A temple tank at the river's source
Kaveri
Talakaveri, Kodagu, Karnataka
Ponni, at the spring it rises from
The spring the Kaveri rises from, inside a temple tank on Brahmagiri. A ghat is further down.
- River
- Kaveri
- Ghat
- Talakaveri
- Place
- Kodagu, Karnataka
- Form of the water
- A temple tank at the river's source
- Also called
- Ponni, in Tamil
- Local time
- Asia/Kolkata
Before you choose this water
Talakaveri is a temple tank at a river's source, and the flow is seasonal. A Kaveri snan, in the sense anyone means it, belongs downstream: at the sangama at Bhagamandala, at Paschima Vahini at Srirangapatna, at Talakadu, or on the Srirangam stretch. This page names the source because that is where the river begins.
The place
Talakaveri is the udgama sthala, the source: a small spring-fed kundike on the Brahmagiri hill in Kodagu, from which the Kaveri rises before going underground and re-emerging below. It sits inside a temple complex on the hill, and the flow is seasonal.
In its own literature the Kaveri is Lopamudra, wife of the sage Agastya, released from his kamandalu to become the river. In Tamil country it is Ponni, and the delta it makes is most of what that name means to the people who farm it.
The day at this site is Tula Sankramana, when the sun enters Tula. At a moment fixed by the panchang the spring is held to well up in the tank, and those present take the theertha. For pitru karya on the Kaveri the recognised places are downstream: the sangama at Bhagamandala below the hill, Paschima Vahini at Srirangapatna where the river turns west, Talakadu, and the Srirangam stretch.
From the tank the water goes underground almost at once and rises again at Bhagamandala a short way below, where it meets the Kannike and the Sujyoti and is kept as a triveni sangama in its own right. From there the Kaveri runs east across the Deccan to the Bay of Bengal, past Srirangapatna, Shivanasamudra, Talakadu and Srirangam. The delta at the end of that journey is the reason two states have argued over the river for a century.
Where the figures come from
One number, taken the same way at all six waters.
The Kaveri at Talakaveri is a few cubic metres a second. It is a spring in a tank here, and its figure sits three orders of magnitude under the others on this site because that is the size of the place. It is ranked against itself, 1997 to 2025, as every water here is, and on that scale a wet week and a dry one read as clearly as they do on the Ganga.
Where the figures come from
Flow is modelled river discharge from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service global flood model, read at the grid cell covering this reach and published once a day. It is a model rather than a gauge reading, and this site writes modelled beside every number it prints.
Each value is ranked against every daily value that same cell has produced in this same week of the year from 1997 to 2025. That is what the percentile means: one water compared with its own past.
Sunrise, sunset, air temperature and rainfall are read at the ghat's own coordinates rather than at the grid cell. The muhurat windows are the panchang's rules worked out from that sunrise.
Every figure comes from a public source named beside it, and each can be checked against that source.
Attribution
- River discharge: Copernicus Emergency Management Service, GloFAS, served by Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
- Sun and weather: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
What you find here
The same four things at every water on this site.
- The river's flowModelled discharge for this reach, in cubic metres a second, ranked against 1997 to 2025 for this same week of the year.
- The sunriseSunrise and sunset at this ghat's own coordinates, which is why they differ from every other ghat's.
- The muhurat windowsBrahma, pratah, abhijit and godhuli, worked out from that sunrise rather than copied from a national table.
- The snanThree minutes with this water at the state it is in, at an hour the panchang names, with your own sankalp in your own words.
What this water is kept for
What people do when they stand at this water. Some of it is centuries older than any of the words on this site.
Taking the theertha at the kundike
The theertha is taken from the spring by those standing at the tank. This is what the site is for.
Done by the person at the water
Tula Sankramana at the tank
At a moment fixed by the panchang the spring is held to well up in the kundike. The temple keeps the hour, and the crowd gathers for it.
Kept by the place itself
Kaveri puja
Offered at the source under the river's own names, Lopamudra and Ponni, by those who have climbed to it.
Done by the person at the water
Pitru karya, kept downstream
The Kaveri's pitru karya belongs downstream, at the sangama at Bhagamandala, Paschima Vahini at Srirangapatna, Talakadu and the Srirangam stretch, and it is kept there in person.
Done by the person at the water
Days this ghat is known for
Each is reckoned by tithi or by the sun, as noted beside it. Dates are not printed yet: the parva day depends on a panchang, and the site has still to choose the one it will follow.
Timing to be confirmed against the panchang
Kaveri Sankramana, the Tula Sankramana
The day of the site. The moment is fixed by the panchang and the tank is crowded for it.
The sun's entry into Tula
The month following Tula Sankramana
Kodagu keeps the weeks after the sankramana as the river's own season.
Reckoned by the sun, not by a tithi
Who looks after this water
The Talakaveri kshetra is in the care of a Karnataka state temple authority together with the local temple committee.