Kongu Nadu · Deccan Inland Plateau
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Pongal and the Kangayam cattle days | 14–17 January | Four days marking the harvest — the pot boiled over at dawn, the cattle washed, horns painted and garlanded on Mattu Pongal, and in the Kangayam belt the bull-running events that follow, at which the animals of named lineages are shown and their breeders' standing settled for the year. |
| Thai Poosam at Marudhamalai | Thai, January or February | Murugan's festival, with kavadi carried up the hill through the night and a continuous procession of barefoot pilgrims from the plain. Palani, further south, draws the larger crowd; Marudhamalai is the region's own. |
| Panguni Uthiram at Perur | Panguni, March or April | The temple car is drawn through Perur and the Kanaka Sabha hall is opened for the festival nights, with nadaswaram played outdoors at length. |
| Bannari Amman festival | Chithirai and again in Aadi | A goddess temple at the foot of the Sathyamangalam ghat that draws pilgrims from both sides of the hill country, with fire-walking and the offering of cooked rice by the cartload. |
| Aadi Perukku | The eighteenth day of Aadi, early August | The river is honoured on the day its flow is expected to rise — observed on the Cauvery and Bhavani banks at Bhavani and Karur, with offerings floated at the water's edge and a picnic meal eaten on the sand. |
| Kaman Pandigai | Masi, February or March | The burning of Kama enacted over several nights in the villages, with lament and abuse songs, effigies and a village-wide argument staged in verse. The Kongu villages keep the form more fully than most. |
| Karthigai Deepam | Karthigai, November or December | Rows of oil lamps set on every doorstep and on the hill temples, with the Tiruchengode and Marudhamalai hills visible for a long way once lit. |
| Mariamman car festivals | The hot months, chiefly Chithirai to Aadi | Every Kongu town runs a goddess festival in the heat — the temple car drawn through the streets, the goddess cooled with water, milk and neem, koozh distributed by the pot to the whole street, and fire-walking at the close. Erode's is among the largest. |
The festival calendar of Kongu Nadu — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (8)