Palatial house of ancient saint unearthed

Shimoga, May 22 (UNI) An ancient palatial house belonging to 16th century saint, philosopher, musician and composer of Kannada poetry, Kanakadasa, has been unearthed at Bada in Haveri District.

Kaginele Development Authority (KDA) Commissioner S M Jamdar told UNI today that the excavation at Bada, the birth place of Kanakadasa, had been taken up as part of a project work to find more historical evidences on Kanakadasa's life, who was known for his revolutionary socio-cultural preachings.

Under the supervision of Archaeologist S G Samak the excavation work was undertaken at Bada village, which is about 5.5 km away from Bankapur. The local people had built a temple here in 1965 and installed his stone idol on the top of a mound.

Kanakadasa's original name was Thimmappanayaka. He got this 'Kanaka Nayaka' name when he was said to have found a large quantity of gold while digging his land. 'Kanaka' means gold and 'Nayaka' means the ruler. He was the Chief of the Vijayanagara army in-charge of Bankapur and Bada regions.

Several interesting objects belonging to Vijayanagara Kingdom including portico hall, large meeting hall, royal bed room, kitchen and other structures built with bricks and black stone had been found in the excavation site.

He said that the excavated site would be preserved without disturbing its original structure. Its replica would be built nearby the ancient site without affecting the people's religious sentiments.

Dr Samak said about 100 metres West of this site there was an ancient Ranganathaswamy temple in a dilapidated condition belonging to Rashtrakuta period.

The state Government had set up KDA to develop it as a religious place in the state.

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