Barkur

Barkur is a cluster of 3 villages in Udupi district of the Karnataka state in India. The place is located on the bank of river Seeta. It is also called as village of temples.Barkur is located 16 km from Udupi, another ancient city and 3km from brahmavara,one of the thalluk of Udupi.The Seeta river flows through Barkur and joins the Arabian sea.HistoryBarkur was the ancient capital of the Tulu Kingdom. It was known as Barakanur. The rulers were known as Tulu kings or rulers. They spoke Tulu language. Most of the districts ruled by them were in coastal Karnataka. Many ancient inscriptions found in Barkur are in Tulu language. These are an essential part of history of Tulunadu. The Coastal Town of Barkur was also a flourishing port in the 15th and 16th centuries.Apart from the Tulu rulers, Alupa rulers made Barkur as their capital. Archaeological findings suggest that Barkur was a province under the Vijayanagar Empire in 14th century A.D. Pandarideva was the Governor of this province under the regime of Harihara II. There are remains of two forts built by the Alupas and Vijayanagara governors. It was also a sub capital of the Hoysala kings for some period. The city had ten extensions called Keris - each being named after its professional residents. Each Keri had a tank and number of temples. Tradition says that, the King visited a temple every day, thus visiting all the temples of the city and on the last of the year, he visited the most important Panchalingeshwara Temple. That day was the day of car festival of this temple situated with the old Fort area called "Kotekeri". As per tradition, the city contained 365 temples, the remains of which can be seen to-day. A few of them are now in renovated condition. Besides, there are Bhutastanas (spirit worshipping centres). There are remains of palaces and other constructions in both the Fort areas. The port town was a busy commercial centre almost from 2nd Century B.C. Evidences of Megalithic and mesolithic ages have been discovered recently. The place abounds with history and has yielded a little over 100 stone and several copper plate inscriptions. They belong to the Alupa, the Hoysala, the Vijayanagara and the Keladi periods.