Traditions are what give different communities their identity. They serve as moorings to keep a community stable during times of change and disruption. These traditions, oftentimes ritualised, act as transmitters of communal values and beliefs over generations.

The Kodava community of Coorg (or Kodagu) have distinctive practices peculiar to them as an agricultural and martial group of people. Rituals of many kinds grace their social and festive occasions stamping them with a uniqueness that is all their own.

Universally, light is seen as a symbol of awareness and consciousness. In lighting a lamp, one is seeking a deeper understanding of oneself and the world. It is a placeholder for faith and the quest for meaning in one’s life.  Lighting a lamp is a ritual that is common to many traditional communities in India.                  

 

It is an auspicious gesture before the commencement of significant activities and enterprises in the life of their members like marriage, moving to a foreign land and the start of a business. It is also an offering to the Gods with a fervent prayer for success in these critical undertakings.

The commonplace occurrence of lamp lighting among Indian communities has given rise to a variety of lamps crafted from a host of materials – from mud and stone to different types of metals both ordinary and precious. They are also varied in their shapes and forms to render some of them as works of art in their own right.

The Thook bolcha (also known as Nellaki bolcha) is a hanging lamp of sophisticated form fashioned from brass and its alloys. Until recently these were all hand crafted, being commissioned by families to use specific materials and shapes as an indication of their social status. But the Thook Bolcha was never seen as an indicator of personal wealth. It’s role in a household, high or low, was purely scared in nature. 

This lamp is an indispensable part of every Kodava ancestral house (Ainmane). It would be lit at the break of dawn and again at dusk as an act of reverence and gratitude. It would also be lit on every important family occasion to mark the birth of a child, the marriage of a member, a bountiful harvest or the start of a new venture. In particular, it was lit in veneration of the forbears of a Kodava family, clan and lineage who had sustained the line’s continuity over time against different odds.

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