Fifty three kilometres from Mysuru, there is a little known village with huge historical significance and said to have great mythological belief by name Dharmapura in Hunsur taluk. And over a 1000 year old Sri Chennakeshava temple with hoysala architecture, and over a 700 year old Shiva temple said to be built by Hoysala rulers are situated in the village. People of this village till date, believe and claim that only truth, righteousness that is “Dharma” alone, and Hindu community, alone sustain here. And this entire village is filled with innumerable astounding beliefs. Although there are no scientific proofs, Villagers object them to be called as superstitious beliefs, and they have incidents as examples for each of their beliefs.
Among many such beliefs, one of the main one villagers claim is that strangely buffalos don’t survive in this village. And villagers also claim that, muslims fear to stay in the village as they either do not prosper or do not survive at all in this village.
“There are 1600 cows, 130 goats and 400 sheeps in the village but not a single buffalo. It is also said that even pigs don’t survive here,” says Veterinarian in the village Dr Subramanya H K.
“In 1985, while government distributed 300 buffaloes to villagers, each one died in different ways within a fortnight. Our own buffalo got stuck in sludge and died. Many villagers brought buffaloes to test if the fact was true, but none have survived so far,” recalls Somanna M a villager.
A vast village with a population of 3389 people belonging to 786 families, has people from 16 different castes of Hindu community. All of them are said to be living with good co-ordination. But not a single non Hindu family especially from Muslim community is found here.
“Rich Muslims who have come here for business, have lost all the wealth and have left village debt ridden, though villagers co-operated well with them. Few years ago a Hindu boy was in love with a Muslim girl. And the girl got converted to Hindu community, and the couple got married. Yet they moved to different village for livelihood. A muslim man who came here for some work and stayed overnight few years ago, was found dead in the morning. So Muslims fear to reside here, and even if a muslim comes they return back during the day time, they don’t stay overnight in Dharmapura,” village leader, R Vishwanath.
“People with truth alone can survive in this village, those with ego and other negativities, suffer on their own. Those who suffer guilt cannot enter Eeshwara temple at all, they are said to be prevented by a cobra, which is usually not seen by anyone else except those with guilt. Funny yet true. It is also believed that daughters of the village who come back and settle along with their families in Dharmapura prosper well, infact 20 percent of the village is filled with them," Mr Gavi Nayak a villager and a gram panchayat member, adds.
While 64 year old Somshetty a former village head, believes that (buffaloes don't survive, muslim can't sustain in the village) all this is a result of a curse in the past, there is no scientific evidence for any of these, he agrees.
But according to a phd scholar who has done research on this village, Shilpa Shree T S, “According to old timers of the village, in Mahabhararatha, Mayura dwaja ruled Manipura. While Thamra dwaja, son of Mayura dwaja had tied the horse of Ashwameda yaga of Arjuna, Thamra dwaja had defeated Arjuna. Krishna and Arjuna who disguised themselves as brahmins had told Mayura dwaja that their only son was caught by a lion when they were crossing a forest, and the lion had demanded half the flesh of Mayura dwaja’s body to release their son. And Mayura dwaja got ready to give half the flesh of his body. At that point of time Krishna in disguise, was impressed by his truthfulness and gave darshan to Mayuradwaja. Also Dharmaraya who was heading to Swargarohana, wanted to see truthful Mayura dwaja, and on the way he sees two villagers sharing the gold which they had got in the ground equally and was impressed by their truthfulness. Since Dharmaraya visited the place, Mayura dwaja named the place as Dharmapura,” she adds.
The tale of Mayura dwaja, Brahmin and the Lion is infact mentioned in Jaimini bharatha katha sangraha, claims Narayan, a writer from the village.
According to Prof Shalva Pille Iyengar, Head of Department of Ancient History and Archaeology at KSOU, “Also as per the inscription available in Sri Channakeshava (one of the 24 avatharas of lord Krishna) temple in Dharmapura, Narasimha (1), son of Sri Vishnuvardhana of Hoysala kingdom merged Aridavalike, thogaravaadi, bhuvanahalli and named it as Dharmapura. And it is he who got Sri Channakeshava temple built in Hoysala architecture with 5.5 feet tall statue of lord Sri Channakeshava, and beautiful pillars and sculptures on the lines of Belur Channekeshava temple, carved on stone (Cloritic cyst) in the village in 1162 AD. Also the last kings of hoysala dynasty have built Eeshwara temple in the village over 700 years ago,” he said. He added, “Since Dharmapura has such huge mythological significance related to Dharma, only Dharma, truth is said to sustain in this village. And since buffalo is created by Vishwamithra, which is said to be against dharma Buffalos don’t survive here, according to villagers only. But such beliefs are not found in any records,” Dr Shalvapille Iyengar said.
Sri Channakeshava temple is declared Protected Monument
Director of archaeology and monuments, Government of Karnataka has declared Sri Channakeshava temple in Dharamapura as protected monument. According to Dharmapura gram panchayat PDO, Chandraiah G N, Hunsur MLA, H P Manjunath, who is also the parliamentary secretary of Tourism and Industries department, has got Rs 1.60 Crores sanctioned for the development of Sri Channakeshava temple in the village. There is no tourists flow to temple, due to lack of publicity, although devotees come from different places.
Harijans fear that entering temple will ruin their lives
Harijans fear entering Sri Channakeshava and Eeshwara temples in the village
Somshetty of Dharmapura village shared, “Also there is a Moodana kere in the village from where the water is used to wash Gods (statues) of Sri Channekeshava and Eeshwara temples. The lake is not connected to any river or storm water drain, but it never dries. There are 500 ST and 500 SC families, two Brahmin, 80 Kuruba, 10 Lingayat , 40 Namdari, 12 Eediga families, 30 Vishwakarma, two Balegara shetty, four Vokkaliga, 40 Kumbarshetty, three Maadiga, 10 Nayana Kshathriya, 20 Madivala and three Haavaadiga families in the village. All the communities live with great co-ordination. Though Harijans form major chunk they fear entering these two temples and touch the water in the lake. In the past when they entered the temples, houses in their entire colonies had caught fire over 40 years ago. So they themselves fear to enter the temples. But there are nine other temples including Aadishakthi, Mahadeswara, Byraveswara, Veeranjaneya and others. And they enter all these temples,” he said. But Prof Shalva Pille Iyengar, says, “Sri Channakeshava temple is being built as per Sri Vyshnava philosophy propounded by Sri Ramanujacharya. And Sri Ramanujacharya advocated for entry of Harijans to temples,” he said.
