Būta Kōlā/buːt̪ʌ/ is the local pronunciation while the standardised Sanskrited Tulu pronunciation is /bʱuːt̪ʌ koːlɑː/ (Tulu: Bhūta Kōla), also referred to as Bhūta Kolam, Daiva Kōlā or Daiva Nēmā, is a Hindu folk dance performance practised, believed and protected by the Tuluvas of Tulu Nadu and parts of Malenadu of Karnataka and Kasargod in northern Kerala, India. The dance is highly stylised and performed as part of "Bhootaradhane" or "Daivaaradhane" or worship of the local deities of the Tulu-speaking population in South India. It has influenced Yakshagana folk theatre. Būta kōlā is closely related to Theyyam of North Malabar region and some parts of Karnataka. Theyyam is an evolved form of Būta Kōla. Theyyam, in turn, shares similarities with a similar Hindu folk dance called Thirayattam.
It involves extended chanting of Tulu Ballards and ceremonial preparations that typically span 8 to 10 hours. The ritual culminates with the placement of the mudi (sacred headgear) on the performer, a moment believed to mark the entry of the deity into the performer's body. As part of the process, the performer consumes madhyam or Kali (toddy), which is believed to suppress the person's consciousness, allowing the divine consciousness of the daiva to manifest. This practice aligns with philosophical concepts found in Hindu texts such as the Yoga Vasistha, which describe how divine entities (devatas) can enter the human body, parakāya praveśanam at a Paramanu level. Hinduism traditionally recognises a multiplicity of devatas, often cited as 33 koti devatas along with the trinity Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara and with the idea of Brahman, the highest universal principle.Karippath, R. (2018). Theyy.aprapancham (Malayalam). Mathrubhumi Books. ISBN 978-9386822444.
List of Daivas Bobbarya This God of the seas is worshipped mostly by members of the fishing community.
Guliga
Guliga or 'Guligan', also known as 'Gulige', is the most commonly worshipped Daiva, particularly by the Tuluvas. As per legend, Guliga is a goblin born out of a stone. Goddess Parvati discovered this stone in a pile of ash. Guliga was created when Shiva flung this ash into the water and was sent to Vishnu after his birth so that he may serve him. Guliga has extreme hunger which never ends; he even has the power to swallow the Earth.
However, Guliga was extremely aggressive, and this greatly annoyed Vishnu. Vishnu exiled Guliga to Earth as a result and tasked him with protecting the people on Earth.
Even on Earth, his ferocity and hunger caused disturbance. Lord Vishnu appeared once more and understood that only divine energy could calm him. He offered the tip of his little finger to Guliga. When Guliga bit it, divine peace flowed through him for the first time. His anger calmed, and he agreed to be the protector god of the humans. It has been foretold by Panjurli that anyone who persecutes humans and spreads evil will be killed by Guliga.Who Is Gulige Daiva? Untold Story
Jumadi
Jumadi is an androgynous spirit with an insatiable thirst. The legend of Jumadi describes a man-eating asura named Dhumasura, with a boon that neither a man nor a woman could kill him. Shiva and Parvati were invoked by their adherents, who then descended from Kailasha to slay the asura. On their way, Parvati felt hungry, and Shiva tried to satisfy her through various means, but she remained unsatiated. At last, Shiva offered himself and ordered Parvati to swallow him. As Parvati swallowed him, Shiva's head did not pass beyond his consort's throat. Their bodies fused, in which the face of Shiva appeared with a moustache, below which was the neck and the body of Parvati. The deity's throat featured the lingam and wore a crown of nagas (snakes). This androgynous form of Shiva and Parvati slew Dhumasura in battle, thus receiving the epithet Dhumavati (not to be confused with the Mahavidya goddess Dhumavati).
Kalkuda and Kallurti
They are Daivas who are brother and sister. According to legend, Kalkuda was a great sculptor who built the Gommateshwara (Bahubali) Statue in Karkala. After he completed building beautiful temples and monumental statues, the ruler of Karkala cut off his left arm and right leg so that he could not create such beautiful sculptures for any other king. On seeing her brother's state, Kallurti vowed to take revenge and requested Shiva to turn them into deities. Shiva agreed and the pair then took violent revenge on the king, his family, and his kingdom. Their destruction was only stopped when a master magician promised them that they would be worshipped as and how they wanted.
Koragajja
Koragajja is invoked for help in solving any problem, to get back something lost, or to get any work done on time.
Koti and Chennayya
Koti and Chennayya are twin heroes who are worshipped as martial gods.
Panjurli
A boar spirit that is worshipped to ward off the menace of wild boars in order to protect the crops. According to Tulu regional belief, a wild boar died in the Hindu god Shiva's celestial garden in Mount Kailash. The boar's offspring was adopted by Shiva's wife, the goddess Parvati. The young boar became aggressive as he grew older and began destroying the plants and trees in Shiva's garden. Shiva became upset and decided to kill him. Parvati, being considered as the mother of all animate and inanimate things, however, defended the boar and asked her husband to pardon him. So instead of killing him, Shiva banished the boar to Earth as his gana and granted him the status of a protector god, revered by humans. This particular boar became a Bhoota (Divine Spirit) known as Panjurli. But some people syncretise Panjurli with Varaha, the boar incarnation of the god Vishnu, since the two deities are boars. He is also considered as a part of Shiva because of which he is also known as Shiva Shambhootha. Panjurli Daiva is also one of the earliest daivas who is worshipped all over Tulu Nadu. His earliest worship dates back to 700 BCE-800 BCE along with Bermer Daiva (Brahma). The idea behind the worship of Panjurli is that wild boars destroyed crops and thus, farmers started worshipping a boar god who was known as Panjurli and in return, they believe that Panjurli protects the crops.
