The Kaveri River

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THE KAVERI RIVER

Clare Arni

The 785-kilometre-long Kaveri River has its source in the small sacred tank at Talakaveri in the Kodagu district of Karnataka. It drops more than 1,355 metres during its course before it reaches the sea at Poompuhar in the Bay of Bengal. The Kaveri has great historic as well as religious importance. Successive dynasties, including the Gangas, Cholas, and Mysore and Tanjavur kings, chose to build their cities on its banks. Their kingdoms, spanning over 1500 years, bear witness to the fact that they were great patrons of music, art and literature. The remnants of these are still found on the banks of this great river.

The source is on the wooded slopes of the Brahmagiri peak. A natural spring is enclosed in a small shrine where pilgrims come to bathe in her sin-cleansing waters. Once a year, the river is said to be reborn and bubbles forth in the early morning mists of the Western Ghats, when its water is collected by the gathered hordes. The Kaveri falls rapidly, 450 metres through the woodlands of Kodagu before it broadens out and enters the Karnataka tableland. Several dams and canal systems feed this rich alluvial plain where rice and sugar grow as far as eyes can see.

This venerated river encloses an island on which is situated the town Srirangapatnam, a fascinating place littered with historical monuments built by Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan. They used this natural fortification as their capital, from which they successfully evaded the British until Tipu was betrayed and the palaces were razed to the ground. Barely twenty kilometres from here is a gem of Hoysala architecture—the 13th century Keshava Temple at Somnathpur with its exquisite stone carvings. Before the river starts its steep descent through a series of waterfalls, it passes through Talakad, the 8th- and 9th-century capital of the Ganga dynasty, much of which is buried beneath the shifting sand dunes.

By the time the river reaches the sacred island of Srirangam in Tamil Nadu, it is almost a kilometre wide. This large temple complex with its seven concentric high stone walls, each with its own gopuram, is the abode of Vishnu in the form of Lord Ranganatha. Srirangam is closely followed by the imposing 66-metre high Brihadishvara Chola temple in Tanjavur whose stone capital is an architectural feat in itself. The town has fine palaces and administrative buildings, as it remained a capital under different rulers until the 19th century. Though Tanjavur was the main political centre of the delta, Kumbakonam was the principal religious centre, as is attested by the huge number of temples found there to this day. These include the exquisite 12th-century Airavateshvara Temple at Darasuram that was conceived as a celestial chariot.

The river ends with a mere trickle at Poompuhar, which used to be a great mercantile centre with links to Rome, Southeast Asia and China. The coast is dotted with settlements of the Portuguese, Dutch, French and Danish who were involved in seaborne commerce. Thanks to the trade offered by this coastline, the area became a multicultural centre with well-known churches like Velanganni and the Dargah of Nagore attracting pilgrims from far and wide. All along the Kaveri River, great kingdoms grew and the lands that it watered flourished providing for all that lived on her banks.