Maharashtra's Kannadiga History and Culture

In his famous 1917 work "Karnataka Gatavaibhava", Kannada Kula Purohita Shri Alur Venkata Rao explains how Maharashtra is soaked in the Kannada language and culture not just in history but also in the present:

Many people still believe that Kannada had never entered Maharashtra. But my dear friend Narayan Srinivas Rajapurohit, who has studied this subject very well, has shown with ample proof some revealing facts in an article titled "Maharashtra Va Karnataka" in the Marathi language "Kesari" which is being published from 27 years. Some of those facts are: that the "Jnaneshwari" is full of Kannada words, that Goa's financial documents were in Kannada until a few days ago, that the Sri Vitthala of Pandarapura is mainly a God worshipped by the Kannadigas.

However, we will now place before the reader some more facts which have presented themselves during my own research on this subject. I appeal in all humility to researchers of history to carry out more investigations on this line of research and prove what I have reason to believe very strongly - that not only was the present day land of the Maharashtra language being ruled by Kannadiga kings, but also that the Kannada language itself was widespread therein.

The facts which I have discovered are as follows:

1. Kannadigas will not be left without surprise to hear that the names of places in the Maharashtra language were mainly Kannada names. Kenduru is a place with a pure Kannada name near Pune. Further, Thana, Kulaba and Ratnagiri - which are Marathi districts - are full of villages with Kannada names. For example: Poyanadu, Shirola, Kallamatha, Devarakoppa, Akkalakoppa, Ulavi, Attigere, Mosale, Neruru, Pale, Devuru, Doni, Nirgade, Kanakavalli, Brahmanala, Ganagapura, Kuradivadi, Kalasa are villages in Maharashtra! Shri Rajawade, a prominent historian of Maharashtra recently admitted that more than half the names of places in Maharashtra are in Kannada!
2. The makaara in popular names such as Annambhatta and Krishnambhatta is a feature of the Kannada language.
3. The Jains in places such as Satara have been speaking Kannada from the very beginning.
4. The Kuladevategalu of many Kannadiga families are in Maharashtra. Some examples are: Dhoumanarasimha, Neeraanarasimha, Kohalenarasimha, Tulajaabhavaani, etc.
5. The very same rites and rituals performed within the borders of Karnataka are to be found in Maharashtra also. My friend Sri Rajapurohit has established the similarity between the temples in Devaragudda and Jejuru. Likewise, the Parashurama-Renuka temple near Chiploon is similar to the Ellamma temple of Savadatti.
6. The Bombay Gazetter mentions that the Shilahara kings ruling over the area surrounding Mumbai were Kannadigas.
7. It is said that there is a custom by name "Bisiyoota" in the weddings of the royal family of Kolhapur.
8. Panchadravida and Panchagouda are types of Brahmanas among Hindus. The Konkanastha and Deshastha Brahmanas of Maharashtra belong to the Panchadravida classification. Why?
9. The way between Savantawadi and Konkana is called "Dodamarga" (Doddamarga) even to this day.
10. The Maharashtra language in Konkana contains Kannada names such as Mane and Nichchane.
11. Temples built by Jakanacharya are found in Maharashtra also. They're also called "Hemadapanti" temples.
12. What is more interesting to know is that Shilashasanas and Veeragallus of the Kannada language have been found in the very heart of Maharashtra! A Shilashasana of the Kannada language has been found in Masawada in Satara district...

Of course, we don't write this in order to provide reason to annex Maharashtra to Karnataka. We write this to provide reason for Kannadigas to stand united when the territorial integrity of present-day Karnataka itself is threatened by votemongers in Maharashtra. We write this to provide reason for Kannadigas to fathom the magnitude of the darkness in which Kannadigas lived during the days of the reorganization of states - a darkness in which many Kannadigas live even to this day, a darkness which every neighboring state exploits for its own selfish gain.

This is partly an English translation of our 11 Dec 2007 post in ENGURU.