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Bangaloreans go nuts over groundnuts
Kadalekai Parishe, the annual groundnut fair is held on
the last Monday of Karthika Masa(month in Hindu calendar)
near Dodda Ganesha, temple, close to the Bull Temple at
Basavanagudi. The fair started from the previous day with
people thronging to the stalls selling buying variety of
groundnuts. The day is a full moon day with vendors from our
state and the neighboring states bring their first harvest
to the market. A legend behind the Kadlekai Parishe is that
in olden days farmers were aghast to learn that their crop
was being devoured in the night by somebody, one of the
farmers wanted to investigate and on Kaarthika Maasa night
which was pitch dark, he found out that the culprit was |
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none other
than Lord Shiva’s abode Nandi or Basava. Since then farmers
collectively pledged their first crop to the Lord Basava.
Another legend founder of Bangalore Kempe Gowda had come to
the temple and learnt about the story. He had prayed for the
welfare of the farmers at the temple, there he had a vision
of a treasure which he acquired later was used to build a
temple based on the architecture of Hampi of Vijayanagar
empire.
Incidentally, the big Bull Temple or the Basava Temple is on
the hillock near Bugle Rock in Basavanagudi (Temple of
Basava). Farmers from Tamill Nadu, Andra Pradesh and locals
offer their first crop to the Lord Basava. During this time,
every year, 100,000 lamps are lit at the Bull temple. This
is accompanied by the annual fair for groundnuts.The entire
Bull Temple Road will host the festive look during this
time.
The road is blocked from Bugle Rock to Ramakrishna Mutt. The
groundnut lovers find a variety of groundnuts from
Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Kolar, Doddaballapur, Ramanagara
and few areas of Telengana in Andhra Pradesh. The ground
nuts are spiced, fried, salted, boiled, sugar coated,
roasted. There are not just groundnut vendors but a whole
lots of funfair. There are many toys for children and short
buys and eats.
Thus the garden city with its turbulent life and lifestyle
has been struggling to keep some of the traditions like
Kadlekai (groundnut) parishe (fair).
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