April 30, 2011

Round-hoofed, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long,
Round breast, full eye, small bend, and nostrils wide,
High crest, short ears, strait legs and passing strong,
Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide:
Look, what a horse should have he did not lack,
Save a proud rider on so proud a back.

- William Shakespeare, English dramatic poet (1564-1616) in Venus and Adonis.

When my wife was expecting our first child (daughter Primrose) we visited an Anglo-Indian lady who was in a live-in relationship with a Parsee bachelor. On being told that a baby is expected next month, her reaction was instant: “Even my Fixie is expecting” – that being her pet bitch. I was reminded of that when watching the royal wedding in London. I was distracted from the nuptial couple to the display of horses, horse carriages and their riders. However, Shakespeare’s lament about having no proud rider is disproves by London’ display on this royal wedding day.

Against this background, It is difficult to believe that Mangalore has not one horse today. Time was when a town’s importance was measured by the number of horses it hosted, specially in the American Wild West. Thus came the expression "One-horse town." Mangalore is now literally no-horse city.

Mangalore's last horse Chetan

Once Arab traders brought horses to Mangalore and camped near the present railway station and the place came to be called Kaprigudda – after the dark stable hands that brought the horses and camped there. Kudroli also derives its name from horses stabled there.

Until the first bus plied on the roads of South Kanara in 1929, the elite traveled by horse carriages and jatkas. But, with the auto-rickshaws coming on the scene, horses became redundant and also expensive to maintain - leading to the disappearance of horses from the streets of Mangalore.

The only horse that remained in Mangalore till December 2006 was used for religious ritualistic purpose and had its one hour of fame, in the whole year, on the eighth day of Kadri Utsav when the Ratha takes one round in the temple courtyard.

The role of horse on Kadri Temple Utsav goes back to over one thousand years when the founder of Jogi Panth, Matsendranathji, built the Jogi Math on top of the Kadri Hill. The horse was owned, stabled and looked after by the Jogi Math. The annual Utsav at the Shri Manjunatha Temple at Kadri starts with the flag hoisting on Makara Sankranthi. On the eighth day Brahmarathotsava (Car festival) takes place. At 7 PM, the Ratha is given a start signal by the Arasu or Raja of Jogi Math, who rides on a decorated horse, saying "Avo beta, Manjunatha" (Come son, Manjunatha). Then the Ratha is pulled one round of the courtyard surrounding the main temple complex. With this, the role of the horse ends. Throughout the year the horse was left free to forage on Kadri Hill and return to its stable in the Jogi Math complex.

The Math had its own horse. A devotee secured a horse from Shimoga. Named Shanker, it served for about 25 years until it died of old age. Two horses secured from Bangalore died shortly after coming to Mangalore – one in an accident and the other due to illness. The third horse, Chetan, was in service till it died in December 2006 of serious wounds. As the Jogi Mutt authorities were not keen on rearing a captive horse for the one-hour annual ceremony, Mangalore hosts no horse since the death of Chetan.

An interesting horse-related story lies behind the name Kaibattal which is a valley lying to the south-east of Kadri Sri Manjunatha temple. It can be accessed through Commander George Martis Road, branching north from the Kadri- Mallikatte Road or through a series of footpaths near Kadri Toll Gate. There is also access from Nanthoor bus stand. It is the starting of a valley which extended to Gurpur River and was once host to paddy fields and coconut and areca nut groves. There were a few heritage houses like the one now occupied by Prof. Alban Castileno who was physics professor for generations of students who passed out of St. Aloysius College between 1950 and 1980 when he retired to pursue his hobbies of writing and music.
 
The Kaibattal story is linked to the main Kadri temple on the crest of the hill and Jogi Mutt on the crown of the hill. The head of the Jogi Mutt is called Raja or Arasu and is appointed every twelve years. He is selected during the Kumbha Mela, observed once in every twelve years, at Tramakeshwara Temple near Nasik. Incidentally, all the Rajas of Kadri Jogi Mutt have come from the Hindi belt, except one in the 1980s, whose roots were in Dharwad. One of the public duties of the Raja or Arasu of the Jogi Mutt is to ride a decorated horse from the Mutt to the courtyard of Kadri Manjunatha Temple and order the commencement of the ratha pulling by declaring “Avo Beta Manjunatha”.
 
This traditional honour bestowed on the Raja was increasingly resented by Kadri temple priests (Thantries). One year they prevailed upon the temple management not invite the Raja to signal the start of the ratha. On the ratha yathra day, the crowd was asked to pull the ropes. However much they tried, the ratha wouldn’t budge. Then a management delegation went uphill to the mutt and asked pardon of the Raja and begged him to perform his traditional role. When the Raja gave his traditional call for the ratha to move, it moved smoothly to take a round of the courtyard.
 
This was a slap in the face of the chief thanthri who, out of anger and frustration, threw away the plate (battal) in which pooja materials are carried. The area in which the swung battal landed came to be called Kaibattal. Today the paddy fields and cocanut groves have yielded place to bungalows and high-rises, many of their residents not knowing why it is called Kaibattal.
 
Thus, today Mangalore is a no-horse town. The last time a horse and a carriage was seen in Mangalore was when a Catholic wedding took place at Bendore church about three years ago and the horse, carriage and its driver were accessed from Mysore at a reported cost of Rs 25000 for their 3-day outing from Mysore.

John B Monteiro, author and journalist, is editor of his website www.welcometoreason.com (Interactive Cerebral Challenger)

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