Canara Coast · Western Coastal Strip
This coast's history runs vertically, and so does its periodisation. Its ancient and medieval centre of gravity is not on the shore at all but above the ghat at Banavasi, which is where the Kadambas founded the first kingdom to use Kannada in its administration, about 345. The modern period begins in the middle of the sixteenth century, when two things happened together: chiefships took shape in the ghat forest at Sonda and at Gersoppa, and European buyers arrived at the estuary mouths for pepper. From then until 1763 the politics of this coast is a single question — who controls the export of a crop grown above the ghat through ports at the foot of it. Annexation came late and sideways. The district was taken with the rest of Kanara in 1799, kept in the Madras Presidency for sixty years, and only transferred to Bombay in 1862, which is why its twentieth-century politics looks like Bombay's and not like the coast's to the south.
Periodisation is regional, not national — the medieval period does not begin in the same century here as it does elsewhere in India.
Banavasi, on the Varada above the ghat, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the Kannada country and was the seat of the Chutus before it was the seat of the Kadambas. Mayurasharma founded the Kadamba kingdom there about 345; the Talagunda pillar inscription gives the dynasty's own account of it, in which a Brahmin student's quarrel at Kanchi ended with him raising an army. What matters afterwards is administrative rather than military. The Kadambas were the first indigenous dynasty to use Kannada, the language of the country, at the level of government, and everything that follows in Kannada political writing descends from that decision.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 2nd century | The Chutus hold Banavasi, the earliest recorded rulers of the town. |
| c. 345 | Mayurasharma founds the Kadamba kingdom at Banavasi; the Talagunda inscription records the dynasty's origin. |
| 5th century | Kakusthavarma brings the kingdom to its height and marries into the Gupta and Vakataka houses. |
| c. 485–519 | Ravivarma rebuilds Kadamba strength after a period of internal division. |
| c. 540 | The Badami Chalukyas absorb the Kadamba kingdom; Banavasi becomes a provincial centre rather than a capital. |
For a thousand years the coast was held in turn by the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara, governed through local chiefs who mattered more than the overlord because they controlled the passes. The ports were the point. Ibn Battuta stayed at Hunnur, now Hosapatna near Honnavar, under the Nawayath ruler Jamal-al-Din in the 1340s, and Ludovico di Varthema counted sixty ships loading rice on this coast in 1506. Above Honnavar, at Gersoppa, the Saluva chiefs held the pepper country; their queen Chennabhairadevi is the ruler Portuguese accounts call the pepper queen, and the Chaturmukha basadi at Gerusoppa is a sixteenth-century monument of that house.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 540 onward | The coast passes through Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala and then Vijayanagara overlordship, administered through local chiefs. |
| 1340s | Ibn Battuta stays at Hunnur, near Honnavar, under the Nawayath ruler Jamal-al-Din. |
| 1498 | Vasco da Gama reaches the Malabar coast; Portuguese buyers begin working the Kanara pepper and rice ports within a generation. |
| 1506 | Ludovico di Varthema records some sixty ships loading rice on this coast. |
| 16th century | The Saluva chiefs of Gersoppa hold the pepper trade above Honnavar; the Chaturmukha basadi at Gerusoppa dates from this period. |
In 1555 Arasappa Nayaka, a Jain chief, set up at Sonda in the forest above Sirsi, and after Vijayanagara's defeat in 1565 he transferred his allegiance to Bijapur and kept his territory. The Sonda Nayakas held the ghat country for two centuries while the Keladi Nayakas pressed down from the north-east and the Portuguese worked the estuaries; Keladi's Venkatappa Nayaka defeated Portuguese forces here in 1618–19, and Shivaji took Sonda in 1674 and handed it back. Hyder Ali destroyed Sonda in 1763 and the last chief left for Goa. The British took the coast with the rest of Kanara in 1799, split Kanara into two districts in 1859 and moved the northern one to the Bombay Presidency in 1862 with Karwar as its headquarters. That administrative accident set the district's politics, and in 1930 Ankola broke the salt law in front of a crowd large enough to make the taluk a national reference point.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1555 | Arasappa Nayaka founds the Sonda chiefship in the forest about 22 km from Sirsi, as a Vijayanagara feudatory. |
| 1565 | After Vijayanagara's defeat, Sonda transfers its allegiance to Bijapur; Arasappa rules until 1598. |
| 1618–19 | Keladi's Hiriya Venkatappa Nayaka defeats Portuguese forces on this coast and extends Keladi authority along the shore. |
| 1674 | Shivaji takes Sonda and restores it to its chief, Sadashiva Nayaka. |
| 1688 | The Marikamba temple at Sirsi is built; its biennial jatra becomes the largest fair on this coast. |
| 1763 | Hyder Ali attacks and destroys Sonda; the last chief, Immadi Sadashivaraya, takes refuge in Portuguese Goa. |
| 1799 | After the fourth Anglo-Mysore war the coast passes to the East India Company; Thomas Munro spends a period restoring the administration in Kanara. |
| 1859 and 1862 | Kanara is divided into North and South Kanara in 1859; in 1862 North Kanara is transferred from the Madras to the Bombay Presidency, with Karwar as its headquarters. |
| 13 April 1930 | M. P. Nadakarni breaks the salt law at Ankola in front of a crowd put at about forty thousand; the satyagraha continues for forty-five days. |
| 1930–31 | Ankola is one of four taluks selected for the no-tax campaign, which the district sustained through a year of confiscations. |
Rulers and commanders
Founded the Kadamba kingdom at Banavasi. His importance is not territorial but linguistic — the Kadambas were the first indigenous dynasty to use Kannada at an administrative level, which is why the Kannada political record begins here rather than anywhere else.
Dynasty: Kadambas of Banavasi. Seat: Banavasi
Brought the kingdom to its greatest standing, marrying into the Gupta and Vakataka houses. The Talagunda inscription calls him the ornament of the family.
Dynasty: Kadambas of Banavasi. Seat: Banavasi
The ruler under whose protection Ibn Battuta stayed on this coast in the 1340s. The Nawayath merchant community of Bhatkal, still distinct in speech, descends from the same trading world.
Seat: Hunnur, now Hosapatna near Honnavar
Held the pepper country above Honnavar in the sixteenth century and dealt with the Portuguese as a supplier rather than a subject; their accounts call her the pepper queen. Her dates are not securely established and much of what is repeated about her reign is local tradition.
Dynasty: Saluva chiefs of Gersoppa. Seat: Gersoppa
Defeated Portuguese forces on this coast in 1618–19 and pushed Keladi's authority down to the shore. From then the ghat kingdom and the ports it fed were run as one system.
Dynasty: Keladi Nayakas. Seat: Ikkeri
A Jain chief who founded the Sonda kingdom in 1555 as a Vijayanagara feudatory and, after 1565, kept it by transferring his allegiance to Bijapur. The Sonda chiefs endowed heavily; the Vadiraja matha at Sonda still stands.
Dynasty: Sonda Nayakas. Seat: Sonda
The last Sonda chief. Hyder Ali attacked and destroyed Sonda in 1763 and he took refuge in Portuguese Goa; only the fort ruins and a line of carved pillars remain on the site.
Dynasty: Sonda Nayakas. Seat: Sonda
The history of Canara Coast from ancient through medieval to modern times, and the rulers, commanders and administrators who shaped it. (7)