TAMIL AS SPOKEN IN KARNATAKA

TAMIL AS SPOKEN IN KARNATAKA.

Tamilnadu is bordering Karnataka on the East and South geographically. There must have been lots of migration from both states into one another.
As I know the first migration of Tamils from Srirangam happened by the followers of Acharya Ramanuja due to the atrocities committed by the Saivaite Kings on non Saivaites. Ramanuja was followed by many of his Brahmin followers and also
other community people who were devoted to Bhagavad Ramanuja. I believe that there was a migration of Tamils from the Present Shenkottah region by the present day Sankethi Brahmins due to a curse pronounced by a chaste lady by name Thayaramma.
Later on during the period on Sri Vedantha Desika there was a migration of Tamilians who suffered due to the atrocities that were committed by the Mallikafurand his army.

During the period of Bhagavad Ramanuja he converted lots of people who liked the Vishistadvaitha tenets into his followers. For eg the present day Hebbar Iyengars were originally smartha Brahmins . Even now there is a section of Hebbar smartha’s who are
the disciples of Sringeri Shankara Mutt
I feel that the Sankethis’ were the first set of Tamil Brahmins who migrated from Tamilnadu. They were well versed in ancient scriptures and Vedas , culturally and socially well advanced good musicians and also good agriculturist. Even now they follow this tradition.
During the period of Bhagavad Ramanuja’s visit many of them voluntarily became Vaishnavites. It appears that some of the village Brahmins enmass got converted to Srivaishnava fold and changed the Temples in their control for worship on the lines of Srivaishnavism..
We can find from history that Bhagavad Ramanuja had more than 40 simhasanadhipathis and except for a few who were allowed to remain in the temple town of Srirangam I believe that the entourage of Bhagavad Ramanuja was quite impressive and large along with simhasanadhipathis and their followers.
Many of the old followers were allowed to marry the new entrants in to the srivaishnava fold from Karnataka. These old followers tried their best to teach the day to day routine of srivaishnava household and also the various rituals connected with different festivals.
So these new entrants got the initiation into amalgamation of the Tamil Brahmins of that period.
Due to different regional influences the tamil as spoken got itself its own accent and some of the habits were also integrated which was a ;mixture of Karnartaka culture and
Srirangam Brahmin culture.
There was a migration of Tamil speaking Muslims from Tamilnadu from the areas surrounding Ranipet,Vaniambadi and Dindigul. It is not as to why they migrated. . As I know they settled in Gargeswari, Naripuram and surrounding areas of T Narasipur taluk of Mysore Dist, Kalkuni in Malavalli taluk of Mandya dist. These muslims were hard working and were doing labour at a cheaper rate. They also did not indulge in social evil like drinking or gambling. Their women folk very rarely worked in others field. In due course these muslims were also employed as tax collectors by the Inamdars of T Narasipur taluk . if any one fails to remit tax these muslims will go to the house of the defaulter and they will sit in the pial and start cooking in the pial and also pass leud remarks . if anyone objects they will say that if they do not collect tax the Inamdar will take them to task. And some times it is said that they will spit on the threshold of the house so that house owner do not step on it and had to jump over it. This is because the hindu householders considered the muslim spittle as pollutant.!!!.
These muslims had their own Idgah where they were in majority. They also had a very small mosque. They used to get moulvi from tamilnadu giving him enough pay.
Most of these muslims did not know Urdu. They only knew tamil and kannada as they lived in the environs of kannada.
As I know these are the types of Tamils that are still spoken even to this day.
These Tamil speaking people are we can say the earliest settlers or migraters
!) Tamil as spoken by Sankethis of Bettadapura (Mysore Dt)
2) Tamil as spoken by Sankethis of Koushika (Hassan Dist)
3)Tamil as spoken by Sankethis of Muttoor (Shivamogga dist)
4) Tamil as spoken by the Sankethis who have settled in north karnataka
5) Tamil as spoken by Iyengars of Ramanathapura(Hassan Dt)
6) Tamil as spoken by the Iyengars of Aghalayam(Hassan Dt
7) Tamil as spoken by the . Iyengars of Hemmige (Mysore Dt)
8) Tamil as spoken by the Mandayam Iyengars (Mandya dt)
9) Tamil as spoken by the Hebbar Iyengars (hassan and chickmagalur dist)
10) Tamil as spoken by the Iyengars of Lakshmipuram (Bangalore dist)
11)Tamil as spoken by the Iyengars of Kalkunte (Bangalore dt)
12)Tamil as spoken by the Iyengars of Kolar dt
13) Tamil as spoken by the Iyers who immigrated long back.(they have settled in all parts of Karnataka and much is not known to me about them)
14) Tamil as spoken by Mudaliars who also migrated from Tamilnadu long back.
