The Bengaluru Karaga, which is an integral part of the identity of the Tigala community in the region, has now turned a platform to reorganise the community, displaced from their traditional villages owing to urbanisation over the recent decades.
“Large parts of the community have lost touch with the Dharmaraya Swamy Temple and Karaga, as they have now migrated to various parts of the State, displaced by the ever-growing Bengaluru, which we are now trying to revive,” said former city Mayor P.R. Ramesh, who leads the Bengaluru Karaga Festival Committee.
The committee has set up a website with information on the community and Tigalari language, which many claim to be the root of Telugu, Tamil and Kannada languages in the Deccan. The website will be inaugurated on Thursday.
Tigalas, who trace their ancestry to the Veerakumaras, an army of soldiers created by Draupadi, the deity of Karaga, to fight the last Asura at the end of Mahabharatha, were a community of gardeners of vegetables and flowers. It is said that the community migrated from parts of Tamil Nadu, and is said to have come to Bengaluru during Hyder Ali’s time to lay Lalbagh.
“Tigalas had a strong presence in around 90 villages around the Old Pete area, most of which have now been urbanised.
The community was strong in villages like Hebbal, Akkithimmanahalli, Agara, and Cholanayakanahalli. Following displacement owing to urbanisation, it is now a huge challenge to bring these families back into the Karaga fold,” said Mr. Ramesh, adding that they had campaigned in these villages, which still have some Tigala families, to make them participate in Karaga this year.
The committee has written to the BMTC to arrange special buses from these villages to Old Pete area during the festivities.
The Karaga Kunte in Cubbon Park and Sampangiram lake, from where water is traditionally brought to offer the first puja to the Karaga deity, will be filled with tanker water as they have dried up.
The community
has been displaced from their
villages owing
to urbanisation
