Gorehabba

Gorehabba (lit. 'cow dung festival' in Kannada) is a local festival celebrated in Karnataka and in Gumatapura, a Kannada-speaking village in the Talavadi region of Erode district, Tamil Nadu, situated on the border with Karnataka.[1][2][3] It is dedicated to Beerappa, a god worshipped by Kurubas. It is celebrated a day after Diwali's Bali Padyami, whereby the festival involves participants playfully throwing or smearing cow dung on one another as part of a local ritual tradition.[4][5][6]

Background

Main articles: Beerappa and Kuruba
See also: Cow dung § In Hinduism

As per local legends, god Beerappa, who is worshipped by the Kuruba community, was born from cow dung; therefore, the festival is celebrated by splashing cow dung on one another.[7] It is also believed that participating in the cow dung splashing game cures people of all kinds of diseases, which is one of the reasons for keeping the tradition alive, even after hundreds of years.[8]

Cow dung has ritual importance in Hinduism, where it is believed to have cleansing properties and is used in purification rituals.[9] According to Shiva Purana, certain ceremonial ablutions on the linga are performed with panchagavya that contains a mix of five substances obtained from cows viz., cow's urine (gojala), dung (gomaya), milk (kṣīra), curd (dadhi) and ghee (ājya).[10]

Festival

The festival is around 300 years old.[2] The ceremony begins early in the morning, when men, women and children start collecting cow dung from all over the village and dump it behind the local Beerappa Temple. Later, girls and half-naked boys go around the village collecting oil and butter to offer puja at the temple. Later, they collect more oil and butter and offer puja at the Karappa Temple, which is located one kilometre from the Beerappa temple.[11] Once the puja is done, the villagers return in procession. On the way back, one person is designated as the chadikora (snake). Then a moustache and beard made of herbs are fixed on him, he sits on a donkey and is taken to the temple in procession.[11][4]

After reaching the temple, the chadikora's moustache and beard are removed and buried in the pit where the dung heap has been deposited. Then, a puja is offered on the cow dung heap and the celebration begins. The first act after the puja is to sprinkle dung on the priest, which is considered the signal to start throwing cow dung at each other. Each person in the village is pushed into the pit and smeared with cow dung. At the same time, thousands of people from the surrounding villages gather to watch the ceremony. [4][11]

Later, an effigy of the chadikora is made and taken to a nearby hill called Kondigekara Gudda to be burned, along with a chicken. The villagers cleanse themselves in the lake, return to the village and worship the chadikora.[4][11]

Similar to Gorehabba, people in the village of Kairuppala near Aspari in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh celebrate Pidakala War.[12]

In 2025, American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira released videos in which he participated in the festival.[13][14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Cattle Royale: Dung Fight Marks End of Diwali". ABC News. 7 November 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b Madhav, Pramod (4 November 2024). "Why does this Tamil Nadu village throw cow dung to end Diwali?". India Today. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  3. ^ "Villagers celebrate unique cow dung splashing ritual". The Hindu. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d "Gorehabba". Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India (SCFI). Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  5. ^ "This Indian village celebrates cow dung festival to mark end of Diwali". Hindustan Times. 7 November 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  6. ^ Phadnis, Shekher (16 October 2011). "A Strange Diwali Celebration". The Navhind Times. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  7. ^ Sinha, Anamika (25 October 2025). "Inside India's wildest Diwali celebration: Villagers in Karnataka throw cow dung to mark end of festivities". The Financial Express. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  8. ^ "Gorehabba". Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India (SCFI). Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  9. ^ Daria, S.; Islam, M. R. (2021). "The use of cow dung and urine to cure COVID-19 in India: A public health concern". The International Journal of Health Planning and Management. 36 (5): 1950–1952. doi:10.1002/hpm.3257. PMC 8239506. PMID 34037266.
  10. ^ Shastri, J. L. (1950). The Siva-Purana, Part 1. Motilal Banarsidass.
  11. ^ a b c d "Dung-slingers aim at peace". Deccan Herald. 8 November 2010.
  12. ^ "People are throwing cow dung at each other". Metro. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  13. ^ Basak, Anuj (24 October 2025). "What is Gorehabba? YouTuber Tyler Oliveira seen screaming "They are going to kill me" as he participates in India's cow-dung throwing festival". SoapCentral. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  14. ^ Sinha, Anamika (25 October 2025). "Inside India's wildest Diwali celebration: Villagers in Karnataka throw cow dung to mark end of festivities". The Financial Express. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
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