Coorg Deities - Story of Seven Gods

Though Coorg tradition has been supplanted by Brahmanism, there is one story free from this imputation, and it throws light on the origin of some of the Coorg deities. The story is given by the Reverend G. Richter, as taken from oral tradition (the Song of Seven Gods), and runs thus -

In ancient times there lived in the Malabar country six brothers and a sister. Five of them, accompanied by their sister Ponnangalatamma, went to Coorg by the Paditora ghat. While they were on the road, four of them said, 'How is it that our sister comes with us? The people will say that she is our wife.' The fifth replied, 'If she comes with us, we will spoil her caste.' When they came to the Chauripade hill near the Kakabe river, they felt hungry. Then Iguttappa said to his sister, 'Prepare us some food.' She replied, 'I have neither fire nor rice.' Iguttappa said, 'I will give you rice, but you must boil it without fire.' She replied, 'I will boil it without fire, but you must eat it without salt.' To this the brothers agreed. Then Ponnangalatamma, seeing a cow, one belonging to the Paradanda house, went and milked her, letting the milk fall into a pot full of rice, and while the brothers were sleeping in the shade of a tree, went to the bank of the river and buried the vessel in the sand, where it began to boil. Then she called her brothers to eat the rice which she had prepared.

When they had eaten enough, Iguttappa took some rice, threw it up into the air, and exclaimed, 'See how the hail is falling from the sky!' Ponnangalatamma, angry at this, took up a wooden ladle, and giving him a heavy blow on his back, said, 'See how the thunder breaks in the monsoon!' Then the other brothers all laughed at him. Afterwards, while they were sitting together and chewing betel, Palurappa said, 'Let us see whose betel is the reddest.' Then they all spat out the betel into their hands to look at it, after which the brothers, pretending that they were throwing it again into their mouths and chewing, threw the betel behind their heads. The sister, deluded by this, threw her betel into her mouth again, and went on chewing. They now said that by so doing she had lost her caste, and their brother in Malabar too, to whom they appealed, confirmed their decision.

Ponnangalatamma was excessively grieved, and wept bitterly. But Iguttappa threw an arrow from the Iguttappa-betta and ordered his sister to go with the arrow and stay where it fell. The arrow stuck into a mango tree at Ponnangala, in the village of Yawakkapadi, and Ponnangalatamma, assuming the shape of a crane, flew towards the spot. Near the Karatandra house some Holeyas were working in the paddy fields. Ponnangalatamma flew upon one of them, who thereupon became possessed, and ran towards the tree in which the arrow was sticking. The brothers then separated into different villages, where they settled, and the whole family were afterwards worshipped as gods. Baiturappa has a temple at Baitur in Malabar, the second in Taliparambu in Malabar, the third in the Maletambira forest in the Joma-male in Coorg, the fourth on the Iguttappa hill near Kunjila, the fifth at Palur in Kuyangeri nad; the sixth, Tirnalli Thimmaya, at Tirnalli in the Wynad. A temple was also built for Ponnangalatamma, round the tree where the arrow had stuck. At her annual feast, in April, Ponnangalatamma weeps, and is worshipped by the Holeyas. The arrow is, up to the present day, seen sticking in the wild mango tree.

Source: Mysore and Coorg, Vol. III by Lewis Rice