Bantwal and Belthangady: the Netravati towns

Dharmasthala and Venur each have a Bahubali statue ^{1 2}. Bahubali is a revered figure in Jainism. He is said to have meditated standing still for twelve years ³. The two towns are in Belthangady taluk, which lies with Bantwal taluk in Dakshina Kannada, east of Kudla (Mangaluru) ^{4 1}. Bantwal and Dharmasthala are on the Netravati river, and Venur is on the Phalguni ^{4 1 2}.

Bantwal town is about 25 kilometres east of Kudla ⁴. Belthangady town is about 60 kilometres from Kudla, on the road to Chikkamagaluru ⁵. In the 2011 Census, Bantwal town had about 40,000 people and Belthangady town about 7,600 ^{4 6}.

The names

Tulu Wikipedia writes Bantwal the same way as Kannada does, and also gives the longer form ಬಂಟವಾಳ (baṇṭavāḷa) ⁷. Tulu Wikipedia says Belthangady was earlier called Bolter (ಬೊಲ್ತೆರ್, bolter) ⁵.

The same article gives more than one explanation of the name Belthangady ⁵. One explains it as bella, jaggery, plus angadi, a shop ⁵. Another takes Belthangady as a changed form of Bolter ⁵. The same article lists other meanings people give the name, such as a place where workers gathered ⁵.

The river trade town

Bantwal stands on the Netravati, on the national highway east from Kudla ⁴. In the past it was known for its trade with the Persian Gulf ⁴. A gazetteer of 1855 called it a depot for the province’s goods on their way up to Mysore ⁴. Before 1852 Bantwal was the largest taluk in the Canara province, with 411 villages. In 1852 part of it became the new Puttur taluk ⁴.

The Netravati floods in the monsoon ⁴. The floods of July and August 1923 did serious damage in Bantwal and its villages ⁸. Over time the floods drove traders and new houses uphill to B.C. Road, short for Bantwal Cross Road, and most government offices moved there too ⁴. The district gazetteer says a market has come up at the Bantwal east cross road. It says the Netravati flood of 1923 seems to have been responsible for its quick growth ⁸. Bantwal is still a trading town for groceries, tobacco, hardware and gold ⁴.

Dharmasthala

Dharmasthala is a temple town on the Netravati in Belthangady taluk, about 75 kilometres east of Kudla ¹. Its older name was Kuduma ^{1 9}. The four Dharma Daivas, the daivas who guard dharma, have their shrines here: Kalarahu, Kalarkayi, Kumaraswamy and Kanyakumari ¹. The town’s temple is to Manjunatha, a form of Shiva, and the goddess Ammanavaru, whose name means mother, has her shrine there ^{10 1}. A Jain family, the Pergades, heads the temple ¹⁰. Its priests are Madhva Brahmins, who are Vaishnavas ¹⁰. There is also a basadi, a Jain shrine, to the Tirthankara Chandranatha ^{1 10}.

The place’s beginnings are told in more than one way. A legend begins with the daivas, and sets its story about eight hundred years ago ¹⁰. A Jain chief, Birmanna Pergade, and his wife, Ammu Ballalthi, lived at Kuduma in a house called Nelliadi Beedu ¹⁰. The Dharma Daivas came to the house in human form, as guests ¹⁰. That night they asked Pergade, in a dream, to give up the house for their worship, and he did ¹⁰. He built another house, and the daivas are worshipped at Nelliadi Beedu still ¹⁰. Pergade built shrines for the four daivas, and invited Brahmin priests to perform the rites ¹⁰. The priests asked for a Shiva linga beside the daivas ¹⁰. The daivas sent Annappa Swamy, who served them, to bring one from the Kadri temple at Kudla ¹⁰. The Manjunatha temple was built around that linga ¹⁰. Annappa has his own shrine, his thano (ತಾನೊ, tāno), at Dharmasthala ⁵.

The second account is set in the sixteenth century. English Wikipedia quotes the state gazetteer of 1983: the Madhva saint Vadiraja Tirtha, of the Sode matha, came to the place then ¹. He consecrated the linga again, and gave the place the name Dharmasthala in place of Kuduma ¹. He came at the request of Devaraja Heggade, then the head of the temple ¹⁰. Tulu Wikipedia records a further belief: that Vadiraja himself brought the Manjunatha from Kadri and installed it ⁹. The legend and this belief differ on who brought the linga from Kadri: Annappa, or Vadiraja himself ^{10 9}.

