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Siva Samudram Falls on the Kaveri River near Mysore

The Kaveri River (Kannada: ಕಾವೇರಿ, Template:Lang-ta, also spelled Cauvery or Kaveri in English) is one of the great rivers of India and is considered sacred by the Hindus. The river originates at Talakaveri in the Western Ghats in the state of Karnataka, flows generally south and east through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and across the southern Deccan plateau through the southeastern lowlands, emptying into the Bay of Bengal through two principal mouths.

The Kaveri River basin is estimated to be 27,700 square miles with many tributaries including the Shimsa River, the Hemavati River, the Arkavathy River, the Kapila River, Honnuhole River, Lakshmana Tirtha River, Kabini River, Bhavani River, the Lokapavani River, the Noyyal River and the Amaravati River.

The river has supported irrigated agriculture for centuries and served as the lifeblood of the ancient kingdoms and modern cities of South India.

Mythic origin

The Kaveri may be called by devout Hindus as Dakshina Ganga, or the Ganges of the south, and the whole of its course is holy ground. According to the legend there was once born upon earth a girl named Vishnumaya or Lopamudra, the daughter of Brahma, but her divine father permitted her to be regarded as the child of a mortal called Kavera-muni. In order to obtain beatitude for her adoptive father, she resolved to become a river whose waters should purify all sin. Hence it is said that even the holy Ganges resorts to going underground once in the year to the source of the Kaveri, to purge herself from the pollution contracted from the crowd of sinners who have bathed in her waters.

River course

After the river leaves the Kodagu hills, to flow on to the Deccan plateau, it has three islands, Srirangapatna and Shivanasamudra in Karnataka and Srirangam in Tamil Nadu. At Sivasamudra island the river drops 320 ft (98 m), forming famous falls known as Gagan chukki and Bara Chukki. India's first hydroelectric plant (built in 1902) was on the left falls and supplied power to the city of Bangalore. Bangalore when electrified in 1906, was the first city in Asia to be electrified and to have electric street lights.

Kaveri in Karnataka

In its course through Karnataka the channel is interrupted by twelve anicuts or dams for the purpose of irrigation. From the anicut at Madadkatte, an artificial channel is led to a distance of 72 miles, irrigating an area of 10,000 acres (40 km²), and ultimately bringing a water-supply into the town of Mysore. Near Srirangapatna, there is an ancient aqueduct, the Bangara Doddi Nala, which was constructed by the Wodeyar ruler Ranadhira Kantirava in memory of his favorite consort. It is said to be the only aqueduct where the water from the very same river, dammed upstream, is carried by the aqueduct over the very same river few miles downstream . This aqueduct also served as a motorable bridge till 1964. There are many ancient and modern canals from the river for irrigational purposes. It also serves as the main drinking water source for many towns and villages. The cities of Bangalore and Mysore depend almost entirely on Kaveri for their drinking water supply.

Kaveri in Tamil Nadu

After entering Tamil Nadu, the Kaveri forms the boundary between the Erode District and the Salem district. The Bhavani River joins the Kaveri at the town of Bhavani, where the Sangameswara Temple, an important pilgrimage spot in southern India, was built at the confluence of the two rivers. The Amaravati River joins the Kaveri at a place called Tirumukkudalur near Karur.

Sweeping past the historic rock of Tiruchirapalli, it breaks at the island of Srirangam into two channels, which enclose between them the delta of Thanjavur (Tanjore), the "rice bowl" of South India and garden of south india. The northern channel is called the Kollidam (Coleroon). The other channel keeps the name of Kaveri and empties into the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar, a few hundred miles south of Chennai in Madras. On the seaward face of its delta are the seaports of Nagapattinam and Karikal.

The most ancient surviving irrigation work is the Grand Anicut or Kallanai, a massive dam of unhewn stone, 328 meters (1080 feet) long and 20 meters (60 feet) wide, spanning the stream of the Kaveri proper. The area irrigated by the ancient tank system was 69,000 acres (280 km²), which by the early 20th century increased to about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) and later drastically reduced after the construction of other dams upstream.

The chief 19th century work is the anicut across the Kollidam 2250 ft. long, constructed by Sir Arthur Cotton between 1836 and 1838. The Grand Anicut is the most ancient surviving irrigation work in the Kaveri River Delta.The dam is still in excellent repair, and supplied a model to later engineers.

Water sharing

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Kaveri water sharing has been a major issue of contention between the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the union territory of Pondicherry. A central government agency has been formed to look into this issue.

According to a study conducted by the central government in 1972, the utilisation of water from Cauvery in Tamil Nadu was 489 tmc against Karnataka's 177 tmc. Now Karnataka wants to utilise 465 tmc, against its present usage of 312.32 tmc. It is against this background that Tamil Nadu went to the Supreme Court.

The Cauvery Tribunal, in its interim award of June 1991, ordered that Karnataka should release 205 tmc of water to Tamil Nadu during one water year, that is from May to June. It also stipulated a weekly quantum of flow, much to the chagrin of Karnataka. The largescale violence let loose on Tamils living in Karnataka still haunts the politically-charged scenario. These measures had the backing of the Kannada Hitharakshana Vedike and even Tamil movies and Tamil Televisions used to be banned on such times. Even the United Front government of H D Deve Gowda, in which the DMK was partner, could not resolve the Cauvery row. It was Deve Gowda who had organised massive rallies against the Cauvery Tribunal award, way back in 1991.

The Government of Karnataka had repeatedly ignored the Interim Judgement and has refused to release the proper share of 205 TMC to Tamil Nadu while retaining more than twice the amount for their state. Even a single person jumping into the dam has been taken as an excuse for stopping the Water release from the Dams. Chief Minister S M Krishna had convened the Cabinet after a farmer, in protest against the release of water, committed suicide by jumping into the Kabini reservoir in Mysore on Wednesday. The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday met and decided to suspend the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu.Justifying his government's stand not to release Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu despite a Supreme Court directive, Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna on Wednesday said the order was 'unimplementable'. . Such blatant refusal of the directions of Supreme Court had even led to none other than the chief minister tendering an unconditional apology to Supreme Court for wilfully disobeying its order for release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu. . The Supreme Court bench termed Karnataka's conduct in the whole affair as "bad"

Points of interest

Talakaveri
Srirangapatna
Shivanasamudra
Krishna Raja Sagara
Hogenakal Falls (meaning "smoking rock"): The spray of the river hitting the rocks is so fine that it appears like smoke
Mekedaatu (Goat's Leap)
Tiruchirapalli (Trichy)
Srirangam
Karur
Thambaravarini

Religious significance

Talakaveri is a pilgrimage site set amidst Bramahagiri Hills in Kodagu. Thousands of piligrims flock to the three temple at the source of the river especially on the specified day known as Tula sankramana when the river water has been said to gush out like a fountain at a predetermined time.

The three major river islands have a strong Sri Vaishnava heritage, with sculptures of Lord Vishnu in a reclining posture on the legendary seven-headed Serpent as the celestial bed (Sheshashayana). These three temples are known as 'Adi Ranga', 'Madya Ranga' and 'Anthya Ranga'.

The Brihadeshvara Temple is located here.

References

External link

cauvery.com

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