Stories
Legends of daivas, temples, heroes and heroines, retold. Choose a shelf to browse.
Daivas
The spirits of the land, and how each one came to be honoured at the kola. The colours follow the groups on the Bhuta Kola page. 19 of 19 stories written so far.
Daivas who mirror the great animals of the forest, guarding the fields and herds the wild world threatens.
- Spirits of the wild
Panjurli
The boar daiva. An orphaned piglet raised by Parvati becomes the guardian of fields and judge of land disputes.
Read the story - Spirits of the wild
Pilichamundi
The tiger goddess. A tiger cub vowed to Shiva and Parvati is sent to earth to guard cattle and crops.
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Maisandaya (Nandikona)
The guardian of the herd, with a bull's head on a man's body, linked to the bull, the buffalo and the gaur. Its nema ends with a meal of horse gram, the food of oxen.
Read the story - Spirits of the wild
Naga
The serpent, honoured at sacred groves and in the Nagamandala ritual, with a worship of its own alongside the kola.
Read the story - Royal daivas
Jumadi (Dhumavati)
Shiva and Parvati fused into one being, neither man nor woman. A royal daiva of Bunt lords and the Chowta rulers, who came to a boy's aid at a single call.
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Ullaya and the Ullakulu
The "king daivas", royal brothers who arrive by a ship of maya, from Kashi, or down the Ghats with their sister Ullalthi. At Mandekolu one of them still stops a ritual fight.
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Kodamanithaya
A royal daiva with no single origin story, who follows his devotees home and asks for a shrine wherever he arrives. At Shibaroor he is the healer, and his well water is taken for snakebite.
Read the story - Guardians of shrine, boundary and sea
Guliga
Born from a stone in Shiva's ash with a hunger that tried to swallow the sun, calmed only by Vishnu. The fierce enforcer who guards shrines and boundaries.
Read the story - Guardians of shrine, boundary and sea
Babbarya (Bobbariya)
The daiva of the sea and of fishing families, born to a Beary sea-merchant, who vanished off Kaup in a ship made from a thousand-year-old tree.
Read the story - Guardians of shrine, boundary and sea
Annappa and the Dharma Daivas
The four Dharma Daivas who came in disguise to a Jain chieftain's home, and Annappa, who carried the Shiva linga that founded Dharmasthala.
Read the story - People who became daivas
Koragajja
Koraga Thaniya, an orphaned boy turned away from a shrine because of his caste, who returned as one of Tulunadu's most widely invoked protectors.
Read the story - People who became daivas
Kalkuda and Kallurti
A master sculptor maimed by the king of Karkala so he could never carve again, and his twin sister, who together became avenging daivas.
Read the story - People who became daivas
Kallurti and Panjurli
After her revenge, Kallurti meets the boar daiva, and the two agree to be honoured together as sister and brother.
Read the story - People who became daivas
Kordabbu and Tannimaniga (Babbu Swami)
An orphan healer sealed in a well by a jealous king and pulled out by Tannimaniga with her sari. He becomes the healer daiva, called king of the daivas.
Read the story - People who became daivas
Jarandaya
A Jain prince of Barkur, publicly humiliated by Babbarya, whose revenge leaves both men worshipped as daivas, with stories that pull in opposite directions.
Read the story - People who became daivas
Koti and Chennaya
Twin warrior heroes who stood up to a tyrannical minister and died defending Enmur. They are honoured at garadis, their own shrines, across Tulunadu.
Read the story - Goddesses and mothers
Rakteshwari (Rakteswari, Lekkesiri)
Honoured in some accounts as the guardian goddess of Tulunadu itself. People remember her offerings differently: blood sacrifice, or only vermilion and coconut.
Read the story - Goddesses and mothers
Mayndala (Mayandala, Bale Mani)
A young mother taken into the unseen world after her uncle defied a lord's levy, who returned as a goddess of childbirth.
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Siri
A princess betrayed and cheated of her inheritance, who walked out of her world and became a goddess. At her festivals, women themselves are possessed.
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Temples and Sacred Places
How the great temples and holy hills of Tulunadu came to be where they are, as their own legends tell it. 19 of 19 stories written so far.
Temples whose goddess slays a demon, or is made by a king and a merchant, in stories close to the Devi Mahatme.
- The goddess and her battles
Kollur Mookambika
A demon struck dumb just as Shiva offers him a boon, and the goddess who slays him and stays at Kollur.