On Ratnagiri hill near the temple stands a Bahubali statue, carved from a single rock ^{1 11}. Renjala Gopalakrishna Shenoy carved it in 1973, under Ratnavarma Heggade, and it was set on the hill in 1982 ¹¹. English Wikipedia dates both its carving and its setting up to 1973 ¹. It is about 39 feet tall ^{1 11 3}. The district gazetteer gives 39 feet in one place and 38 feet in another. It says Ranjala Gopala Shenoy finished the carving in 1973, and the statue was installed on 3 February 1982 ⁸. Its head-anointing, the Mahamastakabhisheka, was held in 1982, 1995 and 2007, and from 9 to 18 February 2019 ^{12 11}. The Manjusha museum, founded by Veerendra Heggade, holds antiques, paintings, temple chariots and palm-leaf manuscripts ¹³. Every year Dharmasthala holds the Laksha Deepotsava, the festival of a hundred thousand lamps ⁸.

Venur

Venur is a small town on the Phalguni river in Belthangady taluk ^{2 14}. Its inscriptions call it Enuru ⁸. It was the capital of the Ajila kings, a Jain ruling family, who ruled here from 1154 to 1786 ^{2 14}.

In 1604 the Ajila king Timmanna Ajila set up a Bahubali statue here, carved from a single rock ². An inscription at Venur dates it to 1 March 1604 and names him Vira Timmaraja IV ⁸. The statue faces west, on a high platform by the river, inside a walled enclosure ^{2 14}. Its height is given as 35 feet ⁸ and as 38 feet ^{2 14}. Wikipedia’s Bahubali article gives both ³. It is said to have been carved by a sculptor named Beeru Kalkuda ^{2 14}. By custom the head-anointing is held once in twelve years ¹⁴. One was held from 28 January to 5 February 2012 ^{14 12}.

Venur also has several basadis, among them the Binnani Basadi, also called the Bala Basadi, the Akkangala Basadi and the Kallu Basadi ¹⁴.

Ujire, Charmadi and Jamalabad

Ujire is a small town near Dharmasthala ¹⁵, about nine kilometres away by road ¹⁶. Most of its schools and colleges are run by the SDM trust of Dharmasthala ¹⁵. Ujire is also a road junction. Roads go from it to Dharmasthala, to Belthangady and Kudla, and to Kottigehara, towards Chikkamagaluru ¹⁵. That road climbs the Western Ghats by the Charmadi Ghat, a road of many hairpin bends ^{15 8}.

About eight kilometres north of Belthangady town stands Jamalabad, a fort on a huge granite rock in the Kudremukh hills ¹⁷. People there call it Gadayikallu (ಗಡಾಯಿಕಲ್ಲ್, gaḍāyikall), and its older name was Narasimhagada ^{15 5}. English Wikipedia says Tipu Sultan built the fort in 1794 and named it after his mother, Jamalabee ¹⁷. The district gazetteer says a king, Narasimhavarma, built the fort earlier, and that Tipu took it in 1794, repaired it and renamed Nada village Jamalabad ⁸. About 1,876 steps cut into the rock lead to the top ¹⁷. Tulu Wikipedia counts about 2,800 ⁵. The top is about 1,700 to 1,800 feet above sea level ^{17 15}. English Wikipedia gives 1799 for the British capture, in the fourth Mysore war ¹⁷. The gazetteer gives 1800 ⁸.

The people

Tulu, Kannada, Beary and Konkani are all spoken in Bantwal ⁴. A gazetteer of 1855 lists the town’s households as Billava, Bunt, Bhandary, Ganiga, Kulal, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) and Konkani Catholic ⁴. It also lists a few Jain households ⁴. Tulu Wikipedia gives Tulu and Kannada as the main languages of Belthangady ⁵, and as the languages of Venur ¹⁴. Farming is the main occupation in both taluks ^{7 5}. Around Belthangady the crops are paddy, areca, coconut, cocoa and cashew ⁵.

What to see

Bantwal taluk has the Polali Rajarajeshwari temple, and the Kallurti daiva shrine at Panolibail ⁷. Around Belthangady are the Kajur mosque, and the Divyashirvada church, founded by the Basel Mission ⁵. At Nada, near Ujire, people offer clay toys at the Surya Sadashivarudra temple ¹⁵. The Ermai falls are about ten kilometres from Ujire, and the Bandaje falls about fifteen ¹⁵. The district gazetteer also names the falls at Didupe ⁸.

Terms used on this page

• basadi: a Jain temple
• daiva: the deity of a place, a family or a village
• angadi: a shop or market, and an old trade junction
• heggade: the title of the hereditary head of the Dharmasthala temple
• lakshadeepotsava: the festival of a hundred thousand lamps

Related

• Tulu Nadu: the land, its districts and its towns
• Kudla (Mangaluru): the junction of two rivers
• Puttur and Sullia: the inland taluks
• Bedra (Moodabidri): the Jaina Kashi of the south

Sources

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Last reviewed by tulunadu.org on 2 November 2026.