History
The city Mangalore was named after the local Hindu deity Mangaladevi .
Bolar, Mangalore
The ancient Mangaladevi temple is in Bolar, 3 kms. from Mangalore city bus stand. According to the legend, the
name "Mangalore", originated from the Goddess Mangaladevi
who is enshrined in this temple, built in the tenth century in memory of a Rajmata
of Malabar of the same name, who is said to have accompanied Yogi Matsyendranath,
a prominent Guru of the Nath tradition. While he was on tour in Malabar for propagating
his message, the Rajmata became his follower, renounced her worldly life and being
initiated in the Nath tradition, and settled down at Bolar. At first there was a
small building for her residence. Later a temple was constructed in her memory and
an image of the Divine Mother was enshrined in it. This was the origin of the Mangaladevi
temple which was re-built by the erstwhile ruler of Mangalore in 968 AD Thereafter
the place came to be known as Mangalapura, which,in course of time,
was changed to Mangalore. The sculpture of Goddess Mangaladevi is perhaps the earliest Durga sculpture in the South
Kanara District.
According to legend Matsyendranath, one of the important protagonist
of the Nath cult had arrived at Mangalore with the princess of Kerala, Premaladevi,
he converted the princess to his cult and she became his follower. He rechristined
her Mangaladevi. It is believed that they could not proceed further as Mangaladevi
died after a brief period of illness and a temple was consecrated in her name at
Bolar. Later the Mangaladevi temple was renovated by the Alupa king, Kundaverma
Alupendra II in 968 AD.
There are many historical references regarding to the town. Cosninos Indigo Plsustes
referred to the port of Mangarouth. Pliny, a Roman historian made references of
River Nithrias, a Greek historian Ptolemy referred to Nitre. Both the references
probably referred to River Netravathi. Roman writer Arien called Mangalore Mandegora.
A copper inscription belonging to 7th century called Mangalore, Mangalapura.
The ancient history proveds Mangalore had been the capital of Alupa dynasty till
14th century. A traveler, Ibn Batuta
who had visited the town in 1342 stated that he arrived at a place named Manjurun
or Mandjaur situated on a large estuary. He had mentioned that the town was trading
centre and Persian and Yemen merchants were involved in trading
activities. In 1448, Abdul Razak, a Persian Ambassador passed via this route to Vijayanagar. He said that he
had seen a glorious temple here. The inscriptions at Moodabidri stated a king Mangaras
Odeya was the governor of Mangaluru Raajya during the reign of Vira Harihararaya
II of Vijayanagar dynasty. Another inscription stated that Deeva Raaja Odeya ruled
the Mangalura Raajya in 1429 A D during the reign of Vijayanagara King Veera Devaraya
II.
Various powers have fought for control over Mangalore. The major dynasties that
ruled the town till the arrival of Portuguese were Kadambas, the Western Chalukyas,
Rastrakutas, Alupas and Hoysalas.
In 1520 the Portuguese took over Mangalore
from Vijayanagara rulers. In 1695, the town was burned by the Arabs in retaliation
for Portuguese restrictions on Arab trade. Mysore sultan ruler Hyder Ali (1722–1782) conquered Mangalore in 1763, and it was under
his administration till 1768. The British took over the control of Mangalore for brief years between 1768
to 1794. Later in 1794 Hyder Ali's
son Tippu Sultan again took
over Mangalore, and again lost to British with the fall of Srirangapatana in 1799,The
town was then annexed by the British, Since then it was with Madras Presidency and in 1956 it was merged with
unified Karnataka.
Other Names
The cosmopolitan nature of Mangalore is centuries old. This is reflected in the
names used by the various linguistic groups in this region. The native Tuluvascall
it Kudla.
Konkanis use the variant Kodial . Bearys, a small, vibrant Muslim community
who speak a language of their own, call it Mikala . The neighbouring Malayalis
officially use the word Mangalapuram .
Language and Religion
Tulu, Kannada, Konkani and Beary bashe are the widely spoken languages that
are understood among Mangaloreans along with English, Hindi, and Urdu. The official language is state language Kannada.
Hinduism is followed by large number of the population. Among the indigenous Hindus, the Billavas, Bunts and
Mogaveeras form the biggest groups, also Shivalli Brahmins and Gowda Saraswat Brahmanas form a considerable
portion of the hindu population. Besides the Hindu pantheon of gods, divine spirits
are also worshipped here.
