History & Heroes

Kings, queens, traders and rebels, from the Alupas to modern times. Choose a tab to browse.

The Story of Tulunadu: the timeline

From the first dated record to today's district boundaries, in order. The spacing is not to scale. The dot shows how firm each entry is, and each entry opens the page that tells it fully.

Firmly dated
Approximate date or single source
Sources disagree

About 200 CE
The Alupas' own founding date
The family's tradition puts its beginning here. Nothing carved in stone confirms it.
About 450 CE
The Halmidi inscription
Read by one Wikipedia article as the first clear mention of an Alupa ruler. Another dates it between about 425 and 500 CE and does not mention the Alupas.
About the 6th to 7th century
A Chalukya king claims the Alupas
An inscription says Kirttivarman I subdued them. Scholars call its long list of conquests poetic exaggeration.
Early 8th century
The Belmannu copper plate
A grant of King Aluvarasa II, the earliest known copper-plate inscription in Kannada.
968 CE
Kundavarma's bronzes at Kadri
An Alupa king places fine bronze images in the temple, each with an inscription carrying his name and the date.
1075 CE
An Alupa king named in Kerala
An Old Malayalam inscription at Ezhimala names a king called Kunda Alupa, so their reach may have been wide.
1160 to 1179 CE
Tirumalaraya Chowta I rules from Ullal
The first known Chowta king, in a house that follows the mother's line.
1179 to 1219 CE
The Chowta capital moves to Puttige
Under Channaraya Chowta I.
1275 to 1292 CE
Queen Ballamahadevi
She takes the Alupa throne with her young son and rules in her own name.
1342 CE
Ibn Battuta visits Mangalore
He calls it Manjarur and notes Persian and Yemeni merchants landing there.
By 1345 CE
Vijayanagara holds the coast
The empire divides the region into the Mangalore and Barkur provinces.
1444 CE
The last dated Alupa inscription
Found at the Jain basadi in Moodabidri. Whether Alupa rule ended in 1345 or later is argued.
1491 to 1570 CE
The Tuluva dynasty rules Vijayanagara
Named for the Tulu country, where its founder came from. Krishnadevaraya reigned from 1509 to 1529.
1524 to 1526 CE
The Portuguese take Mangalore
A river blockade is ordered in 1524, and in 1526 they take possession.
1530 to 1566 CE
The Keladi Nayakas take the coast
Under Sadashiva Nayaka the coastal provinces come under direct Keladi rule, and the capital moves to Ikkeri.
1544 CE
The Chowtas split into two branches
One continues at Ullal, the other at Puttige.
1555 to 1568 CE
Rani Abbakka and the Portuguese
She beats back an attack in 1555 and, in 1568, kills the Portuguese general Peixoto. She is later defeated and imprisoned.
About 1603 CE
The Chowtas move to Moodabidri
Their family palace there is still lived in by descendants.
1613 to 1619 CE
Keladi stops paying tribute
Venkatappa Nayaka refuses tribute by 1613 and defeats the Portuguese in 1618 and 1619.
1630 to 1644 CE
A Chowta king jailed at Ikkeri
Tulupedia says the Ikkeri king arrested Bhojaraya III. This comes from a single community source.
1653 CE
Keladi fights the Portuguese at five forts
Mangalore, Basrur, Barkur, Kundapura and Honnavar.
1672 to 1697 CE
Keladi Chennamma
The queen shelters the Maratha ruler Rajaram when he flees the Mughal army.
1763 CE
Hyder Ali conquers the coast
He defeats Queen Veerammaji, annexes the Keladi kingdom, and takes Mangaluru.
1783 to 1784 CE
The siege of Mangalore
Tipu Sultan besieges the fort from 20 May 1783. The starving British garrison surrenders on 30 January 1784.
24 February 1784
The captivity of Canara's Christians
Tipu orders them seized and marched to Seringapatam. The usual figure is 60,000. Historians disagree on why.
11 March 1784
The Treaty of Mangalore
It ends the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
4 May 1799
Tipu Sultan dies
Mysore rule ends, and the captivity ends with it.
1799 CE
The British take over
They restore lands to local chiefs and set up the Kanara district under Thomas Munro.
About 1822 CE
The last Chowta with real authority
Chandrasekhara Chikkaraya Chowta V dies. The family lives on a British pension, and when the story formally ends is unclear.
1837 CE
The Amara Sullia uprising
Rebels seize the Bellare treasury, and Kalyanaswami briefly holds Mangalore.
About 1860 CE
Kanara is split in two
South Canara stays with Madras and North Canara goes to the Bombay side. Sources give 1859 or 1860.
1919 CE
Karnad Sadashiva Rao signs Gandhi's pledge
One of the first in Karnataka to do so.
1942 CE
Quit India in Udupi
S. U. Paniyadi leads, and Shesha Sherigar hoists the tricolour on a stone pillar at the Anantheshwara temple. No exact date is given.
September 1942
B. V. Kakkilaya is jailed
Held nine months in Mangalore's sub-jail for banned literature.
1947 CE
South Kanara joins independent India
As part of Madras State.
1956 CE
States are redrawn by language
Kasaragod goes to Kerala, and the rest joins Mysore State, renamed Karnataka in 1973.
15 August 1997
Udupi becomes a district
Its three northern taluks leave Dakshina Kannada, fixing today's boundaries.

