Mallengada okka

About the Okka

Mallengada okka‘s ainmane is located in Baḍagarakeri. This okka has two pattes – descendants of two ajjas Their ancestors were two brothers. Mandayya, the elder brother who was not married, went to Kashi with King Chikka Veeraraja (who was banished there by the British), and died there. The younger brother, Machayya, was captured by Tipu’s soldiers at Devatiparamb and taken to Srirangapatnam. He returned to Kodagu after 14 years.

When Machayya left home, he requested his neighbour and aruva, Iyyamaḍa Chittianna, to take care of his mother. It is said that, fearing attack by Tipu’s soldiers, Chittianna made Machayya’s mother sleep in an attani (shelter to watch over crops) that he had built on a jackfruit tree, while he slept at the foot of the tree during the 14 years that Machayya was away. When Machayya returned to Kodagu, he gifted Chittianna 35 bhatti of wetland in gratitude, and this okka established the karana nele of the Iyyamaḍa okka. 

Machayya’s first wife from the Chottangaḍa okka had no children. So he married again from the Kuppanamaḍa okka, and made a vow to goddess Ponya Bhagavathi that he would offer her a muḍi (wooden image) if they had children. When they had children, he got a beautiful six foot high image of Bhagavathi made from a special kind of wood. This image is kept in the urambala, and is carried by the Panika who performs the there and dances with it during the Bhagavathi temple festival.

King Lingaraja-II was pleased with the service rendered to him by the ancestors of this okka, and he gifted them 750 bhattis of wetland as jagir, and 2250 bhattis as umbaỊi.

Pattedara

• Aiyappa Mallengada (1990)
• Machaiah dada Mallengada (1990 – 2014)
• Belliappa Kashi Mallengada 2014

Ainmane

Ainmane