a source from the ancestors of TULUNADU. It may have some or more errors which could not be considered by my knowledge. This publish was merely done with a purpose of knowledge. I would be glad if I get feedback for any errors. Many of the words here are in the language “TULU” for

which I cannot afford any translations.Thank you.