Note 54 — K (Continued) (continued 3)

“The village of Maliar, in the Hadagalli tāluk of the Bellary district, contains a Siva temple, which is famous throughout the district for an annual festival held there in the month of February. This festival has now dwindled more or less into a cattle fair. But the fame of the temple continues as regards the kāranika, which is a cryptic sentence uttered by a priest, containing a prophecy of the prospect of the agricultural season of the ensuing year. The pūjāri of the temple is a Kuruba. The feast in the temple lasts for ten days. On the last day of the feast, the god Siva is represented as returning victorious from the battlefield after having slain Malla with a huge bow. He is met half-way from the field of battle by the goddess. The huge wooden bow is brought, and placed on end before the god. The Kuruba priest climbs up the bow as it is held up by two assistants, and then gets on the shoulders of these men. In this posture he stands rapt in silence for a few minutes, looking in several directions. He then begins to quake and quiver from head to foot. This is the sign of the spirit of the Siva god possessing him—the sign of the divine afflatus upon him. A solemn silence holds the assembly, for the time of the kāranika has approached. The shivering Kuruba utters a cryptic sentence, such as Ākāsakkē sidlu bodiyuttu, or thunder struck the sky. This is at once copied down, and interpreted as a prophecy that there will be much rain in the year to come. Thus every year, in the month of February, the kāranika of Mailar is uttered and copied, and kept by all in the district as a prophecy. This kāranika prognostication is also pronounced now at the Mallari temple in the Dharwar district, at Nerakini in the Ālūr tāluk, and at Mailar Lingappa in the Harapanahalli tāluk.”54