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..