A unique celebration where men of Gumtapuram village in Talavadi Hills splash cow dung over each other during the temple festival was conducted here on Wednesday.
The ritual is followed in the village for over three centuries as people believe that their ancestors noticed blood oozing from a ‘linga’ idol that was concealed inside a heap of cow dung. They believe that a spirit asked the people to celebrate the third day after Deepavali with cow dung.
The village is located at the Tamil Nadu – Karnataka border which has predominantly Kannada-speaking people and the annual festival is held amidst large gathering.
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Special puja
The festival started with a special puja at the Beereshwara Swamy temple following which a few villagers took bath in the temple tank and went in a procession to the temple amidst drum beats. Also, a youth of the village was seated on a donkey and moustache made out of grass was fixed onto his face and the donkey was taken out in procession to the temple. Later, the moustache was removed and placed on the heap of cow dung placed near the temple.
Celebrations began with the youth and men throwing cow dung balls at each other as the huge gathering stood enthralled.
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Participants kept splashing cow dung for over an hour and later took bath in the tank after which the festival came to an end.
Villagers said that they believe that splashing cow dung will cleanse the body and added that the festival draws huge crowd from Karnataka.