your bridge home
Tales of the Gods
Seven of them arrived on the Malabar coast inside a conch shell. Four crossed the Ghats, and the fourth brother stayed.
They arrived on the Malabar coast inside a conch shell. Seven of them, six brothers and a sister.
Then they separated.
The three eldest brothers stopped in what is now Kerala, each choosing a village that would go on honouring him. The other four kept going.
They crossed the Western Ghats, up out of the coastal heat, over the ridge, and down into the hill country on the far side.
That country is Kodagu, which most of India calls Coorg. Steep, wet, forested, and now covered in coffee.
The fourth of the seven stayed there. His name is Igguthappa.
The Kodavas understand him as a local form of Kartikeya, Shiva's son.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.