Chasing the yellow clouds of Pattan Kodoli

There’re thousands of nomadic pastoralists here – and more coming. They are from different communities – Dhangars originally from Maharashtra and Kurubas from Karnataka. Whatever their annual migration routes, they gather every October-November and follow the iconic yellow clouds to converge here at Pattan Kodoli village.

It’s time to gather and celebrate the birth anniversary of their common deity Vitthal Birdev Maharaj at his temple in this otherwise nondescript village of Hatkanangle taluka. It’s a different kind of downpour and deluge invading Kolhapur on this occasion. It’s raining festivity and a flood of dancing devotees rock this district without destroying lives, houses and fields alike.

Many communities, the sub-groups and sub-castes of Dhangars and Kurubas from across the country, who consider Vitthal Birdev a protector of shepherds and farmers, flock to Maharashtra for this festival. "Vitthal Birdev holds profound significance for us. He is our divine protector, our spiritual solace, our guide. He is a symbol of unwavering faith, hope, and devotion,” a pilgrim tells me.

One of the important attractions of the festival is also the divine prophecies by Kheloba Rajabhau Waghmode, believed to be a messenger of Vitthal Birdev Maharaj, who takes a seventeen-day yatra (journey)on foot from his place in Ahjangoau hamlet in Solapur district to the temple in Kolhapur. The festivity that lasts four days includes everything from singing of folk songs, drum dances, temple rituals, a grand procession with spinning umbrellas, a play with bhandara (a yellow turmeric like powder), a fair with a market place, and divine prophecies by the oracle.

From here the two communities go their own ways. Between October and November and going all the way till March-April the pastoralist Kurubas of Karnataka, largely listed among Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the state, will move with their herd of sheep and goats from place to place, covering more than 700 kilometres. Their cattle grazing in the fallow fields will earn them modest sums for the organic manure from the farmers. But a major portion of the earnings of the Kuruba shepherds used to come from supplying wool for the coarse black woollen blankets locally called kambali – now declining in its popularity.

The Dhangars, listed as a Nomadic Tribe in Maharashtra, traditionally a sheep herder community, will be on their migratory track after the kharif harvest, around November and will continue till June. The families move from field to field, halting in makeshift tarpaulin shelters for around a month sometimes in each village. Men of the family have been shearing the sheep twice a year and selling the hair to Sangars, a sub-caste traditionally skilled at weaving that wool using handlooms. They weave ghongadya (blankets) from it.

Both the communities have various sub-castes and sub-groups that are spread across India. Kurubas also live in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in addition to Karnataka. Dhangars live in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, besides Maharashtra.

The various sub-castes that make up the Dhangar community – Hatkars, Gavlis, Khutekars, and Shegars – have their own distinct cultural characteristics and traditional livelihoods, including weaving, pastoralism, and cultivation. Many in the community have been facing growing threats to their traditional nomadic livelihoods, including access to traditional grazing lands, owing in large part to a ban on grazing in protected areas. This has cut off the community’s access to forest land.

In addition to the looming threat of forest officials and hefty fines, shifting weather patterns – especially during the monsoon season – have further constrained the community’s seasonal migrations within the region. This has led the Dhangars to raise a demand for their inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Maharashtra, which could provide them access to legally defined grazing corridors under the Forest Rights Act (2006).

The Kurubas also, in recent years, have been demanding a re-classification of the community among the ‘most backward’ category and as a Scheduled Tribe (ST). The community includes three primary sub-groups: the Unnikankans, who are traditionally associated with wool work; Hattikankans, who are engaged in agriculture, and Handes.

In some areas, the Kuruba and Dhangar people share overlapping identities due to their common pastoral traditions and historical connections, despite differences in language, regional presence, and cultural practices. Members of the Dhangar community speak Kannada and share cultural characteristics with the Kurubas in northern Karnataka. The communities also engage in livelihood exchanges through the production and sale of woollen products and livestock in markets and fairs, as in Pattan Kodoli.

But it is their shared connection to a threatened future of communities dependent on pastoral activities in a changing climate that bring an urgency to their faith in the oracle. Both communities believe in the predictions of Kheloba Waghmode, given in a dialect of Kannada and later interpreted and disseminated by the priest of the temple. Sachin Borde, a farmer from Solapur I came across says, “every year since 2018 I come here to receive blessings and listen to the prophecies. They guide me and many others to have an idea about the coming year. We stay prepared if there's a negative prediction coming from him pointing towards Baba.”

“Why so clean?" A group of devotees shout as they pass by me. "Someone​ should cover​ him​ with bhandara, [yellow powder] but spare his camera! Everyone receives blessings ​of our god,” a devotee says.

Waves of devotees, coloured in yellow, dancing, singing, swriling their umbrellas move towards the temple to listen to the prophecies of Kheloba Rajabhau Waghmode, believed to be a messenger of Vitthal Birdev Maharaj. The photographs here capture the air full of colour, euphoria and rapture.