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| ಮಣ್ಣ್ ಕಾಯಿ |
Monsoon season in Angadibail
western Ghats forest, I was sitting and watching the paddy fields
It’s the month of August 2016.
Eshwarnna, Raagu and Manju were adding mulch to the coconut trees along the stream.
I saw Ehwarnna coming to me
holding something in his hand “akka! ನೆಲ ಅಗಿಯುವಾಗ ಎರಡು ಮಣ್ಣ್ ಕಾಯಿ ಸಿಕ್ತು ನೋಡಿ "(akka!
I got this mud balls /mud fruit while digging). I was surprised to see two perfect round
shaped mud balls of tennis ball size ..the other one was little smaller to
compare the first one .It was harder too. It
looked like someone carefully hidden this balls under the soil. “Why it is called mankaayi? when it was
just a ball of mud? I asked him . (Mannu ಮಣ್ಣು menas soil kaayi ಕಾಯಿ means
fruit -Mud fruit)
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| ಮಣ್ಣ್ ಕಾಯಿ |
Eshwaranna told these are not
just mud balls it has medicinal value too and villagers know about it .
Eshwarnna recalls the things his mother told
him about the Mann kaayi. To prevent children from eating mud, -(a kind
of eating disorder)this was used as a medicine.
Eshwarnna also explained how to
use this .To prepare this medicine take half spoon of sanna menasina kaayi ಸಣ್ಣ ಮೆಣಸಿನ ಕಾಯಿ water on a flat grinding stone.(san mensin kaaayi is a tiny chilly which grows
in western ghat region ) Take mudball and roll/rub it in circular motion over
the stone with this spicy water until you get a paste like texture on the
grinding stone. Scoop it with your index finger and let the child who has got
this eating disorder lick it on the tongue. The child will stop eating mud!!
I was fascinated with mud balls
and took a photo and stored them away in a cupboard hoping for to meet a child
who eats mud.
Brood balls:
A year later, I got them out to
show it to my interns- Haritha and Meghana who were documenting local wisdom of
this region. Surprisingly, the mud balls have holes over them and the surface was
not smooth anymore. It looked like some insect nibbled the entire surface of
the ball.
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| Ehwaranna and Harita |
We sat with Eshwarnna for a
discussion about the same. Eshwarnna had
no clue of how this balls were created .. He only knew the medicinal value of
this mud balls which his mother told him ..
I knew about dung beetles that make these
kind of balls with dung to feed on them but much smaller in size These balls
were bigger and made with mud and not with dung .So I ruled out it belongs to
dung beetle and I loved the story of it having a medicinal value which Eshwaranna
told
Later I saw similar kind of
balls but much smaller in gersoppe forests. There were 4-5 dung beetles fighting
for one ball . Again, these were mud balls not dung balls
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| gersoppe forest obseving Man kaayi |
However i guessed these mud balls also belong
to dung beetles but i never knew why they make it .
Looking at the holes
we guessed it may be a breeding balls of dung beetles which would lay their
eggs inside this ball. The holes in this ball confirmed the adult beetle broke through the hard-outer
layer of the ball.
Packed Lunch
We decided to open it and see
what is inside this ball. Eshwarnna with his knife made perfect halves of it
..what we found ..the interior of the ball was stuffed with layers of black dried
coarse dung! Yes it was a dung ball coated with thick layer of mud and deceived
us
This is what the brood ball
represents to the larval dung beetle. Hatching from the egg inside each ball
the larve eats its way around the interior of the ball
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| photo ;Meghana |
The pair can make and bury many brood balls like this. The
outside layer of the brood ball hardens once buried forming a protective layer
for grub. The inside layer remains moister and a food source for grub. When the
grub metamorphoses into adult .it breaks through the hard -outer layer of the ball
-With Harita Gandrajupalli and Meghna
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