Debacle of a verdant land : ‘Bailare’ at Posodi

Contributed by Hosabettu Viswanath

Since my contribution on ‘Bailare’ (Post 120), I was thinking about the irretrievable damage done to ‘Bailare of Hosabettu (Olden name ‘Posodi’ ) and onwards. For that matter, such wanton damage is also true to Bailares elsewhere.

Genesis
Genesis of degradation of this Bailare starts from the time of construction of feeder road to Hosabettu (in late fifties) and other areas in early sixties to mitigate the difficulties of coastal people during monsoons and the creation of artificial harbour at Panambur in early seventies. This is the irony of development. Analogy may be drawn to the present-day craze of authorities in having Special Economic Zones on fertile lands. The then Prime Minister of India late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, who coined the slogan of “Jai Kisan, Jai Jawan”, expressed his surprise, while laying the foundation stone for the new harbour, on the sanity of choosing that fertile agricultural land to go under sea water.

Emotional attachment
Bailare is a vast low lying arable land, fed by natural water course, i.e. storm water from adjoining elevated areas around Hosabettu. This Bailare, alongside NH-17 on the West, starts from Hosabettu and now extends upto Chitrapur/Baikampady, where it is by-passed to Arabian Sea through a man-made outlet. Earlier this Bailare stretched right upto Panambur/tip of Kulur (West) before joining Gurupur River naturally. In the casuarinas’ grove (chauri pady), skirting the beach, of Pancha Catte (P.C.) House in Panambur we had a Citizenship Educational Camp (Nagarika Shikshan Shibira) some time in 1953-54. I have connection to four sons of this House. Two scions were my teachers at Iddya Vidyadayinee School, of whom I was the favourite of late PC Vasudeva Rao, third - my SSLC mate (brother of PC) and the fourth was my colleague at Century Enka (brother of Ratnakara Rao Kavoor - amateur dramatist in Mangalore). I ensconced my emotional attachment to this Bailare in a poem (Ondu Bayala Kate) to keep it for myself and tried afterwards to get it published but in vain.

Wholesale Plunder
As the adage goes, “A wilful waste makes a woeful want.” The present wretched condition of ‘Bailare’ is a burning example of how unscrupulous people cause irretrievable damage to the Nature. We hear of flooding in monsoons in all upcoming Apartment neighbourhoods in South Kanara. There are outcries and appeals by residents to stop the indiscriminate land filling of the expanse of the ‘Bailare’. Natural water courses and water-bodies are disappearing, leaving no relics. It is a wholesale plunder. It is an eye-sore to see some water-logged pockets of fertile paddy fields here and there in the midst of unplanned cluster of apartment buildings.

Note on Posodi
The old name of Hosabettu is Posodi, which is still alive in conversations among local people. But the fact, that the present day generation is not knowing, is that part of Iddya-Suratkal is also known as Posodi in records. This is vindicated in its finding an entry in the Tulu Lexicon (Vol.5, page 2152). This is further corroborated by what my chikkamma was saying. The Vidyadayinee Primary School was started at Iddya Shri Mahalingeshwar Temple in Nov 30, 1916. When own buildings for Primary & Higher Elementary and High Schools were envisaged in the present site, there were building fund raising campaigns. The team which visited Mumbai was cajoling people from Hosabettu to donate munificently as these schools are their own as it is located in Hosabettu. This is a fact that Vidyadayinee is within the precincts of Hosabettu. The house of our teacher late Shri H. Rama Rao is just touching the school premises. This information has some historical relevance and hence the disclosure. It should not be considered in a different hue, i.e. as a statement of glorification. When Iddya is considered as part of Suratkal, it came to be believed that Vidyadayine is in Suratkal. It is customary to apply the name of important place name to entire stretch of adjoining areas, eg. Mukka is now considered as part of Suratkal.

Contributed by Hosabettu Viswanath
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109. Odipu - the Udupi

Talented entrepreneurs specialized in the culinary art have immortalized the name of the modest town Udupi world over. Udupi Hotels may be more famous than the Lord Krishna or the Madhvacharya who symbolize the town of Udupi. However, the word Udupi is only a stylized form of the original Tulu name Odipu. Rural folks even today refer to the town as Odipu rather than modernized Udupi.

Odipu
Someone writing on Udupi had expressed that the meaning of the place name ‘Odipu’ is uncertain. The Tulu word ‘Odipu ‘(Odi+pu) means an elevated village. Tulu Nighantu (Volume2, p.509-510) lists some 15 variants of the word Odi, but the ‘bettu’ meaning has not been enlisted.

Posodi
Hosabettu Viswanath in a communication was describing that the village Hosabettu was formerly known as Posodi. Posa+Odi is the Tulu equivalent of Hosa (new)+Bettu (raised or elevated land). Therefore the word Odi means Bettu or the elevated land. When viewed from the low lying coast, the strip of land around Udupi forms an elevated area.

Related words
The suffixes –apu, -ipu and –ape in Tulu refer to village hamlet or settlements. Similar to Odipu, we have several related words like Mudipu, Belapu, Alape, Didupe, Bajjodi,etc.
The word ‘Odi’ also appears in. ‘Odiyur’ which means an elevated village. There are also places like Odilnala, Odabhandesvara etc.

Ode
Apart from the raised or elevated status, the Odi can also means swollen as we find in Ode ( Uddina Ode, Ambode etc) the swollen or inflated oil fried South Indian dish.

Other Odis
There are several 'oDi'and 'ODi' words in Tulu Nighantu with variety of meanings to mislead the original meaning of the word Odipu.Some of the meanings attached to these words can be enlisted here for the benefit of analytic thinkers.1.Branch of plant laden with fruits,2.Drip,3.Cease flowing,4.Control or regulate,5.Raised divider between the agricultural fields,6.A narrow strip of field,7.A field canal,8.sorcery,9.A measure,10.A tumour,11.A hunters lodge,12.defeat,13.evil eye,14.A pair,15.to pull or pluck(oDipu)etc.16.ODi= an union of members,as in 'ODi kaTTu' 17.A competition like cock fight.
The word 'oDi' also is a personal male name among the ancient people of Karavali. The name is still found among some of the Scheduled castes.

Udupi
On the other hand there are alternate Puranic style explanations as to why the place is known as Udupi(uDu=star; +pa=king of).Hosabettu Viswanath cites an introduction by Krishnapur Mutt on Udupi.
"The Roopya Peetha land is now popularly known as Udupi. The name has been derived from the Moon. The moon was once cursed by Daksha Prajapati. To ward off this curse, the moon performed penance in propitiation of God Iswara in a forest in this land. Iswara being pleased, appeared before the moon and removed the evil effects of the curse. This place has since been known as Chandramouleeswara and there is an ancient temple of this name in this place. The actual spot where the moon performed penance is known as Abjaranya. There is a sacred tank Chandra Pushkarani by its side. In Sanskrit, 'Udu' means stars; 'pa' means 'lord of''. Hence 'Udupa' means lord of stars, that is moon. The place where the moon performed penance and obtained grace is known as Udupi."[Udupi-An introduction.By Krishnapur mutt].

Acknowledgement:
Written in collaboration with Hosabetttu Viswanath.
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