15)Tamil as spoken by the Christians who migrated from Tamilnadu.
16)Tamil as spoken by dalits who migrated from Tamilnadu long back.
17) Tamil as spoken by the Iyers of Palaghat who migrated from palakkad of present Kerala state.
18)Tamil as spoken by the OIL extractors who migrated from coimabatore dt of Tamilnadu(these people migrated long back)
19) Tamil as spoken by the Chettiars (these Tamilians entered Karnataka purely for business purposes and late entrants. They are mostly from Coimbatore dist.

Tamil as spoken by the immigrants about whom much is not known

20) Tamil as spoken by the Labbai muslim group of Mysore dist.

Now let me take up the issue of Tamil speaking group.
There are people who came to Karnataka after the fall of Tippusultan. The earliest Srivaishnavites were known as Kilnattars (people belonging to the lower land)
Later on there was a rush of people who came to Karnataka to earn their living due to the good climatic conditions and also due to good job opportunities. Among these immigrants the Srivaishnava Brahmins are known as “Kanavakilu” that is people who came thorough valley. Mostly they settled in villages and they had grants from the King or got attached to temples or Mutts.

There tamil was different from the local tamil
21) Tamil as spoken by Kilnattar Iyengars.
22)Tamil as spoken by Kanavakilu Iyengars
The spirit of maintaining the language and culture is to be appreciated.
This happens in any language or culture.
The progeny or say the descendents who are now speard all over the world of the above 22 tamil type speakers themselves are trying their utmost to keep their own type of spoken language alive and are still continuing.
There was also a type of highly cultured or say very high respect giving language among Srivaishnavites which is known as Srivaishnava Paribhasai. This type of speech is not common even among the Brahmins of Tamilnadu. This is now almost dead and gone in Karnataka and if anyone speaks in that type of language there is hardly any one who can understand.
Even in English language there are so many variations. Even in Gt Britain the English spoken by Englishman, Scotsman, Welshman and eirishman are different.
I do not have time enough to spend on all the Tamils spoken and write a thesis.
Any tamil as spoken by any one may appear corrupt. But it is not so.. Let us welcome the spirit behind the maintaining the individuality and let us welcome the different tamils/ and tamil language for its own beauty .

SIDDASETTY AKA SIDIGEDDE OF DODDABBAGILU MOLE

SIDDASETTY AKA SIDIGEDDE OF DODDDABBAGILU MOLE

MOLE/MOLAY unfortunately cannot be phonetically correctly mentioned in English.
Mole means a neighbouring or near by small village which does not have its own name. so it is a suburb like habitation and it is named as mole of the nearby big village. So the Doddabbagilu mole is having the big Village Doddabbagilu nearest to it.
Siddasetty was comparatively a progressive farmer. He was relatively rich man of his village and had lots of commonsense. He knew how to write name and sign in the documents. Otherwise he was an illiterate having elephantine memory for facts and figures... When the Government of Mysore introduced so many intensives to produce silk Siddasetty and his friend one Kuntumara went to the Silk Propogating office and collected all the particulars. The basic need for raring cocoons is the feed mulberry.
So the friends entered into mulberry cultivation and also recommended some other farmers also to do the cultivation with the promise that they will purchase the mulberry at a bit higher rate than what is offered in other areas. So the first thing they did was to get assured supply of mulberry leaves for feeding the silk worms. After the mulberry was of sufficient growth they went to T Narasipur and got the eggs of the silk worm. Usually they aer available in sheets of paper on which the silkworms are made to deposit their egss and as such sold. After getting the knowhow they got some second hand realling and boiler vats. They got these from the nearby Chamaraj Taluk villages.
For the initial feeding of the eggs upto its coming to the stage where the silk worms becomes caterpillars and start weaving their cocoons around them the mulberry leaves have to be cut from fine small pieces to the very large pieces and it has to be fed to the worms. The worms when they become caterpillars and came to a stage where in they start to form a cocoon around them these caterpillars have to be mounted on to a wicker contraception known as chandrike. The labour required for bringing the eggs upto the cocoon stage is labour intensive.. siddasetty and his friend at the beginning started selling the cocoons in the weekly shandy (market) either at TAlmost all the labourers were ladies and most of them were dalits. The cocoons will be put into boiling water and the top layer of the cocoon will get separated. After this the starting of the cocoon thread of the cocoon will get released. Each reel contains about 4
Numbers of silk thread lines. Each thread which goes to these lines should have a minimum of four cocoons in them at any time. This is important as any purchaser at Bangalore checks this before purchase of these silk threads. For this work also initially as there were no trained hands. Siddasetty and Kuntamara went to some villages nearby
gave advance to the families having ladies who were well versed in the reeling job promising them good wages and free boarding and lodging facilities and got about 20 ladies . these ladies were all from the Dalit caste. And were good workers. Along with them they got some dalit ladies who were living in the nearby villages and asked them to observe how these ladies work. These apprentices were paid a small honourarium and
free boarding. After six months these apprentices became swell versed and started working. The workers who had come from the outside then left . handing over the job to these local workers.
Why this detail about the silk production? This is to show the capacity and managerial skill of Siddasetty who was an illiterate.
During the second world war there was a sort of scarcity for the silk threads. During this period also Siddasetty and his friend were able to make lot of money by some how managing to take silk threads to Bangalore and selling them at a very good rate. When ever these two come to mysore or when they were enroute to their place they used to give the money for safe deposit with out mother as they usually used to sleep on the pial of the house. they used to get the money back only when they were going back to their village. Some times when they were making two or three trips to Bangalore they used to deposit the amount with our mother.
For rearing the silk worms required a very clean environs. So all those who wanted to rear siklworms had a clean house specially meant for raring the silk works.
After seeing these two some others also started to rear silworks. These new entreproneures had ready made labour and other facilities. The new found rich made the neorich become a bit arrogant in their behaviour..
Once Brother in law of Kuntamara was involed in a scuffle, That person was not a native of Doddabbagilu Mole and was a native of Muththalavadi the present Krisnapuram.
To enquire into this affair the village elders meeting was called for . . For this assembly this person was also given notice in advance. But he failed to attend this meeting of elders to present his side of the case. For this assembly one Sri Narayana swamy village accountant of the Jodidar of Sosale from Doddabbagilu village who had come on personal errand and one of our share croppers of Doddabbagilu Suban had come. Sri narayana swamy was requested to take the seat along with the elders who were sitting on a platform. Suban was with the crowd who were there. Neithere Narayan swamy nor suban had anything to do with the enquiry being held against Kuntamara’s brother in law. When Kuntamara’s Brother in law refused to come to the elders council one of the elders said “why not you kick him and bring hIm?” so the village youths went to the house of this person and entered his house and dragged him. This person started defending himself by wielding a stick. This angered the youths who went to their own houses and brought some lethal weapons and sticks and gave the brother in laws of kunatamara and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not come and attend the meeting. For this it appears this person used some abusive language and used the same language about the elders who were waiting for him . this angered the youths and they gave him good beating and this resulted in the death of this person. Kuntamara was not in station.
He ws away and on hearing about the death of his brother in law he rushed up and went and filed a complaint with the T narasipur police. He came to know about the persons who were in the council of eldrs and gave the names of all of them . this included the name of Sidda settee , and others and also that of Narayan swamy and suban.
All the male members of the village left the village and except the youngsters and ladies.
This resulted in the police coming to the village and post mortem and they could not arrest anyone as all of the elders and elders had left the village. Police had their own sourse and they were able to pcck these people against whom kuntamara had complained .
I had to cut short the narration of Sidda settee episode and now I shall continue.
About 15 persons of Doddabbagilu mole were arrested and they were charged with the murder of Kuntamara’s brother in law... In reality none of the elders were involved in the murder. Sister of Kuntamara told the police that she saw all the elders and others totaling to about 15 persons were the culprits and came to the house and everyone hit him and combined result ws the death of Kuntamara’s brother in law. Even the sister of kuntamara had not seen as to who hit her husband as she ran away from the house and went to krishnapuram (Muththalavadi) along with Kuntamara’s wife and children. They returned only to get all the belongings to shift them to Muththalavadi and vacated the house at Mole after about 15 days. Nobody took any articles of the house hold or looted the huse of Kuntamara as they did not consider kuntamara as a culprit.
