Chamarajanagar, the district head quarters, newly carved out of Mysore
dt. is 56 kms. away from Mysore, formerly called Arikutara situated in Punnata
Nadu during the Ganga period. It was the birth place of Chamaraja OdeyarVTII,
in whose memory the Chamarajeshwara temple was raised (1825), It also has
Parshwanatha basadi, Lakshmikantha and Virabhadra temples of early Times.
Narasamangala, an ancient place close by, having an intact temple of the Ganga
period is another important place with rich antiquities to be essentially visited
by the tourists.
Chamarajanagar is rich with religious sites of many religions. The temple in the MM Hills (Malemahadeshwara Betta) is probably the most famous one. The yearly car festival (jatre) at the MM Hills brings many devotees. It is situated within the MM Hills Reserve Forest, not very far from where the river Cauvery flows into Tamil Nadu.
The district has its share of natural beauty. Local people and devotees revel in the beauty of the temples of the BR Hills, a wildlife sanctuary and the MM Hills. Since, much of the southern area of the district is dense forest, it provided good refuge to the notorious brigand Veerappan, responsible for the death of over a hundred policemen. He was shot dead in an encounter with the specially formed Special Task Force (STF) in mid 2004, at Dharmapuri District, Tamil Nadu. He had been on the run for several years.
There are many quarries in the district, all mining for the valuable black stone. Unfortunately, many of these quarries are today mining very close to or within the sanctuaries / protected areas and are posing a threat to the rich flora and fauna of this area.
History of Chamarajanagar
Ganga Dynasty, Chalukya's , Cholas, Hoysala, Vijayanagar Kings, Mysore Wodeyars and Ummathur Nandayal Kalale chiefs have ruled this Taluk. All these different Kings have ruled from 8th century to 20th Century upto 1950. 410 Historical Artifacts have been found in this Taluk till date. In the Year, 1117 Punesa who was the chief of the Army under the Hoysala King Vishnuvardhan built a Jain Basthi in this Taluk. He is credited with ruling the Niligiris area by conquering the THODA community people of the Niligiris.
The Chamarajanagar was also known as ARIKUTARA or ARIKOOTARA and also as Wodeyanooru. The 9th Chamaraja Wodeyar (1774-1796 Christan Era) was born in Chamarajanagar in year 1774. At the place of his birth, in his remembarance JANANA MANTAP has been built and it has been declared as Heritage Structure by the Govt.
Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar(1794-1868 Chirstan Era) son of Chamaraja Wodeyar , remodelled the town in the year 1818 and renamed it as Chamarajanagar. In the year 1826 he built the Chamarajeshwara Temple. According to Hindu calendar in Ashada Masam, the car festival of presiding deity of the temple is held with much fan fair, where newly married couple come and offer prayers to the deity for fullfilment of their objectives. The other temples located inside Chamarajanagar Town are Bhujangeshwara, Veerabhadrana Gudi, Kadu Narayana Swamy, Choudeshwari, Kannikaparameshwari etc., near private bus stand Marigudi temple, Sampige Road Srikanteshwara, Santhemarahalli road Manteswamy and Puttammanni temple are of special importance and the Parshwanath Basadi is very old. At the southern end of the city there is a hillock containing the temple of Karivardharajaswamy.
Kantirava Narasaraja Wodeyar (Christian Era 1638-59) built the Dodda Arasina Kola. This pond used to provide drinking water to the residents of the city for a long time. Now it is in disuse and dillipated state. The Ganapathi deity located at the edge of the pond is believed to have some special importance.
To the East of the city around 5 Kms from centre of the city, the Haralukote Sri Anjaneya Swamy temple is situated. "Hanuma Chintanna" and "Sri Hanuma suprabatha" these two prose Articles depict the historical importance of the place. At the southern end of the city the village Hardanahalli is famous for Divya Lingeshwara temple and it is also the place where the Guru of Thontada Siddalinga, Gosala Channabasava lived.
Narasamangala is also a place of historical importance. Here the dillipated Rameshwara temple is situtated and huge Shivalinga located here has been declared as National Heritage Structure. In Ramasamudra dillipated old monuments of manipur have been found
Statistics of Chamarajanagar
Chamarajanagar Taluk has an area of 1235.9 Sq. Kms. There are 190 Villages in the Taluk out of which 172 Villages are habitated and remaining 18 are un-habitated Villages. According to the 1991 census, the population of the taluk is 3,11,321. The density of population 253 per Sq. Km. The literacy rate is 39.59% and annual rainfall is 689 Mts.
In the rural area, people mainly live in pucca houses with roofing of kiln baked roof tiles. Economically stronger people use Mangalore style tiles for roofing on their houses. In city area modern RCC constructed houses can be seen but even though the city has become the District Head Quarters, the availability of residence for rent/hire/mortgage is very limited leading to people commuting from outside the district. In the rural areas, the lower income or economically weaker section people live in thachted roof housing either of grass or coconut trees leaves roofing with mud walls. The local language is Kannada but it smacks of influence of Tamil language. The other spoken languages are Urdu,Marati, Konkani,Telugu and Malayalam.
The Soil type is of Black soil in some areas and red soil in some areas. In the areas sorrounding the Suvarnavathi river, the soil is of sticky type. In the taluk there are around 50 water tanks and 8000 and above irrigation wells. Jowar is the main crop of the taluk. Ragi, Horse Gram, Ground Nut and some other less water intensive crops are grown here. The commercial crop is Mulbeery . Wherever there is irrigation facility paddy, sugarcane, coconut and Areca nut plantations. In the Taluk, Industrial activities is almost nil except for a few silk weaving and cotton weaving power looms and hand looms.
Other Activities of Chamarajanagar
Gamaki Art: Gamaka Vidhvan K Venkata Subbaiah, H. Ramadas, Late K.S Subramanaiah, R.K Raj Gopal, Nom. Ashwathnarayana, K. Subramaniam from Ramasamudra, Kamalakshma from Kuderu , A.S Venkatadas from Amachavadi are some of the famous Gamaka Artists.
Theatre Artists: Late C.V Ramashastry, Na De Narsimhamurthy, Pankaja Ravishankar, Na. Narahari are some of the personalities from the taluk who have made a name for themselves in theatre plays in entire Karnataka. Shanthala Havyasi Kala Samsthe (1973), Ranga Taranga (1991) are the two Theatre groups in taluk who are pioneering theatre plays in newer ways thus holding the interest of the people in the theatre art. C.M Narasimha Murthy and Pankaja Ravi Shankar were the members of Karnataka Theatre Play Academy(Nataka Academy) in the year 1998.
Film Land: There are many famous Kannada film land artists from the Taluk. Ramanath Rughvedhi from Chamarajanagar, Ha.soo. Rajashekar from Haradanahalli, M.S Swamy from Ammanapura, B.A Madhu from Kallemballi Basavanapura, Late Sundar Krishna Urs Suresh Urs from Uttavalli, B. Mallick from Chamarajanagar.
Scientific Community: Agriculture Scientist Dr. M Mahadevappa Madapura, Dr. Rangaswamy(1938) famous Agriculture Scientist is from Doddarayapet.
Trekking in Chamarajanagar
The Forest Department of Karnataka has come up with an initiative called Mystery Trails to promte eco-tourism by organising treks through the rich forests of Chamarajanagara district. Some of the trekking routes are:
- Bedaguli to Jodigere to Bylore
- BR Hills to Chenni Halla
- MM Hills to Naaga Male
- Bheemeshwari to Chellure Hill
- Elephant Camp to Muthathi
- Yerekem Halla to Gopinatham
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