The annual festival, called Kadlekai Parishey in Kannada, is held to ensure a bountiful groundnut harvest. During the festival, Kannada women exchange vermillion and perform puja, seeking fertility and longevity of their husbands. Farmers and traders from surrounding towns and rural areas bring heaps of groundnuts, known as the poor man's almond, during the festival. It is actually a meeting point for us to remember the one year that has passed by. The festival dates back several hundred years.
Legend has it that a bull once raided the groundnut crop of farmers living in the area.
All attempts by the farmers to drive away the marauding animal failed. One farmer then started beating the adamant bull, which squatted on the ground and was transformed into a stone statue. The statue began growing bigger and bigger and the farmers considered this to be a bad omen, fearing that it would destroy the fertile land. The farmer who had hit the bull was summoned and was asked to sit in penance to invoke the blessings of Shiva, one of the holy Hindu trinity. According to the legend, Shiva appeared before the farmer and told him that if he dug the ground around the statue he would find a trident, which he should drive into the bull's forehead.