Karnataka - Hassan

Brisk trade in coconuts

Good prospects: Coconuts kept at Kabballi village in Chennarayapatna taluk where the fair is held every Monday.

HASSAN: Kabballi, an otherwise sleepy village in Chennarayapatna taluk, comes alive every Monday as a weekly coconut market is held there. Sellers from Hassan, Tumkur, Mandya and Chitradurga districts do brisk business on the day. A fair is held every year in November at the Basaveshwara temple in the village, where stalls are put up and pujas conducted. Mass marriage ceremonies are also held during this period, which witnesses heavy sale of coconuts.

Manje Gowda from Hassan district who has been selling coconuts there since 2000, told The Hindu that as many as 75 traders came from these districts to sell coconuts, as the village was centrally located. They purchased the coconuts from farmers at Rs. 5 apiece and sold them at Rs. 6 or Rs. 7. He said that on an average, they sold about 70,000 coconuts a week, raking in a good Rs. 1.5 to Rs. 1.8 lakh as total income.

Mr. Manje Gowda said that after the weekly market was over, the remaining coconuts would be left at the venue and sold during the next session. No one steals the coconuts left behind.

“When we come back the next week, all the old coconuts are found as they were. Each one of us donates five coconuts to the temple,” he added.

Manjunath, a social worker from Hassan who visits the temple every year during the fair, told The Hindu that there were around 10 villages near Kabballi such as Nuggehalli, Bagur, Navile, Devihalli, Basavanapura and Kabballi. “The sale of liquor is banned in the area. Village residents do not bring liquor for sale to these villages. Nobody comes to the fair intoxicated,” he added.

Now the temple has been handed over to the Adichunchanagiri Math for maintenance.

The head of the math, Balagangadharanatha Swami, told The Hindu that they planned to build a school and a hostel there for poor students.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu