Jain Heritage
Jain rulers, basadis, scholars and stories.
Bermer: The First Lord of Tulunadu
Long before the great temples, the Tuluvas honoured Bermer, a god their old songs say made the land itself. Today he rides a horse in the garadis, hides behind other names, and still waits in the corners of temples and fields.
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.
Dharmasthala: The House the Daivas Asked For
In a village on the Nethravathi, a Jain chieftain gave his own house to four daivas who came to him as guests. Their messenger brought a Shiva linga from Kadri, and the shrine that grew up around it is still looked after by the chieftain's family, some eight hundred years on.
Rakteshwari, the Earth-Born Maiden
An ancient spirit of the fields with no birth story, who was given a sword, a shield and a fearsome new name, and who once left a neglected shrine and later asked to come home.
Moodabidri: Eighteen Basadis and the Thousand Pillars
Moodabidri, a small town near Mangaluru, has eighteen Jain temples and is called the Jain Kashi of the South. Its Thousand Pillar Basadi is one of the finest Jain temples in India, its Guru Basadi kept some of the oldest Jain books for centuries, and one monk, the Bhattaraka, heads them all.
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.
Ullaya and the Ullakulu, the King Daivas
Two royal brothers, and in some tellings their sister Ullalthi, who come to Tulunadu by a ship of maya, from Kashi, or down the Ghats from a golden palace. Every year at Mandekolu, one of them still steps in to stop a fight.
Kodamanithaya, the Daiva Who Followed His Devotees
A royal daiva who walks home behind the people who worship him: a Jain lord returning from the Ganga, a man who gave up his family name, two pilgrims leading an ox and a rooster. Wherever he arrives, he asks for a shrine.
Babbarya, the Daiva of the Sea
The son of a Beary sea-merchant and a Jain mother, born by a miracle, sails a ship cut from a thousand-year-old tree and vanishes off Kaup. He stays on as Babbarya, guardian of the fishermen, and the people of the coast still argue about who he really was.
Kalkuda and Kallurti, the Sculptor and His Sister
A master sculptor carves the great Bahubali at Karkala, and the king cuts off a hand and a leg so that he can never carve another. He carves one anyway, at Venur. His twin sister comes looking for him, and together they become two of the most feared daivas of Tulunadu.
Jarandaya, the Prince Who Could Not Swallow an Insult
The ninth son of a Jain king rides the coast settling quarrels, until a trader at Kapu makes him kneel in the road. His assistant plans a revenge that kills the trader. Both men become daivas, and the story of the feud is told in two ways.
Rani Abbakka: The Queen of Ullal Who Would Not Pay
A Jain queen of the Chowta house, who inherited Ullal through her mother's line, is said to have refused tribute to the Portuguese in the 16th century and to have beaten them back. Historians dispute her dates, and some think the story joins more than one queen.
Bhutala Pandya: The Nephew Who Was Spared
In the story that explains aliyasantana, a sea-demon asks a king for one of his sons, and the king's sister offers her own son instead. The demon spares the boy, and he becomes his uncle's heir. Historians treat the story as legend, and a text from about the 14th century is its only source.