Let them flow free

Travel in the Kodava Hills of Karnataka leads us to a treasure of origin myths. The ancestors of the Kodava people, whom the Brits called Coorgis, are believed by some to have come into India with the armies of Alexander the Great.

Others have tried to link them to pre-Islamic Kurds, pre-Christian Georgians and Bactrian Greeks. More fanciful stories are told about the origin of the Kaveri that rises in a small pond below Brahmagiri Hill of the Western Ghats here.

Like the Kodavas, the holy river is believed by some to have originated from the north; from the snowy slopes of Mount Kailas to be precise. According to a popular account, during a severe drought in the south, Brahma advised Sage Agasthya, who was praying for relief, to gather snow from the abode of Shiva in the Himalaya if he wanted to start a new river in the south.

Agasthya obeys, and while he searches for a suitable spot to tip his snow-filled kamandal, a thirsty crow lands on the vessel and does the job in a jiffy! The agitated sage wants to curse the bird, but it morphs into Ganesha and he’s pacified.

Another story has River Kaveri marrying Agasthya as a maid on condition that he will not leave without informing her. One day, the sage forgets his vow and goes for a stroll without telling his wife. The wilful woman then forsakes his ashramand disappears underground as a secret stream.

It’s only when he prays and beseeches her does she return at Talakaveri for the sake of the world’s welfare. One moral of the story is: treat women and rivers with the greatest respect. Let them thrive.