Kateel temple grows paddy for rituals

Mangaluru, Oct 03: After various holy saplings in the ‘Moola Kudru,’ giving it a touch of mini-forest, Kateel Sri Durgaparameshwari Temple has now made one more record by growing paddy here.

Moola Kudru at Kateel is the original place where the Bramarambike is said to have killed the demon king Arunasura. Situated amidst the two streams of Nandini, behind the Kateel temple, this place has a small temple. While renovating the place a few years ago, the temple administration decided not to give importance to construction activities here but to give a natural touch by growing various types of trees.

Last year, during the Brahmakalashotsava celebration, various types of saplings based on ‘Nakshatra,’ and ‘Graha,’ were planted here. This turned out to be a crowd puller.

Now there is one more attraction to this place. The temple administration sowed paddy in a small area here that is now ripe for harvest.

“The temple needs paddy ears for ‘Puddar,’ (Hosa akki oota or harvest festival) and also Dhanya Pooje during Deepavali. The paddy grown here will be used for these two rituals,” temple hereditary archak Sriharinarayanadasa Asranna told The Canara Post.

“The temple had paddy fields which it lost during over the years. We had to depend on the fields of others. But now we are growing paddy in our place for our rituals,” he said.

Though in a small area, the temple plans to grow two crops in a year. The next one will be after Deepavali.