Etymology and History
The word is derived from būta / bhootha (Tulu for ‘spirit’, ‘deity’; in turn derived from Sanskrit भूत for ‘free elements’, 'which is purified', 'fit', 'proper', ‘true’, 'past', 'creatures'; Anglicized: ‘bhūta’, ‘bhoota’, ‘bootha’) and kōla (Tulu for ‘play, performance, festival’, or 'shape/form').
A bhūta kōlā or nēmā is typically an annual ritual performance where local spirits or deities (bhūtas, daivas) are being channelised by ritual specialists from certain communities among the Tribe such as the Nalike, Pambada, or Parawa communities. The bhūta cult is prevalent among the Tuluvas of Tulu Nadu region. The word kōla is conventionally reserved for the worship of a single spirit whereas a nēma involves the channelising of several spirits in hierarchical order. In kōlas and nēmas family and village disputes are referred to the spirit for mediation and adjudication. In feudal times, the justice aspect of the ritual included matters of political justice, such as the legitimation of political authority, as well as aspects of distributive justice. The produce of land directly owned by the būta (commons) as well as certain contributions from the leading manors was redistributed among the villagers.
Types of Bhūta Worship The Bhūta worship of South Canara is of four kinds, kōla, bandi, nēma, and agelu-tambila. Kōla: Demi god dancing, is offered to the Bhūtas in the sthana of the village believed that which they are supposed to reside. Bandi: Bandi is the same as kōla, with the addition of dragging about a chariot, on which the one who is representing the Bhūta is seated; most often, he is from the nalke, pambada or ajala communities. Nēma: Nēma is a private ceremony in honour of the Bhūtas, held in the house of anyone who is so inclined. It is performed once in every year, two, ten, fifteen, or twenty years by well-to-do families. Agelu-tambila: is a kind of worship offered only to the family people, wherein rice, dishes, meat, alcohol are served on plantain leaves and offered to spirits, deities, departed forefathers annually or once wishes are completed.
Performance The ritual performance at a būta kōla or daiva nēma involves music, dance, recital, and elaborate costumes. Recitals in Old Tulu recount the origins of the deity and tell the story of how it came to the present location. These epics are known as pāḍdanas.
Cosmology According to the ethnographer Peter Claus, the Tulu reveal a cosmology which is distinctly Dravidian and thus different from the Puranic Hindu cosmology. Importantly, priesthood is not the preserve of a caste learned in scriptures but is shared between the ruling aristocracy on one hand and ritual specialists from the lower strata of society on the other hand. The world is divided into three realms: firstly, the realm of cultivated lands (), secondly the realm of wastelands and forests (/), and thirdly the realm of spirits (). Grāmya and / form part of the tangible world, whereas is their intangible counterpart. As grāmya is constantly threatened by encroachment, disease, hunger and death from and , so is the tangible world under constant threat from the intangible world of the spirits. The world of the forest is the "world of the wild, unordered, uncontrolled, hungry beings of destruction".
The world of the forest and the world of the spirits are therefore seen as mirror images of each other. The wild animals threatening the human cultivator and his fields such as the tiger, the snake, the wild-boar, and the gaur, find their mirror images in their corresponding būtas Pilli, Naga, Paňjurli and Maisandaya.
The relationship between these three worlds is one of balance and moral order. If this order is upset by the humans, it is believed that the spirits become vicious. If the order is maintained, the spirits are believed to be supportive and benevolent. Thus, the spirits of Tulu culture are neither "good" nor "bad" as such; they are "neither cruel nor capricious. They methodically and persistently remind a lax humanity of the need for morality and the value of solidarity". Nobody is believed to be above the moral and cosmological norms of this threefold universe, not even the spirits or the gods. Thus the būtas are not whimsical or arbitrary in their judgement. The būtas are their patron's protectors with regard to a system of moral norms, not despite them.
Feudal relations of tribute and fealty mark the relations among the humans in the tangible world, among spirits in the intangible world and between humans and spirits across tangible and intangible worlds. While the world of humans is ruled by a mortal king, the world of the spirits is ruled by Bermeru, the lord of the forest and of the būtas. And just as the landed aristocracy depended on protection and support from their king, the world of humans depends on protection and support from the spirits. Thus once in a year at the time of kōla or nēma, the lord of the human world (patriarch, landlord, king) has to be reconfirmed in his authority by reporting to the spirit to which he is accountable. While the temporal lord's authority is dependent on the spirit; the authority of the spirit is guaranteed by the active participation of the villagers in the ritual. Thereby a certain degree of political legitimacy is upheld by the active participation of the villagers. Their withdrawal from the ritual can seriously affect the authority of the landlord.
As Claus observes, the principal mediators in this network of feudal transactions are communities who once upon a time may have led a liminal life between and /.
Worship