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Kail Podh (festival of arms), Kodagu
The day the guns come out of the prayer room for a village shooting match
The date is fixed; the Karnataka holiday list, issued in mid-November of the previous year, gives it as a Kodagu holiday.
The legend
Kail means weapon and podh festival. While the family worked the fields, the weapons were kept in the prayer room, the kanni kombare.
On 3 September, with the field work done, it is time to guard the crop from wild boar, and the weapons come out again.
Weapons are sacred to the Kodavas: the 1878 Arms Act already exempted them from its restrictions, and the right still stands.
Customs
Weapons in flowers
The weapons are brought out, cleaned and decked with flowers. After bathing the family worships them, and the eldest hands a gun to the head of the house.
Coconut games
Marksmanship is tested on a coconut tied high in a tree; Kodava Samajas hold games like snatching a coconut from a group or hitting one with a stone.