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Every year in the end of November or beginning
of December, groundnut growers from all over come to Bangalore
to participate in this two-day festival. Mounds and mounds
of groundnuts can be found at the historical Bull Temple in
Basavanagudi during this period. Locally this is called 'Kadalekai
Parishe' literally meaning Groundnut Fair. Long queues of
devotees are at the temple throughout the festival taking
turns to worship the sacred bull - Nandi.
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Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bangalore built
a temple in the Dravidian style, it has a monolithic bull,
which is 4.5 mts high and 6.5 mts long and is made of gray
granite. This Nandi bull is revered as the vehicle of Shiva.
Legend has it that this temple was built to appease a bull
that devoured all the groundnuts grown here.
The bull then stopped damaging the crop and
the grateful growers held a Groundnut Fair at this place every
year and made a symbolic offering of the crop to this idol.
This continues even to this day. During those days, this area
was known as Sankenahalli. (Nearly four hundred years ago
according to some estimates).
Continuing this tradition, every year, on
the last Monday of the Kartika masa (End of November or beginning
of December of the English calendar) groundnut farmers across
Karnataka and the neighbouring states come here and offer
their crop of groundnuts to the idol of the bull (Nandi).
On the first day of the festival, the Maharudrabhisheka is
at 6.30 a.m. at the Basavanagudi temple followed by a Mahamangalarathi
at 9.30 a.m. and a Deeparadhana at 6.30 p.m.
![Dodda Ganesha]() On
these two days of the festival, the entire temple complex
and the surroundings wear a festive look with balloons, merry-go-rounds,
sweet stalls and rows and rows of groundnut sellers. This
also provides a venue for the rural folk to mingle with the
city's population.
These groundnut sellers mainly
come here to make some money. Groundnuts are sold here by
the litre. A 100 litres of groundnut is sold at Rs 1,000.
However, the price is determined on the size and quality of
the groundnut. India is the largest producer of groundnuts
in the world.
These groundnuts come in
many varieties - salted or roasted, boiled or plain. Whichever
way you eat it, they are a good source of protein. Nevertheless,
over indulging could upset the liver. Eaten with jaggery they
provide iron, which is good for anemia. Groundnut is 'hot'
and jaggery is 'cool'.
One may recall here that
Gandhiji had once advised Indians to have some groundnuts
every day to be healthy. It is also known as the poor man's
Badami (Almond). The groundnut fair is being held here for
several decades now, but no one knows for sure why. .
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