Origin
of the name of a familiar and one of the oldest roads in the heart of Mangalore
city- Balmata (pronounced as balmaTa)
road is disputed. The local newspaper Udayavani
dated 29 september 2011 in the commercial supplement carried an anonymous note
on the origin of the name Balmata. Excerpts from the cited article inspired me to
write this post.
Bell
Mount
One
of the possibility suggested is that a Bell
shaped mount (hill) or Bell on the mount
apparently was corrupted to Bal-mata.However, this explanation is not quite satisfactory
as none of the hills in the area are in the shape of bell.
Bāl-mata
There
is one more explanation for the origin of the word: Balmata. Close to the
Balmata area there is one ‘Sanyasi gudde’ (hill of the ‘Sanyasi’; ‘sanyāsi’=
a sage) that can be approached from Arya Samaj cross Road. Here we have an ancient Kālbairav
temple and relicts of Natha monasteries that held held powerful influences on the
history of Mangalore during the period 9th to 14th Centuries CE. The word ‘bāl’
refers to children in Indian languages. It is said that the term ‘Bāl
maTa’ was applied to one of the Natha monasteries, even though it is not clear
if any Natha monastery dedicated to young people existed in the antiquity in
this area.
Bol -mata
A third
possibility discussed was that in the Balmata area some two centuries ago there
were a couple of deserted British Bungalows. It is said deserted Bungalows were
called ‘Bol’ (barren,empty) in Tulu.
Boll -mata
However,
the fourth and the best possible explanation would be that a group of German missionaries established Basel
Mission Church and Monastery in this area. Tulu people used refer as ‘Boll ‘ or
‘Boller’ for the white people. The ancient places Bolur and Bolar in Mangalore
also designate areas of ancient white immigrants as discussed in our older
posts herein.
It
seems apt that local Tulu people described religious centres ( designated as ‘maTa’
in Tulu and Kannada) established by white people (German Basel Missionaries) as
‘Boll maTa’. The ‘Boll-maTa’ with passage of time has been reduced to mere ‘Balmata’.
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