131. Belman to Bellarpadi

Belman (pronounced: ‘beLmaNN’) is a suburban village to the north of village Mundkur. It is located on the Padubidri - Karkala Road. Belman is known as Bolman (boLmaNN) in Tulu.

Belman
‘Bolman’ or ‘Belman’ simply translates to ‘white soil’. But if you look around the village you do not find any white soils or white clays. The whole village is reddish consisting of laterites and lateritic soils, dotted with dark granitic stocks. The issue confuses and leads you to infer that the ‘Bel’ in the Belman must be having some other esoteric meaning.

There are a number of villages that carry the prefix of Bel. These include Belle, Beladi, Belve, Belma,Beluvayi, Bellanje, Bellipadi, Bellarpadi, Bellara, Biliyur, Bilinele, Bellichar,Belur,Bellur etc. Outside Karavali we have several Bellara villages/hamlets, apart from Bellari,Belur and Belgaum. What is this prefix ‘bel ‘ stands for ? Apart from the obvious white, the ‘bel’ can be bright, fair or shining star (belli /bolli).

Bellarpadi
The village name ‘Bellarpadi’ clears our doubts. Bellarpadi is a village in Udupi taluk, located next to Perdur. The name Bellara padi clarifies it was a ‘padi’ (habitation) of tribes called ‘Bellar’. Thus ‘bel’ or ‘bol’ in these names represent the ‘Bell’ or ‘Bellar’ tribes. The name also signifies that these tribes were ‘whites’ or ‘fair skinned’.

Bellāra
The place name Bellāra, a town in Sullia taluk lends further support to this notion. Bellāra ( beLLa+ āra) was the village inhabited by these Bella tribes. Apart from the Bellara in Sullia taluk, there are several such villages in interior Karnataka that are called by the name Bellara. One such Bellāra in Tumkur district is known for gold mineralization. The well known Bellāri town, famous for iron ores is again a variant of Bellara. Linguists have recognized ‘Bellari’ language as a variant of Tulu.
Similarly the popular town Belgaum must have been ancient village of Bellar tribes.Besides,names like Belagola (as in Sravana-belagola),Bellur and Belur in different parts of Karnataka again point to the spread of these 'fair skinned' Bella /Bellar tribes in the past.

Bolāra - Bolūr
There are a number of villages or hamlets that are known as Bola,Bolār , Bolūr, Bolmann,Boliyāru,Boluvaru, Bolanthūr,Bolije etc. ‘Bol’ being the Tulu equivalent of ‘bel’ or ‘bili’ we can conclude these to be hamlets where fair skinned ‘Bellar’ or ‘Boller’ tribes resided once upon a time.

Vellars, Ballal
Hosabettu Viswanath reminded me that Bellar/Boller tribe scattered in historical Tulunadu and parts of Karnataka must the equivalent of Vellars described in Tamil literature.The absence of 'b' in Tamil alphabet, apparently converted the 'Bellar' phonetically into 'Vellar'. Similarly Vellals of Tamilnadu are apparently represented by Ballal which has remained only as a surname in Tulunadu.

Belchada

Belchada or Thiyya are an ancient tribe living mainly in Northern Malabar region of Kerala and in parts of coastal Tulunadu. These are equivalents of Billawas in professions such as Spirit dancing, toddy tapping, native herbal healing,Kalari or martial art teaching etc.The origin of the term Belchada could have been coined because their fair skin colour at the time of their influx into West Coast and parts of Southern India...

Origin of the word Bela

Origin of the word “bela” is disputed. However, there is a suggestion that the word, Belarus   means "White Russia".  The term “bela” as well as “bili” means white in Kannada.  In that case we may have a case of imported word in Dravidian languages.

Then,  it would mean that the equivalents of bela in other Dravidian languages (Bol, Bola in Tulu; Vel in Tamil etc) are later variations developed from the original “bela”.

Marker Event of Influx of fair skinned tribes

Overall analysis of numerous place names and ethnic names beginning with the prefixes bel, bol, vel etc suggests that there was a specific period in the early history when immigrant  fair skinned tribes entered into the traditional domain of dark skinned people in various parts of India, especially the southern India.The fair skinned or white people could have originally from the Mediterranean or surrounding regions in Europe.The dark skinned natives at that time were distinctly surprised at the contrasting skin colour of the immigrants and consequently various immigrant fair skinned tribes and their colonies were denoted with prefixes of Bel, Bol or Vel  etc.

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17. Historic Mangalore: Port of Bukkapatna

The geography of Mangalore city has changed quite a lot through the historic times. The famous two rivers Nethravathi and Phalguni (Gurupur) that gave the name Kudla to Mangalore city have changed their drainage courses several times in the past. The numerous valleys within the city are mute testimonials to the river courses that have been shifted many times like in delta areas. Italian tourist Piyatro Delavale who visited Mangalore during 1623AD reported that Mangalore is surrounded by water on three sides. Such a geographic feature was visible when the two rivers were joining the Arabian Sea between Bukkapatna and Kudroli-Alake area. Thus the Kodialbail and Attavara valleys were the locales where the rivers flew during the cited historic times.

While geological evidences like remnants of river valleys and pebble rich sediments indicate the ancient drainage courses of the two rivers, the historical place names corroborate the other half of the story.

Mangalore was under the rule of Vijayanagar Empire during 1336-1650 AD. Hakka and Bukka brothers ruled Vijayanagar at Hampi. Vijayanagar kings established a port at Mangalore for the purpose trade and exports. The port they constructed was not near the present New Mangalore Port or the old Port of British period at Bunder area. But surprisingly, it was located at the Bukkapatna area, near the present Urwa civic extension. Bukkapatna is a strange name for Tulunad. But then it was the port named after the Vijayanagar King Bukka. Even today there are many fishermen families around the area suggestive of relics of settlements around the ancient Bukkapatna port. Urwa is another old historic name. Uruwa in Tulu stands for the bamboo gate common in rural households. It also stands for the check-post. It makes sense to have an administrative check-post near the Bukkapatna port to verify materials and documents and to collect taxes in those days. Nearby Uruwa is Kottara extension. Kottara is a storehouse, stockyard or granary, again related to the Vijaynagar regality.

On the southern side of Bukkapatna is Kudroli, where the presently famous artful temple of Gokarnanatheswara has been built. The name ‘Kudroli’ has been interpreted as Kudure+Oli or horse-yard by some, implying that the location was named after the ground where horses were kept. But it seems to me that it was Kuduru+ Oli originally. ‘Kuduru’ means island within the river. ‘Oli’ means village, a word derived or influenced by Marati language. The reference name ‘island village’(<>

Tippu Sultan ruling from Sriranagpatna, constructed at Mangalore a battery for storing armaments and explosives, known as Sultan battery during ca. 1775 AD for warfare against enemies entering from the Arabian Sea. The location of Sultan battery is close to Bukkapatna, thus again proving the location of the ancient port at Bukkapatna.

Before the Vijayanagar Empire, the Alupa chieftains of Pandya dynasty were ruling Mangalore (ca 4^th century to 13 century AD). It appears that their township was at Pandeswar which was on the banks of Nethravathi at that time. On the southern bank of Nethravathi was the township of Mangalapura, established after a queen from Malabar area who renounced her regality and settled in the area. Attavara (Atta+avara) is named after the ground on the other side of the river. Bolar (Bolu+Ara = barren or planar ground) was located near Mangalapura and Bolur (Bolu+Ooru=planar village) was near the port of Bukkapatna. For some time during 6^th to 8^th century AD, the Alupa chieftains ruled from Kulashekara area, named after the King (or chieftain) Kulashekara. At that time Kulashekara was located on the bank of a river. Apparently the rulers shifted their township from Pandeswar for some geomorphic problems like change of river course especially of River Nethravathi.

Somewhere during the end of 18^th century AD, the river Phalguni (Gurupur) adapted a drastic change in its course. Until then, the river was bending near Panjimogaru and Marakada and flowing into Kottara and Kudroli areas. It took a westerly turn near Kulur flowed up to Tannirbavi and then adopted a southerly course and joined River Nethravathi. From then onwards, Rivers Gurupur and Nethravathi debouch into Arabian Sea together at a place near Ullal, south of Mangalore as can be seen today.