Hethai Amma, Badaga Deity, Badaga Ancestral deity… Hethai Amma is the Badaga deity and they believe she is their ancestor from where they have sprung. Hethai means grandmother, and her words of wisdom and advice are upheld even today. Thousands of people from the Badaga community in the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu, observe their biggest festival, Hethai habba in Ketti and pay their respects to goddess Hethai Amma, their protector and benefactor. The deity of Badagas is HETHAI, the all powerful Goddess whose history is an epic of inspiration. The history of Hethai has been passed on from generation to generation by folklore and ballads.
Hethai Amma habba as a homage to our ancestors and also to mark the harvest. We offer our gratitude to Hethai Amma for a good crop, for our cattle and dairy produce,
This festival celebrated for a period of eight days in the Badaga month of ‘Emmeti’ corresponding to the Gregorian month of December –January witnesses the largest congregation of Badagas for a social event. ‘Hethai Amman’ festival is celebrated around a deified person who represents the epitome of sacrifice. Goddess ‘Hethai Amman’ is the grama devata or tutelary deity of the Badagas. She is depicted in various forms—as a virgin in the temple at Bergani and Jagathala, as a married woman in the ‘Hethai Amman’ temples in the other villages. The Badagas also believe that the origin of the Badaga community was through ‘seven hettes’ and this is reflected in their incantations of the ‘Hethai Harrake’ or ‘Hethai’s blessings’. The image of ‘Hethai Amman’ represented the manifestation of God. Most of the ‘Hethais’ represented chaste hood by choosing death to widowhood. A few like Bergani and Jagathala ‘Hethais’chose death even when the ‘Iyya’ they were betrothed to die before the marriage. Some just vanished after the demise of their husbands.
The Bergani ‘Hethai Amman’ festival sees the largest congregation of Badagas for a social event. Even while the ‘Amman’ worshipped is the youngest of the all the other ancestral goddesses – she attained ‘moksha’ while she was a ‘Kumari’ – she is considered to be the loftiest amongst all. All Badagas feel that to bow with devotion before the ‘sacred lamp’ called the ‘Dhodda Divige’ in the Badaga language at the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum of the ‘Hethai Manai’ or the abode of ‘Hethai Amman’ and pay a token amount called ‘Kannike’ in the Badaga language, ensures the benevolence and benediction of goddess ‘Hethai Amman’. It is imperative that the contribution placed by a devotee in the ‘Hethai Manai’ be of lower denomination coins—normally two twenty-five paisa coins—ensuring equality before ‘Hethai Amman’ by preventing individuals from publicly displaying their wealth by making large contributions. Further, many devotees fulfil their vows by donating for the ‘annadhanam’ or community feeding on the days of the festival.
A few of the persons amongst the ones who possess the ‘Hethai Dhadi’ perform divination through oracles and guide devotees on ‘prayachitham’ or ‘penance’ to overcome retribution due to their wrong acts. An important aspect of the adornment of goddess ‘Hethai Amman’ is the cloth she is draped with. This cloth is woven by a Chetty weaver, who is called ‘Maga chetty’ by the Badagas. The Chetty who hails from the region of Sirumugai, is a hereditary weaver of the cloth used for ‘Hethai Amman’. He is a person of high religious integrity and performs all the vows of purity followed by the Badagas who possess the ‘Hethai Amman’ staff. Now, the ‘Maga Manes’ also known as ‘Madi Mane’ (‘Weaving House’) is built in the vicinity of the ‘Hethai Manes’. The hereditary Chetty weaver sets up his loom in the ‘Maga Manai’ a week prior to the Hethai festival and weaves the cloth with seven stripes—representing the seven Hethais who founded the Badaga community. During this period the persons who possess the ‘Hethai Dhadi’ also stay with the Chetty in the ‘Madi Mane’. The cloth that is woven is then washed in a stream that was dedicated only for this purpose called the ‘Madi Halla’.
Even while worshipping ‘Shakthi’ is a pan Indian tradition in Hinduism, the Badagas believe that their ancestral goddess ‘Hethai Amman’ epitomises all the qualities of valour, wealth and knowledge seen in the Hindu female trinity of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati and is singly responsible for their fortunes.
“OM”
COMPILED BY
R. HARISHANKAR