Belavadi is a tiny and quaint village and is just 10 kilometres from the
world-famous Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebeedu in Hassan district.
In the aftermath of visiting the famous Hoysala style architectural
marvel, the Veeranarayana Swamy Temple at Belavadi in Chikkamagaluru
district, we took a stroll around the village which once had about 400
Brahmin families living around the temple.
It was a hot and sunny day and to walk around the village made us thirsty and hungry but this village has neither any tourist facility nor any hotels or restaurants. Despite our rumbling stomach, we decided to take a
peek around this ancient village.
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| Front view of the house |
There are some people who are interested in saving their heritage in whatever form they have been found. In our wanderings around the village,
we found Venkatacheliah, an old man from Belavadi village who had retained and restored all century stone tools and implements. Also, his wife
Narsamma was using whatever was feasible in her day to day household work.
Now for me and Tharangini, even if it is tools and implements used more
than 100 years ago, we agreed that it makes for an interesting study and
visit.
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| The village |
This village with some 300-400 houses situated around the temple was built
on lands that had been granted by the Mysore Wodeyar Kings in appreciation
of various kinds of works done by these people for the temple. If most
original land-owners were priests, the rest included sweepers, teachers,
traditional artists, farmers, masons and musicians.
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| A view of the house from the temple |
The Belavadi village itself is steeped in history and culture. Earlier,
this village known as “Ekachakranagara” has found mention in the epic
Mahabharata. In fact, the villagers celebrate the festival of Bandi-Bana
every year in memory of slaying of demon Bhakasura by Bhima.
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| Venkatacheliah and his aunt in front of the house |
Venkatacheliah, seeing our interest, started relating details about how
once 400 families lived around the temple but now only 25 of them were
left with most of them migrating to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Europe and the US.
Even as he was relating the history of the Belavadi village, he
specifically requested us to visit his house which he said was pretty old.
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| Venkatacheliah's wife behind the house |
A very small typical Malnad style house with Mangalore roof tiles, his house had all the simple necessities of life where he lived with his wife and aunt. In reality, he had a common compound wall with the 12th century
Temple. Very hospitable, his wife Narsamma served us tea and biscuits while her husband happily related all the details of their heritage.
78-year-oldVenkatacheliah said that most grinding stones and other kitchen accessories are 125-150 years old. The bath tank which was used for
storing water as also cereals many times, he informed it was more than 120
years old.
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| A view of the bathroom |
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| A pot used for storing grains |
“I have retained them as they were in my childhood and not replaced them with modern plastic containers or concrete structures. Even our house is more than a century old while we have an open well inside our
compound.”
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| A view of the bathroom |
It is a dilemma for many residents of Belavadi village as their
houses fall in the Inam lands granted by the Mysore Kings to Sringeri
Mutt. In fact, they are living cheek and jowl with the temple. Their lives
are intimately connected with this unique Hoysala temple which brings in
visitors daily.
Sometime ago, local authorities had even asked them to vacate their houses and lands as the temple needs at least 100 metres space around it. In fact, no construction work has been allowed around the temple.
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| A view from the house |
So, Venkatacheliah informs us that since their houses are abutting the
Veeranarayana Swamy Temple, they are equally helpless as it is necessary
to protect such a glorious heritage for people to come and see the Hoysala
wonder which is so near Halebeedu.
“I will not mind leaving our heritage for Veeranarayana but we too need an
alternative land, shelter and money to start a new life away from
Belavadi,” says the old man with all concern.
Location map:
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