The Legend of River Cauvery

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Bathing in the river is forgiveness of sins; even to meditate upon it is to achieve salvation. Pilgrimages are taken on for motivation without number. Great blessing is provided by the river, and with its water the lips of the dying are moistened.

It is accepted that the Tamils should have persisted their rivers with divine attributes, and given them a space in their Theocracy, and it would be eccentric indeed if legends concerning them had not grown up among so inventive a people. Thus the river Vaigai of Madurai was dug under the instructions of a king to whom the Lord Krishna became visible in the form of a beggar seeking for work. The appreciative God dug the river Vaigai in a single day, and bestowed the boon of water on the rice fields of the kingdom.

"Birth Place of River Cauvery "

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The river Cauvery rises in the mountains of Goorg, on the west coast, and, taking a wide-ranging South-westerly direction, it falls into the sea in the distirict of Thanjavur, on the east coast, following a course of about 400 miles. Evaluated with the gigantic rivers of Northern India - with the Ganges, the Brahmaputra or the Sutlej such a stream may appear unimportant indeed. But in point of length and breadth the river Cauvery might easily hold its own among the rivers of Europe, seeing that her course is double as long as that of the Seine. Like on the whole Indian rivers, however, the river Cauvery has the drawback of being wholly dry for more than six months in the year. But the mission of the Cauvery is to cultivate agriculture and not facilitate commerce. The river is not practicable for ships, and whole of that sacred water is dedicated to the irrigation of the land.

Jumping down from her strong holds in the mountains Goorg, the river Cauvery floods through the state of Karnataka, half encompassing the historic city of Srirangapatna, until she become apparent into Tamil Nadu at Hoganekkal. Gliding onwards through Salem, Erode, Karur districts into Trichy distict, where she opens her arms to hug the sacred fane of Srirangam, and finally pours all her accrued wealth upon the rich alluvial plains of Thanjavur, to drop at last, a tiny streamlet, into the Bay of Bengal.

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The legend of River Cauvery has its genesis in ancient scriptures (Puranas). Cauvery is linked with three famous icons King Kavera, Lopamudra and saint Agasthya. Lopamudra is the earthly, feminine sign of Cauvery herself. It is believed that Lopamudra was granted the form of a river, by Lord Brahma, in answer to austerities performed by all the three, including herself.

Both King Kavera and Saint Agasthya were separately performing penance with salvation as the goal. Delighted by their austerities, Lord Brahma becomes visible before them only to deny both direct salvations. As an alternative, Lord Brahma rules to King Kavera that he shall beget a daughter who will lead him to his salvation; to Agasthya, Lord Brahma says, he shall give him a heavenly wife; Agasthya is to live with her and enhance the world before finally attaining his salvation. In the meantime it was said that Vishnumaya, the godly daughter of Brahma -- the flawless feminine creation of the creator, conveying to Lord Brahma her wish to serve the world. Being pleased, Lord Brahma proclaim her to be, in due time, Lopamudra, the daughter of Kavera, then the wife of Agasthya, and ultimately the sacred of the sacred, the river Cauvery.

In another altered version, Cauvery is observed as the outpour of saint Agasthya's water pot (Kamandala); it is said the Lord Ganesha, assuming the form of a crow, upset Agasthya's water pot to release the Cauvery.

After assuming the form river, Cauvery executed another penance to become the sacred of rivers, more sanctified than even the river Ganges. Her penance was answered and Lord Vishnu comes into view before her. On hearing her aspiration, Lord Vishnu says "Ganges is blessed because she starts from my feet; but you are considerably more sacred to her as I ornament you as my garland". Upon this blessing, it is said that even the river Ganges is said to come underground, once a year, to river Cauvery to purify herself. To this day, Vaishnavaites observed river Cauvery, the river that embraces "Srirangam" in her bosom, as the most holy of rivers. Vaishnavaites affectionately regard Cauvery as the mother of Ranganayaki, the heavenly consort of Lord Renganatha of Srirangam.

"Hogenakal "

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The river Cauvery penetrates Tamil Nadu through Dharmapuri district leading to the flat plains where it rambles. It jumps down into the Hogenakkal Falls just earlier than it arrives in the town of Hogenakal in Tamil Nadu. There is a Stanley Reservoir in Mettur, where the Mettur dam has been raised. The Mettur Dam joins two mountains away from that valley through which the Cauvery flows, up to the Grand Anicut. The dam in Mettur takes away water not only for the cultivation but also to make certain the expected and sufficient supply of water to the significant Hydro-Electric generating station at Mettur. The river further runs through the length Erode district where river Bhavani, which running through the breadth of that district, comes together with Cauvery. The meeting of the rivers Cauvery, Bhavani and Akash Ganga (fantasy) is at the place of Bhavani Kooduthurai or Tiriveni Sangamam, Northern part of Erode City. At the same time as passing through Erode, two more tributaries come together. Noyyal and Amaravathi join it prior to it reaches Trichy district. Here the river becomes broad, with a sandy bed, and floods in an easterly direction until it splits into two at upper Anicut about 9 miles west of Trichy. The northern division of the river is called the Coleroon or Kollidam while the southern part keep hold of the name Cauvery and then goes straight eastwards into Thanjavur District. These two rivers join again in grand Anicut and form the Srirangam island near Trichy.

The great Chola king Karikalan-I has been immortalised as he raised the banks for the river Cauvery all the way from Srirangam near Trichy to Poompuhar (Kaveripoompattinam). It was built as far back as 1,900 years ago or even more. The Kallanai dam structured by him on the border between Trichy and Thanjavur is an outstanding work of engineering, which was made with earth and stone and has stood the vagaries of nature for nearly 2000 years. In 19th century, it was modernized on an advanced scale. The name of the chronological dam has since been changed to "Grand Anicut" and locates as the head of an enormous irrigation system in the Thanjavur district.

From this point, the Coleroon or Kollidam River runs north-east and absolves itself into the Bay of Bengal at Devakottai, a little south of Parangipettai. From river Coleroon, Manniar and Uppanai branch off at lower Anicut and cultivates a part of Mayawarm taluk and Sirkazhi taluk in Thanjavur District. After Grand Anicut, the Cauvery divides into several branches and covers the whole of the delta with a gigantic network of irrigation channels and gets lost in the wide expanse of paddy fields. The mighty Cauvery river, here is condensed to an irrelevant channel and enters the Bay of Bengal at the historical place of Poompuhar about 13 km north of Tharangampadi.