Madikeri

Madikeri is the old capital of Kodagu, the district everyone calls Coorg — a fold of the Western Ghats where the Kaveri rises at Talakaveri and runs east towards the plains. In the seventeenth century the Haleri rajas built their fort and palace on this ridge; in 1834 the British annexed the kingdom, and for much of the colonial era Coorg was administered as its own small province before merging into what is now Karnataka in 1956.

The British also brought coffee, and coffee made the landscape: estates under a canopy of tall native shade trees, with pepper vines climbing the trunks. Kodagu now grows a large share of India's coffee, and the town itself is a small hill market draped over a ridge, with mist arriving most afternoons whether it is invited or not.

The Kodavas are a martial landowning community with their own language, ancestral homes called ainmanes, and a tradition of soldiering — Field Marshal Cariappa and General Thimayya were both Kodava. They are among the few Indians allowed to carry firearms without a licence, a right tied to their customs. Their festivals follow the land: Kaveri Sankramana in mid-October, when pilgrims gather at Talakaveri for the moment the spring rises, and Puthari, the rice harvest, around the end of November.

Kodava food is the reason many people come back. Pandi curry, pork darkened with kachampuli, a thick black vinegar made from a local fruit; kadambuttu, steamed rice balls; akki roti and noolputtu; bamboo-shoot curry in the monsoon. Drink estate coffee, and in the town's small shops buy homemade wine of ginger, betel or passion fruit to take home.

Raja's Seat is for sunset, Mandalpatti is for sunrise, and both need a clear day — check the sky before you set out. Ask your homestay host for an estate walk in the morning; you will learn more about coffee in an hour than in any museum. The Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe is one of the largest in India, and the monks' afternoon debates are better than the Golden Temple's crowds. Skip the roadside spice shops and buy coffee directly from an estate.

Kodagu was badly hit by landslides in 2018 and 2019, worsened by building on fragile slopes. Choose homestays in existing family houses over new resorts cut into hillsides. Ainmanes and sacred groves, devarakadu, belong to families and villages; enter only when invited. At Dubare, watch the elephants rather than riding or bathing them.

Wayanad lies across the Kerala border to the south — the same coffee-and-pepper hills, wilder forest, prehistoric rock carvings at Edakkal, and Malabar food instead of Kodava. A road through the Brahmagiri side links the two in a few hours.