Another factor is that Suban the tamil speaking muslim from Doddabbagilu and our share cropper of the lands in Doddabbagilu and Narayana swamy the accountant of sosale Jodidar from Doddabbagilu were also charged by the police as if they were also involved in the murder. About 15 persons of Doddabbagilu Mole including Suban and Narayana swamy were arrested in due course and were sent to the Mysore Jail. The case dragged on for nearly two years and finally all these 15 persons were released due to the paucity of evidence . Kuntamara and Siddasetty who were very close friends became bitter enemies. After release all these persons (excwpt suban) went to Tirumala and prayed to the Lord of Seven hill s and had their heads tonsured as an offering. They also swore that they will never venture into the silk business as it involed the killing of thousands of silk worms. From that they they stopped rearing silk worms and concentrated only on agriculture.
All during the Siddasetty’s venturing into the silk worm raring venture and during his incarceration in the jail our father helped siddasetty financially . siddasetty had 2 sons and one daughter. All were married and of all the children th daughter who was the second child and she was the only one who was bold enough and used to take initiative. Even after her marriage she stayed with her father along with her husband. When siddasetty was in jail it was our father who financed and engaged lawyer for his defense and said soothing words to the daughter and also gave her money for the agricultural operations of siddasetty’s lands and also lands which were under share cropping.contract. For all these things siddasetty was very grateful to our father and our family. After the demise of our father sidddasetty helped us in getting our share of paddy from some stubborn share croppers. Siddasetty was also cultivating a wetland by the name of “Kare Gadde” which was never partitioned and the land belonged to 5persons of nadipuram clan.I remember only three main share holders one was our father and another was Lakshminarasimhachar, and another was Harikatha vidwan Srinivasarangachar.
It had another two share holders and this share was subdivided. I don’t know their names now..
The reason for this is due to the following incident in the life of our father. It is as follows:
Our father had left some portion of paddy with trusted share croppers to be sold during August as the paddy price will naturally be more during those periods. He stayed at Ramamandiram os Aacharaiyyana hundi for two days and was able to sell the paddy through some brokers for good price and wanted to return. As the trasaction concluded late in the evening the evening bus to Mysore could not be caught. . During those periods there were only two busses plying through Hullamballi . One was Lalitha motor which used to go to Talakad and another one Empire motors which used to go to Bluff. One used to make the trip in the morning to Talakad and return the same evening and another one was going in the evening and return the next day morning to Mysore . One has to get down at Hullamballi and walk over a distance of nearly 2 kilometres over the cultivated wet land bunds to reach Acharayyanahundi. While resting at the Ramamandiram he saw some bright lights on the banks of Cauvery and he thought that some function or the other was taking place at Krishanapuram village temple. During those periods some Srivaishnavite Brahmin families were still staying at Muththalavadi (now named as Krishan puram) to which place those at old krishanapuram had migrated after 1924 floods, I do not know as to what prompted our father to go to the Krishnapuram village . It was already late in the evening and he just left for the Krishanpuram village. By the time he left there were some light and later on it became dark and also the lights he saw at the cauvery river bank also disappeared. With the star light he started moving along the cauvery bank and in the border some farmer had dug a well. These wells are only in soft soil and the ground water level in those places at 4ehe Cauvery bank is just 20 feet or even less. As the well margins are in the soft soil it is strengthened by using the available country wood small logs and thorny bushes. May be our father could not see this well and slipped and fell into it. Due to the fall his left hand shoulder bone got fractured and his entire body had scratches all over. He could not get up the well even though the sides were not vertical . I donot know as to how he endured the pain . he was in the well which was not deep and upto the morning and in the morning with great difficulty he moved with pain and hunger to Doddabbagilu Mole. Siddasetty saw our father in this condition and arranged for a bed made of country woolen covered on a hay spread over the ground in the ramamandiram. He got warm milk with jaggery to our father and arranged for a country cart locally available. Into this cart a big sized clean “KONGA” was hoisted. Konga of this size is used to transport paddy from the field to the residence.
This way of transport of paddy is not possible over a long distance . In to the konga a thick layer of straw was laid and over a it a country woolen blanket was spread . over this our father was laid and the four poles around the konga was tied a clean blanket.. so that it gave shade. A good pair of bullocks which was available in the village was requisitioned and hitched to the cart. At this juncture we have to know that the bullocks which ply only in the villages usually ae afraid to walk when they see some bus or hear the sound of horns of automobiles. It requires great effort on the cartman to control these bullocks on the main roads unlike the village roads where they are accustomed. Siddasetty took upon this work on himself. As our father was weak until the evening he was allowed to sleep with only jaggery plantain and milk as sole diet. No doctor was available during those days and to bring doctor from T Narasipur was also a problem as there was problem of transport. Being an orthodox man our father would not have taken any other food articles from persons other than a Srivaishnavite household or a temple or a mutt. By the time our father was able to talk he told siddasetty as to what happened.
By evening our fathere was hoisted to the cart and with a pot full of milk and some other two persons to help siddasetty made his journey to Mysore. He reached mysore the early next morning and when the cart with our father arrived we were all stunned and plunged into sorrowful state, our mother prepared a bed in the rear portion hall and our father ws taken there. Siddasetty told us as to what happened and he also gave the woolen bag
(Known as madi sanchi and all the articles of clothes kept inside is supposed to be clean and can be used without being polluted) when the bag was opened inside was quite substantial money !!!. in addition our father had a pair of costly diamond eartops (Known as kadukans). If siddasetty had taken the kadukans and also the money no one would have known it!! This he did not do. After staying afor a day siddasetty returned.to the village. We admitted our father immediately to the K R Hospital to the special ward. The daily tariff was a grand rupees five per day during those days.. This included breakfast, lunch evening snacks night dinner all served in the western style. I was also following the principles of orthodoxy and except for the milk all the others went to the ayah’s and other attendants. The neighbour to our father during those period was Dr M H Krishna. I do not know for what ailment he was admitted there..Desikachar and Ramanuja the nephews of our father helped during those days. Every day the morning breakfast and lunch coffee and evening coffee and dinner were got from our house for our father. During day time our mother used to stay most of the times and during night I used to stay with our father.
Our father was in the hospital for nearly one month and his fracture was only small cracks and they healed . it was another one month before our father could recover fully and become normal.
After the demise of our father siddasetty helped by accompanying me during my paddy collection. He also used to help me in getting the dues from errant share croppers. Even though he behaved in a very polished manner with us he was feared a lot by those who knew his real colour. and nature. we sold our portion of the Karai Gadde to siddasetty .
when we started disposing our lands .
Once when I was at Emerald camp working as and engineer one fine day siddasetty appeared there in the late after noon. He had my address and even though he did not know good tamil he managed to travel from mysore to ooty and from ooty changed the bus to emerald and find my house. I had one boy mazdoor and he came to the dam site and told me that a person has come to see me from our village. I left the site and went to the quarters and was surprised to find siddasetty waiting for me. The boy mazdoor was also cooking for me. When I asked the boy to prepare coffee for siddasetty the first question he asked me was as to what caste the boy belonged. I told him that he was a Brahmin boy . though he was not. then he drank coffee. For the night good dinner was prepared and siddasetty was happy that I have a very good cook. In the night I gave him the mat and two balnkets and kept the crude electric heater to keep the hall warm. He said that he does not require the room heater. I told him that as we were at a height of about 7000’ in the night it will be very cold and definitely the heater is required. I kept the heater a bit away and siddasetty slept well. Early in the morning he got up and told me that he will go back. I asked him to stay for two days and will show him the dam and other tourist spots. He asked me whether the dam I am building is as big as Kannambadi (K R S DAM). I told him that the dam I am building is not so big. So he said that he is not interested . The boy mazdoor prepared idli and dosa and chutney and coffee. This siddasetty ate with relish and asked me to have the same brahmin cook as long as I am at that place!! I took him to the bus stand and waited until his bus left. When I wanted to give him some 100 rs he flatly refused and said that he actually owe us a lot of money as the favours and help he got from our father is immense and could not be measured. After this departure of siddasetty I did not meet him again. He went to our mother and told her to write to me to take care of myself from the fire hazard of the rookm heater. Later on after my joining the Government service my next brother kittanna was collecting paddy and going to the villages . later on for some time the youngest brother Raju started to visit the village and finally we started to dispose off our lands as none of our brothers were interested.
