Sagara Ratna(ocean pearl) The whole mangalore drools for the quality food they serve!!!. But we kind of got very surprised to know that they also were worshipping the sacred spirits in their family house at the village called nakre in karkala called as kinyarkatte house and we got an information from our friend which made us to mark that place as a must visit place .
I got a call from my close friend Mr Nagaraj bhat, who asked me for the proper landmark of the place. I too had never heard about the daiva and that place even after staying in karkala for 6 consecutive years.I somehow managed to get the route of the place . But still i didn't have an idea of how the nema would be!!! I thought it would be a simple nema with little fierce in it .
Nema was very much nearing and the season for the semester exam had started .As usual I was in a dilemma about whether to go or not! I left the time to decide it . 9th was the nema . and 11th was my Optical fibers exam. I woke up early on the morning of 10th and inbox was filled with some unattended messages which I knew was the updates of the nema. This was enough for me to get excited . I completed my portions as quickly as possible and left to the place at 5:30 am. keeping the strict warnings from my mom in my mind ;) .
When i reached the place, i could here the sound of the drum(thembare) and was hearing the pardhana(folk song) , For once my heart skipped a beat thinking i missed the oil ceremony of the main daiva hekala jumadi . Then i saw this daiva with a black color makeup and was having this palm strands tied around the waist on the black pant . That was a peace of mind to me because the nema had not yet started . I managed to find my friends who were busy recording the neecha-babbarya nema. My tummy got cramps laughing hard for the jokes and the fun the neecha daiva was making of all the audience .
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| Neecha daiva cracking jokes |
Things got too serious after the nema and the fear was intense among the family members and i could see a man seated on the chair and was getting possessed !!! He was loosing the control !!! .I was surprised because i had never seen an oil ceremony of daiva jumadi in possession and that too i never had thought it would be to this extent .
Amidst the people came the performer vibrating and he had the palm shell in the hand to take the oil. He was breathing fiercely and he was staring at the priest and he started asking the permission of all the people gathered there and traditional music that had a mixture of single sided drums,nagaswaram,tune,dol began with full intensity and he started jumping as soon as he took the oil and in spite of his family members holding him tight , he was in the full trance state and the people who held him also fell on the ground along with performer .The scene was horrendous .
The people gripped him very tightly . He threw the people away and loosened the grip and ran . while occasionally biting his thumb finger and the people catching him were struggling to take it out of his mouth and indeed were successful.
It was the difficult task to control the untamed !!!. The mediator was also finding it difficult to tame the fierce daiva,that was trying to run and usually was falling on the ground and rolling . But later they dragged him near the well and poured two copper-pots full of water and he was taken to the dressing place.we were completely spellbound. we thought it was over for now , like how it happens usually in the other nema , where the performer would get up and does all the makeup.
For our surprise !!! here the performer was still in the trance! and the family members were coloring his face !! In the dripping sweat , the family members were still gripping the performer and he was still shouting loudly and was still jumping there. This made the task still more difficult for the family members , mediator sprinkled the holy water on him , which was still not doing any good. so he used his words to control the daiva and threw the holy water on his face which somewhat cooled the situation.
Once he was fully ready, he came out to the anklets, The dressing was very simple with the decoration of Ixora flower(guddedha kepula) which was woven uniformly and was tied to his head along with the silver ear ornaments and one more silver ornament was hanging down his neck which was definitely a specialty of that place!! He later picked up the anklets that were kept on the banana leaf and took the flowers and showered the petals all over the place and took the permission again , His family members were behind him to not let the situations go out of control.
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| Hekala jumadi holding the anklet |
He slowly started pulling the anklet for the very slow beat of the drums and the high pitch tune of the traditional nagaswaram and the slow beat of the single faced drum, and he tied the anklets after asking the permission and the strands made of tender coconut were tied around his waist and the longer strands were finely cut off.
After this the daiva went around without torch!! In all the jumadi nema the fire torch is held but here there was no fire torch that adds on to the many specialties of the nema. The trance followed and in between the family members again caught the performer to tie a square shaped ani to the back . They were already tired , yet they struggled to tie the ani as the performer was still possessed!!
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| Daiva in it's full form with the ani tied to the back |
I heard the loud voice from behind which was of an old performer who started singing the pardhana which was with the beat of the drum , he sang the legends of the daiva jumadi and the possession again began ! occasionally performer fell down in trance with the ani on!!! The scene was horrific ! I felt really pity on the performer who was not in his senses!
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| Possession !! |
Then the pardhana finished and all gathered to pray to the jumadi and everyone again welcomed the jumadi for the last stage of nema ! Now there was the huge torch of the dried coconut leaves which the daiva was holding in his hands , After this the daiva sat to listen to the people and give the judgement and fix all the problems .
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| Daiva singing the pardhana |
All of us prayed to the jumadi and left to home with the memories of the nema that was to be cherished .
All the photos are taken from the nagaraj bhat's archives and the link of the video is also shared here . Watch the fury .
