Cauvery Basin: Birth Place and first sangam

At Talakaveri, in the south west corner of Karnataka, the cauvery,the Ganga of the south, is born high up in the green Brahmagiri Mountain. Between October and November, depending on the calculation of local astrologers, the cauvery bubbles up in rebirth. Thousands of pilgrims climb up past Kodagus' coffee estates, to the forest covered Western Ghats to cleanse themselves of their sins in the tank built around her holy waters.

From peak of the Brahmagiri I saw shimmering in the west the golden line of the Arabian Sea,but the Cauvery does not run down to it, instead she turns her back and races in a steep drop to Bhagamandala,the first sangam. Here the river Kanaka joins the cauvery swelling her waters and to commemorate this union there is nearby a temple dedicated to Shiva with copper roofs curving up at each corner into the rearing heads of cobras. It is a much grander Kerala style temple than the shrines dedicated to Ishvara and Ganapati at Talakaveri. In a large courtyard are several shrines with tiny brass rimmed doors leading into the darkness that cloaks the gods.

On the ceilings are painted carvings of birds, demons, men dragging chariots, Krishna playing his flute as his women dance and bows with arrows drawn for battle. From here the cauvery runs down, meandering more as she grows when other rivers join her, feeding the plains and then out at the east coast into the Bay of Bengal.