Light a lamp O Kodava clans,
For the memories of our braves,
Who died upon their golden soil,
Rather than live as slaves .
Light a lamp my people all,
For your ancestors who died,
Victims of a cowardly trap,
And of a brutal genocide.
Light a lamp to never forget,
Those martyrs of the massacre,
Whose blood was savagely spilt upon,
Devaatparmbu’s sacred acres.
Light a lamp to dispel the dark,
Around a dark December’s day,
When the honour, trust and honesty,
Of the Kodavas was yet again betrayed.
Light a lamp to tell the world,
Of Kodagu’s rage and pain,
Of our capture, torture and violation,
And of our men and women slain.
Light a lamp to tell the tale,
Of a vile and cowardly bigot,
Of the butcher that he truly was,
And the human he was not.
Light a lamp for the wandering spirits,
To guide them on their way,
And to remind our mortal selves,
That they died for us that day.
Codanda Ravin Chengappa, December 2025.
In memory of our martyred
