The gods worshipped in garodis called bermeru , the precursors of kalari para devatas like vishnu maya

Ancient cults of Spirit worship

Ancient people, our ancestors, beset with myriad obstacles, found solace and security in worshipping elements of the nature. Apart from worshipping the essential elements of the nature, they honored and worshipped their dead community leaders and heroes who were thought to exist in the form of souls or spirits even after their death. Since ages, the spirits or souls (the esoteric remains) of the ferocious animals to begin with and later their celebrities and heroic persons were considered to exist even after their deaths and exert influence over the common people. Such ancient beliefs and cults later led to the culture of worshipping Spirits (Bhūta) and later evolved into worship of Gods that ultimately manifested in multiple and or single forms according to ideologies floated from time to time.

Abram, an ancient leader

One of the ancient hero/celebrity worship cult that originated in ancient Mesopotamia (land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris corresponding to present parts of Iraq, Syria and Kuwait) happens to be related to a renowned legendary leader named Abram who considered to have lived about 4000 years ago in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia.  Abram has been considered as a legendary patriarch and prophet for Jews, Christians and Muslims. According to descriptions in Genesis, his wife Sara begot him a son known as Isaac. Abram (later known as Abraham) and his son Isaac have been considered as prophets in Christianity.   Abram is known as Ibrahim in Quran and his son Ishmael has been considered as a prophet in Islam. Some researchers have doubted the precise historicity of the person and found that personal names like Abiram were common in Babylon /Sumerian civilization.

Birma, Bermeru

The cult of legendary celebrity Abram/Biram spread to Indian subcontinent probably around 1700-1500 BC. The anecdotes of Biram or Bram led to the growth and evolution of a cult glorifying a spirit God. The spirit deity was known variously in different regions as Baram, Beram, Berma, Bomma or Brama.

With transcontinental migration of human tribes in the course  of history, the cult spread to the various parts of southern India, including coastal Tulunadu, as Barama, Birma, Biruma, Berma or Berme (Singular) or Bermeru (honorific plural). During the early centuries of the Common Era, Prakrit/Pali languages were the administrative languages in Karnataka. The name Barama became Bomma in Prakrit/Pali  languages which was adapted in early Kannada regions.

During the period of composition of Siri pāḍ-dana in ancient Tulunadu ( estimated to be in the time span of ca. 300 BC to 300 CE), it appears that the cult of Bermer worship was well entrenched as evidenced by major reference to the Bermer deity  in the pāḍ-dana folklore. 

Nowadays our younger generation might not be aware of the fact that their ancestors worshipped a God/divine Spirit known popularly as Bermer (Berme or Bermeru or Birmer ) in the past history probably well before the widespread popularization and organized worship of Indian Gods like Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, Ganesha and Kumara.

The Barma or Berma (Bermer) cult once upon a time prevailed all over India. Even the name of the country Burma (Brahma-desha in Sanskrit literature, now Myanmar) is said to have been derived from the Barma deity. However, the vestiges of the Barma/Berma cult have been well preserved in the West Coast of Karnataka.

There are distinct evidences of once dominant Bermer worship cult  prevailing in the Alade, Gunda, Chitteri and Garodi institutions of the Karavali in the West Coast. In Uttara Kannada district Bommaiah is still a major village God being devotedly worshipped by natives especially  in parts of Ankola.

The pāḍ-dana oral literature in Tulu language and the available inscriptions on Bermer  apparently do not provide any significant clues regarding the actual origin, history or evolution of the cult beyond myths. As such many authors appear to be still in the dark regarding the origin of the cult of Bermer and Brahma.

In West Coast of Karnataka, Alade, Chitteri, Garodi and other related traditional, heritage structures have preserved the identity of the Bermer which was widely worshipped as   principal deity once upon a time.

Ancient worshipping patterns

Earliest tribes in India apparently worshipped Sun, trees on one hand and snakes and other harmful creatures on the other. Tree worships further led to preservation of groups of trees held sacred in the form of Kāvu (Kāpu), Bana, Sarana or Devarakādu. One of the early tribes, Marava were named after trees (‘’mara’’).

