BNR Ammal, in her will says that her mother Puttulakshmi Vaishnavi was from Heggadedevannakotha village. She makes no mention as to which temple her mother was attached to. The late BVK Sastry has written that it was the Srikanteswara temple at Nanjangud.
Happening to be in Mysore en route to Bandipur, I managed to visit the place, dragging along Sarada and the boys, all the embodiments of reluctance. The town is still old-worldly with some lovely bungalows (though a few ugly ones have come up).
The temple is essentially Dravidian. What is stunningly beautiful is a the prakaram which is topped by a series of small alcoves, each with a unique figurine in it.
I am uploading this from a slow connection and so will put up more pix later. The Shiva is Srikanteswara while the Goddess is (surprise!) Parvathy. There is an emerald linga that is said to give eye sight and which Tipu Sultan worshipped to get his elephant cured of weak vision.
I found no traces of any Devadasi cult here. But the temple is worthy of BNR Ammal’s stature!
Dear Mr.Sriram, am truly fascinated by whatever I have laid hands on, on the life and times of Bangalore Nagarathnamma so far. Unfortunately, Your book, the authority on the subject is out of stock on every online bookstore I checked. May I request you to please send me a copy of the same.
I am a Kannada and Tamil actor, trained in dance by Leela Samson and hailing from a Mannargudi Iyer family, might I say, music flows through my veins as much as blood does:)
Although my mother tongue is Tamil, the language I relate to much more is Kannada and have been living in Bangalore all my life.
I want this lady that has caught your attention, to take life on celluloid, maybe a short film, maybe a documentary but most wonderful would be a feature. Am no Judy Dench 🙂 …but Nagarathnamma will sure become the Umrao Jaan that south India never had.
Will look forward to hearing from you, meeting you too to weave my dream on celluloid!
Regards
Malavika Avinash
Very good proposal. It is important to the next generation to know Who is Bangaloore Nagaratammal? What is her great contribution to Music etc ?