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GORAVARA KUNITHA

Gorava dance evolved in the background of  Shaiva Dharma. The  costume and other embellishment of goravas indicates that it is ancient. Many puranas about the birth of this art does not relate to the details of official cultural history Because the animalism of goravas behaviour makes it ancient. But the puranas on Goravas come at a later stage.

Backgroud story goes like this. Manisura and Mallasura after their thapassy get a boon from shiva that nobody can kill them. Shiva who knew that they will be dangerous to the world wore headdress made up of black bear hairs black blanket tunic and killed them. The costume that Shiva wore and the form of mylaralinga he assume that day continues till today as the style for Goravas. we can discern that This Mallasura and manisura story is expressed in many different texts in the context of Indian culture creation of asuras, them attaining immortality and later being vanquished by either shiva or Vishnu or shakthi devathe keeps repeating hundreds of times. It is interesting to note that originally this perspective came from vaidics. why asura’s longed for immortality may symbolise the fear for their life they had. Who invoked that fear is also clear. In the vast body of our puranas we can find ample evidence that it came from indra and his suras.

 

If we scratch the surface of this sura- asura hatred we would be able to find that it is in the hidden hatred and the extreme conflict between vaidic brahmins and parsis both of whom were Caucasians of the aryan language. Many scholars have tried to find the origin of the conflict and failed miserably.

 What is true is that they disagree on everything. For example asura in parsi language is actually ahura which means almighty thus the only god of parsis is Ahur Majda. ‘Ha’ of the parsi language becoming ‘Sa’ in Sanskrit thus ahura becoming asura who is evil, cruel etc., Repeated wars between vaidikarya and parsis in lran on ancient Persia all the parsi heros were dubbed as evil asuras, we don’t know whether Vaidikarya’s were able to kill all the parsi asuras but leaving them behind vaidikaryas crossed the plains of Harappa civilisation and settled on the vast plains of Ganga. There they continued to depict in their purana’s Asuras as evil and destroy them through their gods, which almost bordered on racial obsession. In the context of India vaidic culture with its cultural superiority waged continuous on the original cultural streams and kept on forcing them to accept the cultural superior it of vaidics. In this background they included Krishna, Vrikrasura Ravana and a whole of others as of parsi origin or like parsis anybody who opposed them in Indian soil were asuras for vaidic and wrote badly about them.

Whatever be the explanation or analysis the perspective of the hatred between vaidica and parsis had great influence and taken root in our land.

Sura – Asura have nothing to do with our Jaanapada. Vaidics have encroached upon the vast south Indian folk landscape and distorted the details of original rituals, art and culture. They have sown the seeds of their cultural superiority which has resulted in creation of the kind of puranas and stories is very clear.

Origin of the pronoun Mani Mallasura is not of local Dravidian language group but Sanskrit. Because Dravidian language people hold on to their rituals of folk origin. The stories behind their art comes from the vast repository of words from their own language in a very natural way. They will definitely not resort to strange language devices which has nothing to do with their cultural or life. All that has happened is the influence of the aggressive and self serving vaidic design.

There is a urgent need for a fresh research of our folk art – rituals and the puranas on the matrix of these historical devices. We have given this detailed explanation only to draw your attention to it. Otherwise the cultural issues that we need to understand through Jaanapada will be totally distorted and obfuscate our true and original identity. We then become loyal to the imposed culture which will make us slaves living like a second class citizen. Self respect is most important for us. The basic tenets of Janapada culture are humanity, dignity, simplicity and self respect. It is our moral responsibility that we rightly record the original pulsure of Jaanapada culture.

Mailalinga is the ancestor of Goravas. He is khandoba in Maharastra. We can reasonably speculate that Mailaralinga is none other than shiva of the mainstream Dravidian culture. Even though shiva dravida’s ‘Ko’ being the symbol ancient ancestor linga which belongs to pre- Dravidian culture is more ancient. Hence mailaralinga may be a god of pre- Swra. The shepherds of proto- Australoid people worshipped linga. Over centuries it may have been transformed with synergic relationship with many other cultures. We may now assume that it has attained this from through this long historical – Cultural process. 

Goravas take deeksha in the name of mailaraling to become devotees. Because of the recent changes, not only Kurubas, but Nayakas, upparas and a number of dalith communities practice Gorava Kunitha.

In south Karnataka Goravas are called as Gorava, Goggayya, Gadabaddyya ect., where as in north Karnataka they are called Gvarappa, Vagga, Vaghya ect., Their costume and make-up is very bold and peculiar. A head dress made up of hair of bear. Long tunic of black blanket. On the chest an X shaped decoration made up of white shells. Begging sing bag on the shoulders, a boat shaped brass bowl, bag of bhandara (bhandera being turmeric which is the symbol of the semen of mailaraling), big bell, Trident, Naga stick Damaruga in right hand.       (Damaruga being the musical instrument of shiva) Flute in the left hand, thickly smeared vibhuthi on forehead with a big spot of vermillion in the centre. Sometime they smear vibhuthi around their eyes.

It is significant to know that this kind of white and red and black all over the face is prevalent among the hundreds of ancient tribes from Africa to Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia etc.,

A group of About ten to twelve people play the flute along with shaking the Damaruga. They play back step and front step and dance in a primordial style. They jump gymnastically, go round rhythmically in mandala shape, keeping their head dress on the floor and dance around it .......... like this they give varied performances, Gorava dance use no other musical instrument except flute and Damaruga. The devotees of mailaraling celebrate what is called “Madevu” The Goravas who are invited to perform receive banana & other sweets, sometime raw vegetables in their boat shaped bowl and act like fighting dogs to eat from the bowl without touching it. They act like they are eating like dog and it is called ‘Doni Seve’ or boat offering.

To become a gorava and take deeksha you must be above 12 years in age. Four kalashas are placed in four direction and are bound by a ceremonial thread. The person who wants to take deeksha is made to sit in the middle, given advice about being gorava and a conch garland is put around his neck and is declared as the new devotee. Among the goravas there are  manteswamy, malurayya, Beereshwara, parvathi groups according to the allegiance to their gods.

The newly anointed devotee is given brass boat, sling bag for alms after which mari pooja is conducted. That day the new devotee must collect alms in at least four houses. During the Karthika month there is a big jathra in mylaralingan gudda where the main Gorava priest climbs a pole smeared with oil and gives the forecast of the future. He is called karanika swami. People have a very strong belief in the forecast of the karnik swamy. Dharawad Bidar, Gulbarga, Belagavi, Shivamogga, Mysore, Mandya and Bangalore also have Goravas and their own mylaralinga kshetras. They all recite mylaralinga’s epic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: 28-08-2023 10:39 AM Updated By: Creator


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