Udupi: The farmers of Mattu and surrounding hamlets donated the vegetable, Mattu Gulla, a special type of brinjal, which enjoys the Geographical Indication (GI) tag of ‘Horekanike’ here on Tuesday. People donate foodgrain and vegetables for the Paryaya festival. This is called Horekanike.

Vidyadheesha Tirtha Swami of Palimar Mutt will be ascending the Paryaya Peetha also known as Sarvajna Peetha at the 800-year-old Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple here on January 18 for the second time. It has been a tradition with the farmers of Mattu and surrounding hamlets to donate the vegetable for the Paryaya festival for the last nearly 500 years.

Legend has it that Sri Vadiraja (1480-1600) of Sode Mutt, one of the ‘Ashta Mutts’ of Udupi, gave the seeds of this special brinjal to farmers of Mattu village, about 20 km from Udupi, to cultivate.

The farmers have been cultivating the Mattu Gulla since then.

The taste of Mattu Gulla is different from other gullas – such as uru gulla – grown in the district. The farmers brought the Mattu Gulla in 19 vehicles including vans and tempos from their villages to Jodu Katte here.

This was then carried in a procession from Jodu Katte to the Ugrana at the Rajangana Parking Space.

Matti Laxminarayana Rao, General Secretary, Paryaya Reception Committee, told The Hindu that nearly four tonnes of Mattu Gulla had been received. “The vegetable will be used for cooking meals for the Paryaya festival,” he said.

Laxman Mattu, farmer, said that it had been a tradition for the farmers of Mattu to donate Mattu Gulla for the Paryaya festival. “Even otherwise, the farmers donate their first crop of Mattu Gulla to the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple as it was Sri Vadiraja, who had given seeds of Mattu Gulla to the farmers 500 years ago. This tradition has been there for the last 500 years,” he said.

Besides this, nearly 5,000 kg of rice had been donated by the Sri Vishnumurthy Temple from Mattu for the Paryaya festival along with the Mattu Gulla.