Cauvery Teerthodbhava draws thousands of devotees to Talacauvery in Kodagu

Annual Cauvery Teerthodbhava festival at Talacauvery draws devotees to witness sacred water gushing from Brahma Kundike.

A large number of devotees witnessed the Cauvery “Teerthodbhava” at the birth place of the river at Talacauvery in Kodagu district on Thursday (October 17, 2024).

An annual event and one of the most sacred festivals that draw pilgrims from across Kodagu and different parts of Karnataka, “Teerthodbhava” is the sudden gushing of water in the “Brahma Kundike” at Talacauvery which abutts the Brahamgiri Hill.

The sprouting of the water was witnessed by the crowd at 7.40 a.m. and announced by the priests who also sprinkled it on the gathering even as the devotees rushed to take a dip in the Kalyani, or sacred pond, adjoining the Brahma Kundike.

It is customary for devotees to carry the “teertha” or holy water for use during auspicious occasions and festivals during the year as also for distribution among near and dear ones. Soon after the priests signalled the occurrence of Teerthodbhava, devotees jostled for space to gather the “teertha”.

As the authorities had banned the usage of plastic, devotees collected water from the Brahma Kundike in steel cans or vessels. Head priest at Talacauvery Prashanth Achar led the rituals and rites associated with the religious event and offered prayers to the river goddess at her place of birth.

The Brahma Kundike was decorated with flowers and there was sufficient barricading to regulate the crowd. Many devotees trekked from Bhagamandala to Talacauvery, a distance of nearly 7 km, to witness the event while the KSRTC had deployed 15 buses to ferry pilgrims free of cost. Many devotees had occupied vantage points to catch a glimpse of the spectacle a little past midnight itself.

There was a significant increase in the number of people who had congregated to witness the event as it took place early in the morning, unlike in the recent past when the auspicious time, based on astrological calculations, used to be fixed late in the night.