Medha Patkar’s fast-unto-death to stop the raising of the height of the Narmada Dam that will displace even more people on the banks of the river, brings to mind a lovely story that Niranjan Vanalli narrated as we drove back from Bangalore last week.
Niranjan, a professor of journalism at the University of Mysore, pointed to a little channel of water joining the the Cauvery near the bridge at Srirangapatna, just after Paschimavahini, and asked with typical North Kanara insouciance.
“Do you know what that channel is called?”
“No,” I said.
“It’s called Bangara Doddi Naale,” he said: “Do you know why it’s called that?”
I pleaded ignorance again.
Then Niranjan began. Apparently, a couple of centuries ago, the then Maharaja of Mysore, Randheera Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wodeyar, had been on a routine hunting expedition in that part of his kingdom, bordering Tipu Sultan’s, when he chanced upon a ravishing beauty carrying a pot of cow dung on her head.
After taking just one look at the rustic beauty from the rear, Mr Wodeyar wanted her real bad.
He ordered his courtiers to produce the woman before him. Which she duly was. Her name was ‘Doddi’.
The maharaja, already besotted with her beauty, however, had an even bigger surprise in store.
The woman did what no other woman had done before to the maharaja: she tamed him in the noctural arena.
Mesmerised, the maharaja fell for her charms and pleasures, hook, line and sinker. “Ask anything, your wish will be my command,” promised the maharaja.
Divine Doddi could have asked for pots of gold, for acres of land, for anything. But she did the counter-intuitive thing.
“Maharajare,” she told him, “the residents of my village have no water to till their lands, no water to drink, cook or clean. If you are serious in your promise, just dig us a canal that will ferry water to our village from the Cauvery.”
Niranjan, who has looked up Hayavadana Rao’s History of Mysore, says, Doddi actually throws the maharaja a challenge.
These are her exact words, as recounted by gazetteers:
‘Ninage chathi iddare
Ninna hole mele
Nanna naale harisu’
Which, roughly translated, means: “If you have it in you, make your river flow over my channel.”
Thus was born Bangara Doddi Naale, which even today quenches 860 hectares of land and a few hundred mouths. Just what connection can be made with Medha Patkar, I know not, but it’s an amazing story of Mysorean selflessness.
Niranjan, a champ at Kannada freelance journalism, first wrote the story for Sudha, the weekly magazine produced by the Deccan Herald group many moons ago, when he noticed the plaque announcing ‘Bangara Doddi Naale’ from a KSRTC bus.
Even today, Nagesh Hegde, the editor who accepted and published the story, uses the example to show just what good journalism is all about.
“Millions of people and hundreds of journalists have passed by Bangara Doddi Naale,” says Hegde. “Yet, why was Niranjan the first to notice a story in it?”
Sunaad Raghuram responds: Niranjan Vanalli is an old friend. A man whose sensitivity, originality and rustic charm have always made me wonder if he is cut from a different cloth from most of us.
An encounter with him will surely leave you enlightened in a subtle kind of way; quite in the manner you would feel intellectually whetted in the company of a scholarly man. The kind of man who has a rejuvenating effect on the mind.
So it came as no surprise that he held forth on the circumstances in which Srirangapatna’s Bangara Doddi Naale came to be.
And how often have I not waded in its cool waters myself.
But the folds of my brain being not endowed with the kind of neurons that are perhaps necessary for such delicate assimilation of history, my dear friend, Niranjan, deserves a good Mysore Masal Dose and rich filter coffee(by two!), as a token of gratitude for my marginal upliftment, historically speaking!
PS: Shame on me. For the Bangara Doddi Naale flows bang beside my lands in Srirangapatna, the waters of which have irrigated my ancestral property ever since my long-dead grandfather was being lead to pre-nursery school by his father, across the same fields where the
British fought and tamed Tipu Sultan!
Just wanted to point out Randheera Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wodeyar (1638-1659) and Tipu Sultan (1782-1799) weren’t contemporaries.
Was wondering whether Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar would subscribe to the history of Bangara Doddi Nale.
QUOTE:
Maharaja of Mysore, Randheera Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wodeyar, had been on a routine hunting expedition in that part of his kingdom, bordering Tipu Sultan’s !!!!!
If this is what Mr.Niranjan has written then GOD help. What Shashi has pointed out about Tipu and Ranadhira is only part of the truth. Ranadhira ruled from Sriranagapatna itself, as it was the capital of Wodeyars from 1610 till Hyder/Tipu usurped power from 1762 to 1799.
Ranadhira was not only a legendary Warrior Ruler who withstood many incursions by Ranadulla Khan of Bijapur (Two movies have been made on him. One (Ranadhira Kanteerava) Dr.Raj as hero and another (Kakana kote) with Lokesh. He was the first to open a Mint at Sriranagapatna. His coins became famous as kanteeraya phanam and were in circulation till Krsihnaraja Wadiyar III’ rule (1799-1868). Poet Govind vaidya’s description of Dasara is one of the earliest and descriptive account available. He built Ugra Narasimha temple at Sriranagapatna and it has bhakti vigraha of him inside.
Bangara Doddi Nala was built with a barrage built near Gautama Kshetra and is one of the earliest irrigation projects. It’s unique as the aqua duct built over cauvery near pashimavahini is the oldest extant aqua duct in the world. It is remarkable for its brilliant execution, as it happens to be the only aqua duct where the water of the very same river is taken across its banks by the aqua duct by natural means. Till around 1962 it also doubled as a Bridge for vehicular movement across the river. The canal in the olden days used to have three branches after the aqua duct. One used to carry water inside the Fort and the second to dariladaulat area garden (it used to be mahanavami dibba then) and the third to Gumbaz area. It would be very interesting if archeologist ‘s can explore and excavate the all the branches. It is a real heritage site and needs to be declared as one and the aqua duct needs some very urgent repairs and face lift to make it a tourist spot instead of being used a parking lot for Lorries which area being washed.
So where are the Saviors of Mysore Heritage? Thank God Mr.Kamble and co have not demolished it while making the new road.