Bhuta Worship in South Kanara District

Daivas or Bhutas are in varied forms. At some places, it could be a simple stone and called Kalkuda, Kallurti. Some stones have carvings. There are stone pillars with shafts and a number of metallic weapons are kept at the shrine of the Bhutas.

Kola is the ritual conducted every year to propitiate a daiva. There are mainly four types of daivas

1) naga (serpent), pili, (tiger) panjurli (pig), nandi (bull). These are termed totemic and animistic in origin.

Each daiva has got its own history and is preserved in paddanas (ritual songs) which are mainly in Tulu language. These songs are recited to the accompaniment of drums (tembare). Particular communities like Nalkes, Paravas, Pombadas impersonate the daivas. The faces are painted differently and costumes worn differently to suit different daivas.

Skirts of tender coconut feathers

Skirts of tender coconut feathers are predominant and the main priest holds a sword and bell invariably.

Painted face with a peculiar headgear.

A peculiar type of headgear with a shield of feathers and leaves with anklets and bracelets make up the ritual paraphernalia.

A female dancer depicting a typical grama daiva

3) The dancing is displayed in an act of getting possessed, to the accompaniment of music.

There are family daivas or grama daivas. In the past these grama or village daivas played an important role in dispensation of social justice. The community leaders like Nalkes, Paravas and Pombadas become the communication of oracles during kola ceremony. After a strict diet, meditation and ritual dance, these dancers enter a trance and announce oracles which are supposed to be conveyed by the daivas. People listen with awe and deep respect, the words of the possessed.

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya (1903-1988) who hailed from Tulunadu or land of Bhutas, had seen the total involvement of the village folk in kola. She observed that Bhuta worship helped promote a sense of social belonging among persons of various castes. Each caste or community rendered service at periodical Bhuta festival. Trance and oracle caught the common man's imagination. Bhuta worship provided a sort of psychological security for one and all, who were affected by domestic problems. Contravention of social norms, inter-caste disputes and intrigues could be brought before the presiding Bhutas and solutions were obtained. "The Bhuta faith established in the rural community a stable equilibrium, economically, socially and culturally." -- she felt.