Kaveri River
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Siva Samudram Falls on the Kaveri River near Mysore |
The
Kaveri River (
Tamil:காவிரி,
Kannada:ಕಾವೇರಿ, also spelt
Cauvery or
Kavery in English) is one of the great rivers of
India and is considered sacred by the
Hindus. The river originates in the
Western Ghats range of
Karnataka state, flows through
Karnataka and
Tamil Nadu across the southern
Deccan plateau and then the southeastern lowlands, and finally empties into the
Bay of Bengal. The source of the river is considered to be
Talakaveri, located in the Western Ghats at 4187 feet above sea level. Its flows generally south and east for around 765 km, emptying into the Bay of Bengal through two principal mouths. Its basin is estimated to be 27,700 square miles, and it has many tributaries including
Shimsa,
Hemavati,
Arkavathi,
Kapila,
Honnuhole,
Lakshmana Tirtha,
Kabini,
Bhavani,
Lokapavani,
Noyyal and
Amaravati.
The river has supported irrigated agriculture for centuries, and the Kaveri has been the lifeblood of the ancient kingdoms and modern cities of
South India.
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 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.
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.
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. Large dams were constructed across the river for irrigation at
Krishna Raja Sagara in Karnataka and at
Mettur in Tamil Nadu. Sharing the river water has been a major bone of contention between the farmers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for well over a century, and remains unresolved.
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Kaveri river bed at Tiruchirapalli, after years of dam-induced drought |
After entering Tamil Nadu, the Kaveri forms the boundary between the
Erode and
Salem districts. 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 cauvery 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 garden of
South India. The northern channel is called the
Kollidam (Coleroon); the other preserves the name of Kaveri and empties into the Bay of Bengal at
Poompuhar, a few hundred miles south of
Chennai (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, across the stream of the Kaveri proper. The area irrigated by the ancient system was 69,000 acres (280 km²), which by the early
20th century had been increased to about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²). The chief
19th century work is the anicut across the Kollidam 2250 ft. long, constructed by Sir
Arthur Cotton between
1836 and
1838.
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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
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Mekedaatu (Goat's Leap)
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Tiruchirapalli (Trichy)
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Srirangam*
Karur*
ThambaravariniTalakaveri is a pilgrimage site set amidst Bramahagiri Hills in
Kodagu. Thousands of piligrims flock to the 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 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'.
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cauvery.com
