Even if you cannot even step out of the house due to the intense sunlight, it is the season in the environment when fruits bear from flowers. Yes, the elders believe that Tuluva Mother Earth, who becomes a bride during the Keddasa festival, will bear crop yields for Paggu month with prosperity. This miracle that takes place in the environment shows that the wind of the new year is blowing. As time moves on, the new year begins for us, which means on the first day of the month of Paggu. Our elders called this day Bisu, hence Paggu is the first month of the year for Tuluvas.
It is the tradition of the Tuluvas to welcome the new year by keeping the auspicious objects like agricultural products, gold, mirror, etc placed usually before the idol of the deity (kaNi) on Bisu festival.
On the Sankranti of the Suggi month, at night in a banana leaf, they used to put vegetables, cashew fruits, mangoes, tender/unripe jackfruit grown in the crop field near the house, and put a mirror in the middle-back of the leaf. The next day, the children were woken up early in the morning, covered their eyes with their hands and taken in front of the house of the god where the kani was placed, and were shown the kaNi. He prays to the Lords that this year will be full of prosperity and the agricultural crops will grow well. Paramanna prepared by including the piths of soft tender cashew nuts is special among dishes on that day.
A person who is cultivating on someone else’s farmland on the basis of lease goes to the owner of the land on Bisuhabba to ask if the land is available for cultivation this year as well. It is not good to go empty-handed. while going like this, it is not good to go empty-handed, so bring & give them vegetables and fruits that they have grown. If the owner of the agricultural land gave him a field to plough, he would take the plow and start plowing the same day. There is a ritual in some parts of Tulunad to offer Kola to the Bhootas on Bisu festival.
On the day of the Bisu festival, all the youths used to play the game of breaking coconuts. In this game, two people hold coconuts and hit each other, then whose coconut breaks is the loser, the loser has to hand over his broken coconut pieces to his opponent. Here the cracked coconut is called oTTetārai and the uncracked coconut is called BaNTatārai.
Thus, the Bisu festival is a day that infuses new vigor into the work and human life of the Tulu people. Let it be said that this year will see more development in life than last year in everyone’s life.
Author: Sushan Kotian
Translation: Mithun D