Culture
Tuluveshwara: Where Nature Guards What Man Didn’t Care To
- On the coast of Karnataka, in a once-bustling port town of Basrur, rests this Shiva linga called Tuluveshwara, whose temple has been lost to time but its sanctity was preserved by nature.
Tuluveshwara
ಉಳ್ಳವರು ಶಿವಾಲಯ ಮಾಡುವರು ನಾನೇನ ಮಾಡಲಿ ಬಡವನಯ್ಯ,
ಎನ್ನ ಕಾಲೇ ಕಂಬ ದೇಹವೇ ದೇಗುಲ ಶಿರವೇ ಹೊನ್ನ ಕಳಶವಯ್ಯ,
ಕೂಡಲಸಂಗಮದೇವ ಕೇಳಯ್ಯ ಸ್ಥಾವರಕ್ಕಳಿವುಂಟು ಜನ್ಗಮಕಲಿವಿಲ್ಲ
Ullavaru shivalaya maaduvaru naanena maadali badavanayya,
enna kaale kamba dehave degula shirave honna kalashavayya
Koodala sangamadeva kelayya sthavarakkalivuntu jangamakalivilla.
These lines by Basavanna echo within as one watches the large banyan tree that has engulfed this ancient Shiva linga at the Tuluveshwara shrine in Basrur. For the big banyan tree has turned its trunk into the wall, its aerial roots into the pillars and its tender leaves are the golden kalasha for the Shiva linga it guards.
Basruru, the land that is seeing renewed interest in its history for being the place where Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj landed on his first naval expedition, has a history that goes back many centuries.
As if awaiting the revival of its grandeur, a Nandi from yore sits outside on a stone slab that rests on a mount of mud staring at the frame of what was once the entrance to this temple.
The stone entrance is held in place by laterite stones that too have been held in place over the years by the aerial roots that have been trimmed by locals to clear up the parikrama path of the tree shrine.
Peep between the roots and you see a few flowers placed on the linga that is wet from the one-time puja that now takes place.
The Kinis, a Konkani family, had inherited the plot of land from their forefathers, who are said to have bought it from an old lady, who worshipped it until then. They have been offering the basic puja over the years. But that is about it.
When one sees the state of temples that are handled by organisations that see them as 'ruins' and hence do not 'permit' any form of worship, sure looks like this one is better off this way.
The temple finds mention in ancient inscriptions that had been found in the town, and have been documented but lost to time and ignorance.
As Mahashivaratri celebrations take place today, the temple stands there as a testimony to nature's empathy and human apathy towards our ancient cultural heritage.
Yet, if attention is not paid to these structures and what they hold, given that the town has too many of them, even these ruins will soon be history.