So ends the story of the relation ship between our father and siddasetty.
I have narrated what i know. . . .
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RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT UPPALIGAS OF AACHARAIYANA HUNDI AKA NADIPURAM

Basava Setty was one of the prominent personality of Acharaiyyanahundi aka Nadipuram. He belonged to the community of UPPALIGAS AKA MELUSAKKARE PATTANADA SETTARU.. he had married 4 times one after the other after the demise of each one. He had four sons by name ninga. Kitta, nanjunda and konagahalli. Nobody knows the exact number of daughters. But they were all married with in the clan,. Basava settee had with his own effort made a very big garden land with differet fruit giving trees spread over two acres. Earlier this land consisted only of sand and rock. With his labour he made this into a big garden. In the morning it was his routine to go to this garden and spend about 2 to three hours there. He had brought some breed of dog four in number and nobody knows from where. Even now I cannot recollect to have seen such a breed any where . they developed in to a pack of about 15 dogs and they were neither tied nor tamed by any one. Except for those who are residing in the uppliga portion of the village it was very difficult for any outsider to enter into the village unless some one of the village asks the dogs to keep quite. These dogs also do the work or scavenging. Almost all the households give the remains of the food and they do not starve. Some how the pack has not exceeded the number even after many years. Basava settee used to tell me that his grand father wanted to know from where the crances (known locally as paravatada hakki) come from. So one fine day he left the village and traveled north. He returned after some 4 years and told everyone that he has seen the mountain which is made out of water which is like stone ( ice) and from the top of this mountain these birds come flying The uppaligas of that time used to make fun of him and he stopped telling about his adventure about his having gone to the mountain of water like rock. These uppaligas never drank intoxicating drinks and if any one is found he used to be fined heavily and he had to undergo purification ceremony. Once a lady of upper caste fell in love with a UPPALIGA youth. The youth also wanted to marry that lady. Uppaligas had a conference and the elders came to a decision like this. As the caste to which the lady belongs is pure vegetarians , the lady should dress a live chicken and cook it and serve it to the elders of the village. After due discussion with the boy the lady agreed and did her best to cook and serve the cooked chicken to the elders. This came to be known to the people of the lady’s caste and they resolved to banish the lady from their caster for ever . After 1924 floods sites were given free at a place later known as HOSUR about 2 kilometer from aacharaiyana hundi and above the flood water mark. Most of them left but about 10 families stuck here. About this time the Brahmin families which were about 20 in number had also left either due to the land income being insufficient and the fear that they alone will be left to fend for themselves.
Age wise Basava setty was senior to our father Nadipuram Srirangachar. Every Saturday he used to take early morning bath wear namam without taking any food and wearing clean clothes and with an old harmonium sit in the front pial (jaguli) of the Rama mandiram where all the Uppaligas used to gather and start reciting songs of Gods known to him and taught to him in his younger days by his father. Late in the evening pooja was performed There were two very huge bugles (KAHALAY) and during arathi it used to be blown and its sound used to reach not less than 5 kilometres . the pooja was perfomed by Basavasetty and after pooja there used to some Prasadam in the shape of powdered jaggery mixed with copra shavings or some of the items of rice specially cooked by ladies who also used to take bath and fast till the evening pooja and distribution of prasad was over. Only after that those who used to fast from the morning took food . there were also others who used to fast from morning until evening. During harvest time whenever some Brahmins who had gone to collect their portion of the paddy was available these Brahmins used to be requested to perform pooja . To this Rama Mandiram was gifted some vessels and SHATARI by Late Avatharam Krishna machar ..Late avatharam Krishnamachar wanted to construct a small temple in the acharaiyyana hundi as they had to trek about 3 kilometres along the cauvery bank to attend any religious function at Krihanapuram temple and started collecting donations in the form of vessels or money. He did purchase some vessels used for pooja purposes and also decoration;ns for the deity. After the 1924 floods he was dejected and gave all the vessels and other decorative pieces to various temples and in that he gave some to the Uppaliga”s Ramamandir and also shatari.. One of the big Prabhavalis in Sosale temple have the etching on it showing that it belongs to Nadipuram temple. Even though Uppaligas were saivaites only on Saturdays they will become vaishnavites on Saturdays and also used to get their children religiously tonsured for the first time at Tirumala. Whenever they had some money or whenever they had prayed to LORD OF THE SEVEN HILLS for some favours they used to trek to the Tirumala either by walk or .by train. They used to go to Mahadesvara hill s and also to Mudukuthorai where Mahadeswara was the presiding deity.
At thirumala whenever they go on prilgrimage they used to stay at hathi ramji mutt. They used to carry prepared food and also provisions , and cooking vessels and prepare their own food.
Once upon a time these Uppaligas were expert salt makers. During the onset of summer it seems they used to go by cart to places where the efflorescence of salt was available and bring the white stuff along with some sand and mud. This they used to filter through hay after mixing this stuff in water . so that the sand and mud and rough particles are separated. Some time they used country woolen rags to filter this. At the bank of river cauvery they used to construct small rectangular bund using sand and paste the surface with a type of mud available at the shores of cauvery with the colour of cement. This used to act as a sort of water proof. After this gets dried up in the sun this was filled with the filtered stuff. Due to the sun during summer months this water evaporates leaving behind the salt.this salt will be scraped and used . when later on the salt was available in the shops at a cheaper rate this trade of Uppaligas were left out. And completely forgotten. There was a big plantation of oil bearing trees at a distance of one kilometer. The oil extracted of its seeds was bitter and used to solidify during winter months. The local name for that tree was “HIPPLI”. Any one can take any quantity of these seeds for their personal use and should on no account be sold or given to outsiders as gift. These seeds used to be crushed and the oil used for the lamps. As the se3ed were free allthe houses were lighted very lavishly. The only problem was that these seeds were crushed in a big stone mortar with a big wooden pestle and required really hard labour. So people used to take as much as they want and if at all there is excess of seeds this will be sold. The money they get will be shared by some three villages Rama mandirams. As I can remember they were 1)Doddabbagilu mole 2)Krishnapura 3)Aacharaiyanahundi. In acharaiyana hundi there were three very big tamarind trees. There were two other trees one belonging to Hemmige family who had migrated to aacharaiyan hundi and another one belonging to Nadipuram Kadabi family Here also the rules were that the tamarind canot be sold or gifted to outsiders and any excess to be sold and the money taken to improve ramamandiram or used during Ramanavami festival and also mariamman festival. Of aacharaiyan hundi. Iam to mention that the entire village consisted of sixtyhouses of uppligas and mostly share croppers 20 houses srivaishnavite Brahmins who owned lands.. In the dry lands tur dal, coriander,chilly , ground nut ,lentils and other crops used to be raised. The villagers who did not possess dry lands used to barter their paddy and obtain the dry land products.
The people of acharaiyana hundi used to say that they do not even purchase salt for their use and produce everything they need!
Al most all the business was on barter system and except for paying the Government tax they never needed money for their personal use. During the middle of December migratory birds from Siberia (supposed to be cranes) used to arrive. The flocks were minimum of 100 birds. They used to land in the already harvested lands and used to consume the grains which were on the ground and could not be collected. The farmers used to think that if the cranes landed in their fields the yield during next harvest will be doubled . no one hurt these birds as the frmers thought that they are sacred and helpful to the farmers. May be the dropping of the birds during the night used to fertilise the lands..
There was never any theft in the village . the reason being the spread of a rumour or fact as follows and may be before the advent of basava setty’s dogs.. Once a thief was caught and the villagers just tied his hands and foot. Took him in a Theppa (tug like but pushed by long bamboo sticks driven into the depths and manoured by the hands and foot of the boat man) to the middle of the cauvery river cut open his stomach and pushed the body into the flowing river. This story had wide publicity and no thief ventured to come to aacharaiyanahundi.. now after the arrival of basava’s dogs even genuine merchants come to the border of the village and shout and request those in the village to callback the dogs. If any one of the villagers asks the dogs to keep quite they obey it immediately. After this only the merchants can enter.
I do not for sure know whether these breeds of dogs exists are not as on date.
Due to fragmentation and various land ceiling acts the Brahmins started selling their lands and most of the uppligas were quite rich enough to purchase them, we also sold our lands as we were absentee land lords and we did not have any interest to visit the village after the late 1950’s.
What I have written is the random thoughts about the uppaligas as I know . may be it requires correction..