GULBARGA: Nagapanchami, the popular Hindu festival, falls on the fifth day of the bright half of Shravan month of Hindu calendar (on August 4 this year). People worship the snake or Nag on this day. But the people of Kandakoor village, about 20 kms from Yadgir, worship the idol of a scorpion and play with scorpions too.Worshipping scorpions or an idol of a scorpion is very uncommon in the state. However, Nagapanchami is celebrated as the Chelina Jatre (Fair of Scorpions) at Kandakoor. All villagers, irrespective of caste, creed and community, celebrate this fair by preparing sweets in their houses. The women, born in the village but married to other places, come to their parents’ houses to worship the Scorpion Goddess (Kondammai). On the Nagapanchami day, the villagers go to the nearby hill, popularly known as the “Chelina Betta” (Hill of Scorpions) between 3pm to 6pm. They make a bee line to the hill singing folk songs. Children also mount the hill in large numbers. After worshiping the idol of the Scorpion Goddess along with a separate statue of snake with milk, the children and elders start catching live scorpions beneath the stones on the hill. There will be at least one scorpion (small or big) under each big stone of the hill on the Nagapanchami day.The children play with scorpions by putting them on different parts of their bodies, including their tongues. The scorpions do not bite them and no one is scared of them too. After playing with live scorpions, the villagers bring the scorpions to the temple and pour them before the Goddess. They offer prayers and later get down from the hill. Interestingly, there will be no scorpions on the hill from the next day. The doctors and experts normally say the scorpions found in India are not so poisonous to kill human beings. Stinging of some scorpions causes pain and some other scorpions’ stinging may cause itching. However, the word scorpion sting itself is enough to instil fear among the people. Then, how does one explain the fearless behaviour of the Kandakoor villagers, including children, towards the scorpions?A fair that cheers all villagersBegum Bee Mulla, an old woman, says that the villagers of all castes take part in the fair enthusiastically everty year. They climb the small hill and offer prayers to Kondammai (in Telugu Konda means hill and Kondammai means the mother of the hill). Some people define Kondi as sting and Kondammai means the Goddess of sting. The devotees offer saree, oil and coconut to the deity on the hill.Begum Bee says that there is strong belief that scorpions will not trouble the people who worship the Scorpion Goddess on Nagapanchami day on the hill. She claims there are hardly any case of scorpion bites in the village in recent years.A person belonging to Boyin community is the priest of the Kondammai temple. Priest Babu Siddapur told The New Indian Express that the worshipping of scorpions is going on in the village since many decades. “More and more people are coming in recent years thanks to the media coverage. The scorpions found on the Nagapanchami will not sting anyone. All people, including children, play with scorpions and feel happy after celebrating the festival,” he explains. Curiously, there is no record of any scorpion bite at the primary health centre, adjacent to the scorpion hill.District administration, departments unawareIt was shocking to find out that neither the Yadgir district administration or the Department of Geology know about this fair of scorpions. This is because Kandkoor is an isolated village bordering Andhra Pradesh. Though many TV channels including some Telugu and Kannada channels have telecast the event, the officials might not have seen it. Yadgir Assistant Commissioner Kavita Mannikeri pleaded her ignorance about the fair. She told The New Indian Express that the district administration will observe this fair and make all arrangements to look it in a scientific manner. Yadgir District Health Officer Dr Malikarjun Mukka said no cases of scorpion bites have been reported on the Nagapanchami day in recent years. He said that he will ask his staff to monitor the movement of scorpions from August 1 in Kandkoor hill and find out to which species they belong and whether they are poisonous or not. When contacted, Chairman of the Department of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Zoology, Gulbarga University, Dr Vijaykumar said that a team of the department will be sent to Kandkoor well before Nagapanchami to study the movement and behaviour of the scorpions. “It is natural that animals will not harm anyone unless they are instigated. But it is really surprising to know that scorpions do not sting anyone though people catch and play with them,” he observed. “We have to check why the scorpions become inactive or weak on Nagapanchami day there,” he added.“It is really a matter for research,” Geologist Nijagunappa of Gulbarga University, presently the chairman of Environmental Science Department in Gulbarga University said. “The geologists can study the topography of the hill and find why so much of scorpions surface on Nagapanchami and why they seem inactive then. We also have to find out whether the villagers are accustomed scorpion stings,” he said.
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