Followers of Christianity forms sizeable population of Mangalore, Konkani speaking Catholics are the highest in number among
the Christians. The Protestants with various sub-divisions consist of an appreciable
number of locals who speak Kannada and Malayalee population.
Muslims constitute minority of the population,
among them Beary form the 80% of total Muslim
population.
There is also sizeable group of people who were basically land owners, following
Jainism. Some famous Jain centers of pilgrimage are located here like Gomateshwara
Betta in Karkala and Dharmastala and some more Jain temples in Moodbidri. Buddhism also flourished here in the
early centuries.
Transportation
Mangalore is connected to the rest of India and the World by road, rail, air and
sea. It is notable here that a native of Mangalore U Srinivas Mallya (a Member of the Indian Parliament)
was instrumental in getting the National Highway system, the Mangalore Airport and
the New Mangalore Port to Mangalore. In his tribute there is a statue of him along
NH 17 near the Kadri Park, and
another at the entrance of the New Mangalore Harbour.
Roads
Three National Highways pass through Mangalore connecting the city to the rest of
the country. NH-17, which runs from Panvel
(in Maharashtra) to
Cranganur Junction (near Edapally in Kerala), passes through Mangalore in
a north-south direction, while NH-48 runs eastward to the state capital Bangalore. NH-13 runs north-east from Mangalore to Sholapur, and a state highway connects it to the city
of Mysore
passing through the hill town
of Madikeri. There are about 300 buses
from Bangalore to Mangalore on daily basis.
Currently this cluster of highways is inadequate to handle the traffic that flows
through the region, resulting in a NHAI has
decided to upgrade the national highways connecting New Mangalore Port to Surathkal on NH-17 and B.C. Road junction on NH-48. Under
the remit of the port connectivity programme of the National Highway Development
Project (NHDP), a 37.5km stretch or these highways will be upgraded from two-lane
to four-lane roads.
Railways
The Mangalore Railway Station used to be the last station connecting Mangalore to
the state of Kerala in the south and to
the rest of the country. While the British had left behind an extensive railway
network when they left India, the stretch between Mangalore - Mumbai, and Mangalore - Hassan
had never been connected.
A metre gauge railway track was built through the Western Ghats
in the east, connecting Mangalore with Hassan. While this provided a very picturesque
journey, it was not very successful, and the tracks were removed several years later
to be replaced with a broad gauge
line. However, due to lack of funds, and official apathy, and political backtracking
and hard lobbying by the surface transport sector, the conversion project was halted
for several years. It has since resumed and some sections of this track are now
functional. The broad gauge track connecting Mangalore to Bangalore via Hassan is
open for freight traffic since May 2006. Movement of passenger traffic will start
after December 2006.
There had similarly always been a strong need to connect Mangalore to Mumbai. Hence
the Konkan Railway came
into being. The project was completed in 1998 and since then the travel time to
the north of the country have come down considerably.
Geography
The latitude is 12.85 north and the longitude is 74.833 east. The altitude is sea
level.
Sea
The Mangalore Harbour provides a connection by sea to the rest of the world. Currently
dry, bulk and fluid cargos are handled by the New Mangalor Port, providing an important gateway
to the state of Karnataka. It is also the station for the Coast Guard. The modern
port 10 km north of the town, is now India's ninth largest cargo handling port.
Air
Until 2005, Mangalore International Airport (IATA:
IXE) located 20 kms from Mangalore near Bajpe, had one small 1.6 km (5,200 ft) runway
which could only handle Boeing 737 sized aircraft. However, in January of 2006 an
Airbus 319 of Kingfisher Airlines was the first aircraft in
that class to land on this runway.
A new international length (2.9 km) runway which was under construction was commissioned
on 10 May 2006, which facilitates the
arrival of larger aircraft to Mangalore. A new terminal building has been planned
in order to handle the inevitably larger load from future international flights.
The proposed new terminal will reduce the distance between Mangalore city and the
airport by about seven kilometres.
Currently flights are available daily to Mumbai and Bangalore and Chennai, while
plans are underway to have night landing facilities in order to facilitate International
and long distance internal flights.
The first International flight to Mangalore commenced when Air India Express Boeing
737-800 (flight IX 802) took off from Dubai on October 3'rd 2006 and landed in Mangalore
at 6:11 (IST). [1].
Air India Express will be operating three flights a week to Dubai, with this non
stop service the stop over at Mumbai is now avoided and the flight time between
Dubai and Mangalore is reduced by a few hours. The foundation stone for a new terminal
building was laid the same day before the arrival of the aircraft from Dubai.
Industry
Mangalore's economy is dominated by agricultural processing and port-related activities.
Imports include tropical timber from south-east
Asia for furniture making, a necessity since India places major restrictions on
its own teak felling. The port handles 75% of India’s coffee exports and the bulk of its cashew nuts. The latter are brought from
many coastal areas (notably from Kerala);
the National Cashew research centre is nearby at Puttur.
Mangalore is home to the automobile
leaf spring industry. In 1950 the Canara Workshops Ltd started production
under the brand name Canara Springs, and in 1976 Lamina Suspension Products Ltd
stared production under the brand name Lamina. Thereafter various small scale manufacturers
have put up shop in the industrial area at Baikampady to manufacture leaf springs.
Over the period there has been a lot of consolidation because of some of the smaller
units shutting down. Currently there are about six or seven units producing about
one thousand metric tonnes of leaf springs per month. They cater almost entirely
to the replacement or after market of South India.
Modern Industry
Major information technology and outsourcing companies have started locating their facilities in Mangalore. IT major Infosys was one of the first to movie in and establish a
large presence followed soon after by Wipro [2]. Outsourcing major MPhasis BPO was one
of the first outsourcing companies to set up their facilities near the city.
Three dedicated IT parks are currently under construction. Two such parks are under
construction, one Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) at Ganjimatt and a second
IT SEZ near Mangalore University. A third IT SEZ is being proposed at Ganjimat.
[3]
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC plans
to invest over Rs. 35,000 crore in a new 15 million tonnes refinery, petrochemical
plant and power and LNG plants at the Mangalore Special Economic Zone. This will
be the first Petroleum, Chemicals, Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) of the
country [4].
Banking and Finance
Three of the nineteen nationalised banks were established in Mangalore during the
first half of the 20th century. The three banks are:-
- Corporation Bank (founded
in 1906 by Late Khan Bahadur Haji Abdulla Haji Kasim Saheb Bahadur)
- Canara Bank (founded in 1906
by Late Shri Ammembal Subba Rao Pai)
- Karnataka Bank, (founded
in 1924 one of the larger private sector banks which escaped nationalisation)
- Syndicate Bank, though
established in nearby Manipal, was co-founded
in 1924 by Dr. T M A Pai and Sri Upendra Ananth Pai from Manipal, along with a Mangalorean
Sri V S Kudva.
- Vijaya Bank (founded in 1931
by Late Shri A B Shetty)
These banks are considered quality institutions across the country - the national
character taken on with nationalisation has been combined with the culture and quality
of service inculcated by the founders. Prior to nationalisation, these banks were
stewarded by very efficient and competent teams of managers, predominantly Mangaloreans.
During this tremendous growth phase, these banks spawned a whole generation of bankers
from Mangalore across these firms from the top to bottom. A large proportion of
the Konkani and Bunt community from Mangalore were at one point employed by these
banks.
While Karnataka Bank and Corporation Bank are still headquartered in Mangalore,
Vijaya Bank and Canara Bank are headquartered in Bangalore and Syndicate Bank is
headquartered in Manipal. Even to date, a large proportion of employees at all levels
in these banks are of Mangalorean origin.
Traditional Areas
Mangalore developed as a fishing town and this has been maintained to this day,
with the local diet maintaining a high proportion of fish. The fishing industry
employs thousands of people, and their produce is exported around the region.
The nationalisation of the banking sector was a big blow to the Mangalorean economy,
but it has not affected the entrepreneurial spirit of the population. Mangalorean
firms have had a major presence in the tile, beedi, coffee and cashewnut industry,
although the tile industry has been in decline
due to the predominance of concrete in the modern construction.
Education
With the growth of the banking institutions in the early 20th Century, Mangalore
had a large middle class and affluent population. Also, Mangaloreans have always
placed high emphasis on education. The combination of the above two factors resulted
in the establishment of some quality educational institutions, including:-
Since the 1980s, there have been a large number of professional institutions established
in a variety of fields including engineering, medicine, dentistry and
hotel management.
These institutions attract students from all over
the country due to the quality of their programs.