The Story of Tulunadu

A local dynasty that outlasted its overlords, an empire, a kingdom and Portuguese guns, a sultanate, the British, and the redrawing of the map.

The Alupas: A Local Dynasty That Outlasted Its Overlords
For close to a thousand years one family kept its own throne on this coast while larger powers rose and fell above it. Here is what we can say about them, and the points where historians still disagree.
Read more
Empire, Nayakas and Portuguese Guns: Tulunadu from 1345 to 1763
After the Alupas, the coast was run from Vijayanagara, then from Keladi, while the Portuguese pushed in from the sea. Here is who held Tulunadu for four centuries, and what is and isn't certain.
Read more
Under Mysore: Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan and the Coast, 1763 to 1799
For thirty-six years Tulunadu was ruled from Mysore, and the coast became a battlefield in the Anglo-Mysore wars. This page covers the siege of Mangalore, the 1784 captivity of Canara's Christians, and how historians read it.
Read more
From Company Rule to Today's Districts, 1799 to 1997
After Tipu Sultan, Tulunadu became a British district, rose once in 1837, and was redrawn on the map three times after independence. This page follows the changes of rulers and of borders, and says where our sources stop.
Read more
The Chowtas: A Jain Royal House Ruled Through the Mother's Line
From about 1160 the Chowtas ruled from Ullal, then Puttige, then Moodabidri, under a succession that passed through the sister's line. This page follows that house, from the queens to the pension, and says where the sources part ways.
Read more
The Coast in India's Freedom Struggle
South Kanara sent early volunteers to Gandhi, raised the national flag on a temple pillar in Udupi, and filled Mangalore's jail in 1942. The record is thin, and this page keeps to the few people and events we could check.
Read more

The Alupas: A Local Dynasty That Outlasted Its Overlords
For close to a thousand years one family kept its own throne on this coast while larger powers rose and fell above it. Here is what we can say about them, and the points where historians still disagree.
Read more
Empire, Nayakas and Portuguese Guns: Tulunadu from 1345 to 1763
After the Alupas, the coast was run from Vijayanagara, then from Keladi, while the Portuguese pushed in from the sea. Here is who held Tulunadu for four centuries, and what is and isn't certain.
Read more
Under Mysore: Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan and the Coast, 1763 to 1799
For thirty-six years Tulunadu was ruled from Mysore, and the coast became a battlefield in the Anglo-Mysore wars. This page covers the siege of Mangalore, the 1784 captivity of Canara's Christians, and how historians read it.
Read more
From Company Rule to Today's Districts, 1799 to 1997
After Tipu Sultan, Tulunadu became a British district, rose once in 1837, and was redrawn on the map three times after independence. This page follows the changes of rulers and of borders, and says where our sources stop.
Read more
The Chowtas: A Jain Royal House Ruled Through the Mother's Line
From about 1160 the Chowtas ruled from Ullal, then Puttige, then Moodabidri, under a succession that passed through the sister's line. This page follows that house, from the queens to the pension, and says where the sources part ways.
Read more
The Coast in India's Freedom Struggle
South Kanara sent early volunteers to Gandhi, raised the national flag on a temple pillar in Udupi, and filled Mangalore's jail in 1942. The record is thin, and this page keeps to the few people and events we could check.
Read more

People Who Shaped Tulunadu

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