Read the story - The goddess and her battles
Kateel and the Devi Mahatme
The goddess's three great battles, as Tulunadu's best-loved Yakshagana plays them, and the swarm of bees at Kateel.
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Mangaladevi
The goddess who gave Mangaluru its name, and the shrine that was twice lost and found.
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Polali Rajarajeshwari
An exiled king and a ruined merchant shape the goddess from river clay, and the king crowns her with his own crown.
Read the story - Heroes of the epics
Karinja
A hilltop where Arjuna fought Shiva, Bhima's mace made a pond, and monkeys still come for the temple rice.
Read the story - Heroes of the epics
Narahari Parvata
After the great war, Krishna and Arjuna climb a Tulunadu hill and make four sacred ponds in the rock.
Read the story - Heroes of the epics
Halekote Mukhyaprana
The Hanuman shrine held to guard Mangaluru, and the sultan who is said to have stood quietly before it.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Udupi Krishna
An image of the child Krishna crosses the sea hidden in clay, and centuries later turns round to face a devotee kept outside.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Kudupu Ananthapadmanabha
Two stories for one serpent temple: three divine eggs in a rice basket, or a handless king who built it in a night.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Ananthapura Lake Temple
Kerala's only lake temple, which claims to be the first home of Ananthapadmanabha, and the crocodile who guarded it.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Bappanadu
Seven goddess-sisters sail to Mulki, and a Muslim trader's boat finds their lost shrine.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Venkataramana at Kodiyal: The Idol in the Sack
An ascetic leaves an idol in a sack as security for a loan, fumes rise from the shopkeeper's loft, and the idol is found and set up in the community's temple.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Venkataramana at Karkala: The Idol in the Well
Refugees from Goa are given land by a Jain king. Their second idol is lost in a well at Mulki, and a hermit from Tirumala hands over the god in a dream.
Read the story - Gods who came and were found
Kukke Subramanya: The Serpent's Refuge
The serpent king Vasuki flees from Garuda and takes refuge with Subramanya in the forested Western Ghats.
Read the story - Where faiths and rulers meet
Kadri Manjunatha
A hill in Mangaluru that has been holy to Shaivas, Buddhists and Nath yogis in turn.
Read the story - Where faiths and rulers meet
Dharmasthala and the Four Daivas
A Jain chieftain gives up his home to four guests who prove to be daivas, and a Shiva linga arrives from Kadri to make it a temple.
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Mundkur Durgaparameshwari
A greedy ruler turns the goddess to face east to dig up her treasure, and two warrior twins set it right.
Read the story - Where faiths and rulers meet
Moodabidri: The Cow and the Tiger
A monk sees a cow and a tiger drinking from one pool, and digs up the image that began the Guru Basadi, the first of Moodabidri's eighteen.
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Kudroli: The Temple the Billavas Built
A community kept out of other temples builds its own Shiva temple in 1912, with the guidance of Narayana Guru, and it becomes the end of Mangaluru's Dasara procession.
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Epics and Heroes
The long sung stories of the paddanas, and the strong men and women at their heart. 5 of 5 stories written so far.
Koti and Chennaya
Twin warriors who stand up to a tyrant, go into exile and die defending Enmur, and are honoured at garadis across Tulunadu.
Read the storySiri
A princess cheated of her inheritance walks out of her world and becomes a goddess, followed by her daughter and granddaughters.
Read the storyKantabare and Budabare
Twin warriors raised by the queen of Mulki, who once fought Koti and Chennaya to a standstill.
Read the storyAgoli Manjanna
The gentle giant of Tulunadu, who ate a mountain of rice and built Mulki's first kambala track.
Read the storyParati and Mangani
A paddana of events at Bettampady near Puttur, retold on screen as Nemoda Boolya.
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Kings and Queens
Rulers remembered in story as much as in history. 2 of 2 stories written so far.
Rani Abbakka
The queen of Ullal who refused to pay the Portuguese and won her city back in a night raid.
Read the storyBhutala Pandya
A sister's son offered to a sea-demon is spared and crowned, and inheritance through the mother's line begins.
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Beginnings, Festivals and Folk Tales
How the coast came out of the sea, the stories behind the year's feasts, and tales told to children. 3 of 3 stories written so far.
Parashurama and the Making of the Coast
The warrior-sage throws his axe into the sea, and the coast of Tulunadu rises from the water.
Read the storyCalling King Bali Home
Once a year at Deepavali, farmers light torches in the fields and call the good king Bali home.
Read the storyTulu folk tales
Grandmothers' tales, starting with twins born of a magic mango and found again through a test of milk.
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