On 10 September 1980, the Mangalore University was established. It caters to
the higher educational needs of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts. The
University Campus has become a major centre for advanced academic studies and research.
Although Mangalore University is one of the youngest universities in the country,
it has within its ambit some of the oldest and prestigious institutions of higher
learning. Besides 26 post graduate departments offering different Post Graduate
programmes on the Campus, the University has 118 affiliated colleges (including
two constituent colleges) imparting education in the field of arts, commerce and
management, science, law and education.
Culture
With several famous pilgrim centres,
a trip to Mangalore is incomplete without watching the classic Yakshagana - an elaborate dance - drama performance unique
to Karnataka. A night-long event, with people adorned vibrantly, and dancing to
the beat of drums, Yakshagana performance attracts thousands of people.
Hulivesha (Tiger dance) is a unique
form of folk dance in Dakshina Kannada that fascinates the young and the old alike.
Since tiger is considered as the favored carrier of Goddess Sharada (the deity in
whose honor Dussera is celebrated), this dance is performed during the Dussera celebration.
It is also performed during other festivals like Krishna Janmasthami. Bhuta Kola or spirit worship is practised here. Bhuta
kola is usually done in night. Kambala
or buffalo race is also conducted in water filled paddy fields.
Mangalore has had a tradition for strength in education, and accordingly has become
a focus for local media. Despite its relatively small size, it has its own versions
of national English-language newspapers
The Times of India and The Hindu,
as well as several local-language publications.
Meteorology
The most pleasant months in Mangalore are from December to February - at this time
of the year the humidity and temperatures are the lowest by Mangalore standards.
Day time temperatures fall below 30°C and night time temperatures fall below 20°C.
This pleasant season is soon followed by a "hot" summer season from March to May,
when temperatures rise as high as 38°C. However, a high relative humidity of more
than 90% makes it feel above 40°C.
This is soon followed by the monsoon
season. Mangalore receives very heavy rainfall compared with other urban centres
in India. Rains measuring up to 4000 mm fall during the period from June to September.
The rains finally subside in September, with the occasional rainfall catching people
unaware in October.
Attractions
Temples
- Mangala Devi Temple.
- Kadri Manjunath
Temple.
-
Shri Guru Parashakthi Mutt, Marakada, Mangalore.
- Shri Polali Rajarajeshwari
Temple, Polali , Bantwal Taluk.
-
Shri Sharavu Mahaganapathi Temple.
-
Sri Venkataramana Temple, Carstreet Mangalore
-
Somanatha Someshwara Temple, Someshwar, Mangalore
- Gokarnatheshwara
Temple, Kudroli, Mangalore
- Kukke
Subrahmanya Temple in the village of Subramanya
- Sadashiva temple near Surathkal beach.
- Iddya Mahalingeshwara temple,Suratkal
- Shri Durga Parameshwari Temple , Talapady
- Mahalakshmi Temple, Uchila
- Shree Gopalakrishna Temple, Shakti Nagar, Mangalore
Beaches
Nature
- Kadri Park
- Pilikula Nisargadhama
- Light House Hill
Churches
Mosques
Other Sights
Mangalore Pictures
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Fishing in Mukkah, near Mangalore
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Nearby Places
Mangalore is the chief city of the Tulu
Nadu region. Known for its religious places of worship, the region is also
blessed with green fields, water falls, beautiful beaches, and a rich variety of
flora and fauna.
- Udupi Shree Krishna Matha.
- Malpe Beach.
- Kaup (pronounced Kaapu) Light House & Beach.
- Dharmasthala
- Turtle Bay, Kundapur.
- Udupi/Sri Krishna Temple
- Karkala
-
Kateel Sri Durga Parameshwari Temple
- Bekal Fort near Kasaragode
- Kollur near Kundapura, Sri Mukambika Temple.
- Anegudde Ganapathi Temple near kundapura.
- Hattiangadi Sidhivinayaka temple.
- Madhur Mahaganapathi temple, Kasaragod.
- Sri Krishna Temple at Kumbla and Mujungavu.
- Ananthapura
Lake Temple near Kumbla, with crocodile
in temple tank.
- Kukke Sri Subrahmanya Temple, with Kumaradhara river behind it
- Kumaraparvatha, a welknown trekking spot
- Sri Venkataraman Temple, Mulki
- Shri Mahamaya Mahaganapati Temple, Shirali
External links