The oldest known forms of worship consisted of symbolic piece of stone kept at the bottom of a tree. Koraga and other early tribes used to worship a piece of stone kept under the tree called “kata”. Such simplistic symbolic stones representing spirits and deities can be seen even today in rural areas. The relevant word has been preserved in Tamil as katavalu (=God). With evolution in sculptural art forms, the symbolic stones representing spirits and deity forms were replaced by sculpted idols. After invention of pottery, globular earthen vessels, known as muri or kalasa, were kept apart and worshipped as symbolic of spirits, deities and supernatural powers. 

As the tribal families proliferated and set upon migration, the original places of settlements were designated as Mūltān  (or mooltaan or moolasthana; literally means , the original place).Within the mūltāns  they had set out a specific place for worship known Alaḍe. The ancient term Alaḍe does exist in various nook and corners of Indian subcontinent, although with passage of time, the original term has been modified locally depending upon the phonetic nuances of the native languages.

Alaḍe

The Bermer has remained the principal deity in  ancient shrines known as Alaḍe. An Alaḍe (worship place beside water; Ala=water + De=place) is ancient form of shrine or worshipping area usually located near a water body, river or lake.  In  the Alaḍe shrines, the Bermer is the principal deity associated usually with Lekkesiri (Rakteswari), Mahisandaya, Nandigona and Nāga. The ancient word Alaḍe is literally equivalent of the word  Alaya, the place of worship. In many of the ancient Alaḍe shrines there are simply no idols/sculptures or the Bermer is represented by a small piece of stone.

The Alaḍe shrines which have remained representatives of  our ancient roots mostly located inside or associated with early tribal settlements known as Multān (Moolastāna) (Posts  9,19,30,286). It appears that Alade shrines existed in Tulunadu as early as 2000 BC , if not earlier. Before the arrival of the Bermer cult Serpent (Nāga), Bullock (Nandigona), Buffaloe (Mahisandaya) and other animistic spirit deities were being worshipped by the tribals.

Bermer idol at Bommara bettu Garadi, Udupi District

Bermer in Garodi

The Garoḍi institutions (Kannada: Garaḍi; Tamil: Karati; Malayalam Kalari) were the traditional training centers for soldiers of that time in martial arts. Even today in most of the traditional Garoḍi schools the principal deity is the Bermer. Thus, we can infer that the Garoḍi schools   existed since ancient times when the Bermer was the ruling deity. (Post 291, 329)

The idols of the Bermer deity presently found in the Garoḍis of Tulunadu are generally represented in the form of a masculine warrior like figure with mustache and beard. He is armed with a lancer in one hand and is straddling astride on a horse. Some of the Bermer idols have depicted with a multi-seeded fruit (like Jack fruit?) in one hand. This kind of images could have been an innovation introduced probably after 5^th century CE after horse and sculptural art forms were   introduced in India. (Post 6)

Worship of Bermer was dominant even during the (16^th Century) period of Queen Abbakka at Ullal (as testified by Italian  tourist Pietro della Valle). Famous twin heroes Koti Chennaya who lived around later part of 16^th Century (ca.1555-1585) also worshipped the Bermer God (date source: Vamana Nandavara, 2001). Dilapidated remnants of independent Bermer shrines known as Bermere gunḍa existed in Tulunadu even up to 1960-70.

Now-a-days few vestiges of such ancient shrines can be seen often amalgamated in the campus of temples as kshetrapāla or as lesser deities. This is essentially symbolic of cultural theosophical evolution of divine cults in our land (Post.103.). For example we can see one such Bermer shrine (renovated) in the precincts of Durga Parameshwari temple at Kateel. In Jain Bastis, the Bermer has been relegated to the status of Yaksha or Kshetrapāla. The term Kshetrapāla literally means the security guard of the temple.