Kadlekai Parishe - Mar-di Gras of Bangalore

The city of Bangalore occupies a special place in the pride of India, not just on account of its external beauty and the IT revenue it is generating. We, the true blue Bangaloreans, have always loved the city because of its finer qualities seen through its countless carnivals, fiestas and cultural extravaganzas. And Kadlekai Parishe  is just one among them.

Basava (Nandi)

 Kadlekai Parishe, In English, translates to Groundnut festival or Peanut festival. Bangalore’s bountiful nature and an ideal climate have helped its people grow a broad spectrum of intercontinental plant wealth. Back in 1600s and 1700s, the surroundings of Bangalore cultivated a lot of peanuts. One of the legends says that cows often entered the groundnut growing fields and damaged the plant. And all the apprehensive farmers, pledged to offer their first harvest of peanuts to Nandi idol, also called as Basava.  This is how kadlekai parishe was started. Later the area surrounding this basava idol came to be known as Basavanagudi (translated as Bull temple).

Groundnut sellers from all over 

Thus, kadlekai parishe became an annual event (celebrated on the last Monday of Kartika Maasa, which is considered auspicious according to Hindu almanac) in Bangalore’s calendar. As time passed by, Basavanagudi itself has demonstrated a marvelous capacity for accepting, accommodating and sheltering the vast and varied groundnut sellers from all around the city (and parts of Tamil Nadu too).

Having spent the early days of my childhood in the vicinity of Basavanagudi (We stayed in Gavipuram Guttahalli for sometime before moving to north Bangalore)  I too have fond memories of it. It reminded me of my school days. During kadlekai parishe, after school, a bunch of  friends, Me, Joshi, Bhargav, Murali and many others  used to run to bull temple just to pick groundnuts and walk home; Chips made of tapioca were a new trend those days and I just loved eating it. Those manually driven giant wheel and merry go round rides were so ecstatic!

Heap of peanuts for sale

On this festival, Basavanagudi and the surrounding area is transformed so radically that if you take a real-estate tycoon to Bull temple area and tell him this is a prime location in Bangalore, he would not believe you AT ALL!  This is THE reason why I love kadlekai parishe. For a day, the otherwise bustling Bull temple road is transformed totally to a village, full of colors and vibrancy; A village that provides seclusion to the young generation who’ve not witnessed a carnival before; and to the old, who finds reminiscence of the old Bangalore.

In the necklace of Bangalore’s cultural heritage, kadlekai parishe is just one of the pendants. There are so many other pendants and I hope to write about them in coming days. Somewhere between taking pride in visiting all the malls and boasting about being cosmopolitan, we are deviating away for our own ethos. Take your kids to these events and give them a feel of cultural sophistication. The magnificence of a groundnut festival is something that shopping malls can never offer you. Kadlekai Parishe is Bangalore’s Mar-di Gras