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Dear Readers, This write-up is prepared on the basis of some
clues and various articles, we read and remember …, of course lot of links missing…, many of you
maybe knowing better part of history
/ possessing records, of
Barkur…, it is in the general interest, we appeal you, to send the
same to this Barkur web-site… On behalf of Barkur web-site, P.Archibald
Furtado,
Muscat, 20th July 2002.
KNOW
ABOUT ANCIENT BARKUR…. One may raise his eyebrows, if he realise this fact
- ‘Barkur is
the oldest capital city and commercial centre of Kanara, developed much
before the modern - Mangalore,
Udupi, Kundapur,
Manipal, Karkal etc’!! Historians believe it was only, during the reign of
‘Vijayanagara’ rule, the huge area coming under Alupas the local
kings, ruling from Barkur throne, the capital city, divided the kingdom
into two, (for administrative and political reasons) i.e. Barakuru rajya
and Maganooru rajya somewhere in 14h Century only. [Those who are following weekly articles in Udayavani, Kannada
daily, can refer columns by Manohar Prasad, Dr.K.V.Ramesh etc.] Inscriptions
and present day archaeological remains prove that the historic town
Barkur was divided into TEN keris. They are as follows:
Kote keri, Eradu keri, Muru or Moodu keri, Manigara keri, Chauli
keri, Patisala keri, Bhandara Keri, Hosa or Hosala keri, Balegara keri
and Rangana keri
Earliest
proof to this effect can be seen in Hosala, Durga temple, in an undated
epigraph, according to Historian Bhaskara Saletore, who assigned this to
9th Century!
[In other words, it looks the city of Barkur was
developed, much before 9th Century and the main port of the
west, as there were mention of this place in different but sounding near
to - as Bar-thulami-ooru, Barthu-luru, Barakka-nooru, Baraha-kanya-pura,
Barseluru, Barakooru etc etc in various olden time records of Indian
origin as well as abroad by Roman, Egyptian, Afghan, Kutch and Arabian
historical preserves / achieves.]
It also had well organised Municipal
Local Govt. well comparable to ancient Greek self-governance consisting
of ‘Haleyavaru’
and ‘Settikararu’ - the
former is the group of elderly citizens (say councillors of the town) of
ten keries and the latter comprising elected sixteen nobles or heads of
trade guilds. It also looks like that there was a general assembly
comprising all elders or yajamanaru
of each family. Each keri had a temple, with a special deity of worship [for
example, Vinayaka Deva as the presiding god of Chauli Keri, God
Markandeshwara of Kote Keri, Lord Somanatha was
woshipped in Moodu Keri, Nagara-Matha, Bhandarakeri used to honour deity
Keshava] - and as many as twelve huge tanks to provide water for
drinking, as well as irrigation. Mention may be made of – Arasi, Chauli,
Belthi, Kote,
Masi, Taware, Moodu kere etc. still are in use. Citizens seem to believe that certain deities - god and goddesses -
watched over them, directed daily life. Each family might have had,
household deity (kuladeva) and
the Keri used to honour one or
more deities with offerings and ceremonies as protectors of the
community and held ‘annual festivals’ in their honour. Further each keri; assigned with specialised ‘profession, trade or
occupation’, for instance the mudu
keri people had the monopoly of business of saris and fabrics. Because of certain drawbacks and prevailing conditions, the history
of ancient Barkur didn’t got focussed, the way it should have been… Reasons are many and we feel, to a certain extent, non-popularity of
‘Tulu language’ in this
place, once capital of ‘Tulu-nadu’,
negligence or lack of knowledge of important historical monuments to
general public, non availability of copies of research documents on
Barkur, to those keen to learn, of known historians like Dr. P.Gururaja
Bhat, Dr.Vasantha Shetty, and others.
(Except that of formers
in Milagres College, Kallianpur and the latter in SMS College, Brahmmavar, can be
referred for - on the spot reference purpose only) and to a certain
extent the ‘aliya Santana kattu’,
followed by Bunts society,
as male members of these families migrating to wife’s places, to
inherit the property, may be few among many causes, we feel, contributed
to this sorry state of affairs of wholesome negligence.!! Now Barkur need a Noel to
write a novel ‘forgotten
story’. (The way he written on Vijayanagara Empire of Hampi, which
inculcated curiosity and great interest among Europeans in the 18th
/ 19th Century.) Let us hope the History Department of Govt.
First Grade College, Barkur, take interest to document this rich legacy
of Barkur in days / years to come. Particularly for us Catholics, what we learned and heard in the
schools, and read in the newspapers etc. is / was the only source of
knowledge. It needs thorough knowledge of inscriptions, Hindu and Jain
religion, art, folk stories, Tulu pad-danas
- as the Temples, Basadis, or may some households may be
harbouring some most important source of proofs, preserved valuable
age-old hand written records which help to further analyse and reach to
logical conclusions. ‘Barkur Web-site Team’ support anyone
coming forward and extend all sorts of co-operation, if need be monetary
support too. Whenever, we asked to our elderly citizens, we got few tips and few pieces of ideas, and we herein tried to link them. Further the author of this article is neither a history scholar nor a research student, and opinions tabled here are purely personal, and extracted from different reference texts, and readers are welcome with their version to enlighten us as well as visitors of this web site. Name of the
Keri Deity
of Worship
Name of the Tank Kote keri God Markandeshwara Kote kere Eradu Keri Muru Keri (mudu) Somanatha (Somayya) Mudu Kere Manigara Keri Siddeshwara Chauli Keri (Chaliva) Vinayaka Deva Chauli Kere Patisala Keri Gopinatha Deva / Bhandara Keri Nagara-Matha Keshawa Hosa Keri ( Hosala ) Durga Devi Belthi Kere Balegara Keri Rangana Keri
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Barkur, located in Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India. 576 210 |
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Copyright Kishoo, Barkur 2002. |
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