Submitted by: Prasanna Mattikop
Edited by: Angel Kolady
Illustration by: Prasanna Mattikop
At the misty mountains where the Western Ghats awaken, Kanseri was born a divine child. She turned pebbles into grains and water into milk. People rejoiced, for their land flourished under her grace. But the gods feared her power. They abducted her, and she was found only when she came of age.
To claim her beauty and divinity, kings and gods gathered for her swayamvar1. Yet Kanseri’s heart belonged to Gavada, a humble shepherd.
Since she chose love over grandeur, the enraged gods slew Gavada through deceit. As her lover was slain, Kanseri wept until the skies dried and the earth turned barren. Crops failed, rivers shrank, and silence fell upon the mountains. Remorseful, the gods begged her forgiveness and pleaded for the return of life. Moved by compassion, Kanseri manifested as a golden grain. New life sprouted, green fields swayed once again. Thus was born the Goddess of Grain.
Even today, the first sheaf of every harvest is offered in her name.
Among the Kunkna of the northern Western Ghats, Kanseri Katha is recited during Āshādh2, when the soil readies for new life. In the festival of Divaso3, rice dolls called Dhiglo4 are made, which symbolise the union of Kanseri and Gavada. These dolls also embody the eternal bond of soil and seed, thus honouring Kanseri. The Varli and Dubla communities also follow the same expression with a traditional mask dance of Bohada5 accompanied by ghagali and Tarpa instruments.
Meticulously sung by tribals, here the “gods” are none but the social elites enforcing the caste system and patriarchy. They exploit and control marginalised communities under the guise of tradition in an originally matriarchal land. From Kanseri/Mavli in the Ghats, Mahakali of Pavagadh, Ambaji of Aravallis, aboriginal matriarchal figures were slowly absorbed into the Vedic fold. With the patronage of large states like Baroda to smaller jaghirs like Javhar, land control has resulted in replacing indigenous belief systems with Vedic practices, repeatedly threatening the tribals of their identities.
The annual act of Kanseri Katha keeps the echoes of the past alive, grounding these communities into a common ethos of nature worship and acknowledgement of the wrathful but compassionate matriarch: Kanseri, the goddess of grain.
About Prasanna: Prasanna is an environmentally friendly designer who believes design is an inherent and undivided microcosm of art, history and people. With a decade of experience in architecture & landscape architecture, his interests lie in regional landscapes and the indigenous communities closely connected to them. He is an avid illustrator and enjoys reading and drawing about history and anthropology, as he sees these subjects interconnected with the landscape discipline, which also aligns with his research interests. He also runs his independent landscape architecture practice at Studio Unbuilt.
- A traditional practice of a bride selecting her groom either as a result of a public contest or from amongst an assembly of potential candidates. ↩︎
- According to the Hindu lunar calendar, Āshādh is the fourth month of the year and marks the beginning of the sowing season. It corresponds to June-July of the Gregorian calendar. ↩︎
- Meaning ‘residence of the lamp’, Divaso is a festival celebrated before the month of Shravan, considered an auspicious month. ↩︎
- These dolls are made from rice grains to symbolise the embodiment of Kanseri as she is the goddess of grain. They are made the night before Divaso and worshipped the next morning, following which they are carried to nearby streams and immersed in water to welcome agricultural prosperity into their lives. ↩︎
- Bohada are theatrical performances where folk narratives of good triumphing over evil were performed in and around temples using large wooden masks, now replaced with papier mache masks. Today, folk narratives have been replaced by mainstream narratives in performances. ↩︎