Mattur

Mattur is a village in the Shimoga district near the city of Shivamogga in Karnataka state, India, known for the usage of Sanskrit for day-to-day communication, although the general language of the state is Kannada.Mattur has a temple of Rama, a Shivalaya, Someshwara temple and Lakshmikeshava temple.Mattur's twin village, Hosahalli, shares almost all the qualities of Mattur. Hosahalli is situated across the bank of the Tunga River. These two villages are almost always referred to together.Mattur and Hosahalli are known for their efforts to support Gamaka art, which is a unique form of singing and storytelling in Karnataka. These are two of the very rare villages in India where Sanskrit is spoken as a regional language. Sanskrit is the vernacular of a majority of the 5,000 residents of this village situated around 8 km from Shimoga.