Kandavara

Kandavara
village
Country	India
State	Karnataka
Languages
• Official	Kannada
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)

Kandavara is a self-contained discrete settlement/village but is Ward 14 of the Town of Chikballapur, in the state of Karnataka, India. It is in the newly created District of Chikballapur, in the taluk (township) of Chikballapur.

Kandavara is 55 km (34 mi) north of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), the silicon plateau of India. Downtown Chikballapur is 2 km (1.2 mi) north of Kandavara, separated by a reservoir locally known as Kandavara Amanikere, and paddy fields downstream from the reservoir. The north-south State Highway SH-74 runs at the foot of the reservoir on the east side of the reservoir. State Highway SH-74 abuts Kandavara on the west side, and links Kandavara to Chikballapur in the north and the village of Nandi in the south. The former north-south National Highway NH 7, also known as Bangalore-Bellary Road or BB Road, is about 1 km (0.62 mi) east of Kandavara connected by an east-west rural partially paved road. The current NH-7 bypasses all the built up areas of Chikballapur and is located east of the city including Kandavara.

According to the 2001 Census, the population of Kandavara was approximately 4,000. Some estimates in January 2007 put the figure at 4.400.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME KANDAVARA

Kandavara, currently Ward 14 of City Municipal Council Chikballapur, has undergone an evolution in its nomenclature.

In 1565 when Vijaynagar Empire fell, Kandavara was apparently a hamlet of a score of dwellings, probably with a population of 150 (household size assumed to be 7). By 1815 it was a village with 80 dwellings, probably with a population of about 600. In 2013 the population was estimated to be 4,400.

According to knowledgeable elders in Kandavara in 1948, the original name of the place was Skandavara associated with the name of god Skanda. It was their unanimously held view that pronouncing the inflection “Sk” was difficult for people who were not Sanskrit speakers and they dropped “S” from Skandavara and began calling the place Kandavara. People of Kandavara speak Telugu and Kannada. Census of India has referred to the place as Kandavara from the very beginning of census.

The etymology of the name Kandavara as narrated by elders deserves serious consideration for the following reason.

Approximately 2 km west of Kandavara is the popular trekking hill called Skanda Giri or Mountain of Skanda in Sanskrit. Although the formal legal name is Skanda Giri, most people in the state of Karnataka call it Kalavara Betta. In Kannada, Kalavara Betta means hill of thieves. During 18th century when the whole area was densely forested, thieves apparently found a safe sanctuary in this hill. A few cave-like recesses in the granite face of the hill may have provided shelter for hardy thieves.

Skanda Giri and Kandavara are closely linked.

Skanda is a Hindu god of war and the first-born son of Shiva, one of the supreme gods of Hinduism. Skanda Purana is one of the 18 mahapuranas (great epics) and is the longest of the 18 mahapuranas. Skanda Purana written circa 5th century CE is an admixture of birth and life of god Skanda, a set of stories, and some exhortations.

According to the elders of Kandavara, when the warrior/soldiers of the defeated army of Vijaynagar Empire migrated south from Penukonda in early 17th century, they did two things. First, they named the nearby hill as Skanda Giri conflating the hill into a mountain. Title inflation is a universal phenomenon. Second, they named their new home Skandavara.

Vara in Sanskrit has four different meanings, namely, gift, boon, choice, and reward. It is easy enough to see why a group of defeated proud warriors would name their new settlement Skandavara. For them their new home was a gift by god Skanda, the warrior god. It was also a boon because it was far from the contested areas of Vijaynagar and Penukonda. In a practical sense, the location was a choice made by the retiring veterans. Finally, because of cheap fertile rain-fed land far from centres of commerce, it was a richly deserved reward for their past services, similar to the awards given to veterans of the Legions of the Roman Republic.

Thus a non-descript hamlet becomes a village called Skandavara. Sometime during the 18th century Skandavara becomes an easily pronounceable Kandavara.

Transport links

Regular and reliable buses operate between Bangalore, the information technology capital of India, and Chikballapur. There are numerous buses run by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and private companies. The town of Chikballapur is located on the old National Highway NH 7. With the completion of the current NH-7 that bypasses the built form of the city of Chikballapur in the east, the old NH-7 is referred to as Bangalore-Bellary Road or BB Road. Kandavara is about 1 km (0.62 mi) west of BB Road and there is a partially paved rural road that links Kandavara to the BB Road. The journey in buses take around 1 hour 45 minutes from the inter-modal (rail and road) station in Bangalore to Chikballapur.

You can get off on BB Road at a bus stop called Kandavara Gate and walk to Kandavara. Also, you can get off at the Chikballapur Bus Terminal and either walk to Kandavara or take an auto-rickshaw.

At scheduled times, there are passenger trains that run between Bangalore and Chikballapur.

Tourist attractions

Kandavara is the home of the Heritage Primary School where Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya,India's engineer statesman and Divan of the former princely state of Mysore, did his primary schooling. The classes he attended were in the U-shaped school building built in 1845. A native son of the village, Mr. Narayana Swamy Katari, also attended the same school and went on to retire as the Chief Secretary of the State of Karnataka in 1967.

The Heritage Primary School was refurbished in 2006 by the Dwaraknath Reddy Ramanarpanam Trust (DRRT) under the leadership of Ms Anita Reddy. The restored building is fully functional. One classroom has been made into an interpretive centre.

Settlement Profile

Fifty five kilo-meters north of Bangalore (or Bengaluru), lies Kandavara—a rustic village population four thousand. Kandavara village is now considered a distinct neighbourhood of the town of Chikballapur two kilo-meters to its north. Legally Kandavara is Ward 14 of the City Municipal Council Chikballapur. The built form of Kandavara appears like a hat from the air. Google Maps has done an excellent job of presenting the Greater Chikballapur Area including Kandavara.

Approximately 1,800 people of Kandavara, i.e., nearly 48% of the population of Kandavara consist of dalits (formerly referred as Untouchables). The built up area of Kandavara is 2.37 square kilo-meters and is surrounded by agricultural land. It has eight temples and one mosque.

Kandavara has a Heritage Primary School with classes from 1st through the 7th standard located in two buildings. The first one, a U-shaped one, was built in 1845 and the second one, a block structure, was built in 1895. The 1895 building is in a very poor condition and requires extensive rehabilitation although it is being used for classroom purposes.

The Primary Health Centre (PHC) building that was at the south-western edge of Kandavara was demolished in 2009. The State of Karnataka has built a fair sized Nursing School on the 1.5 acre site. At present the School is fully functional.

In 2012 January, the not-for-profit organization, Canadia Trust, opened the polyclinic CHERE (Canadia Health, Education, and Rural Empowerment). The polyclinic is fully functional at present. The well-known Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences located in the Whitefield neighbourhood of Bangalore sends a team of 10 health specialists every third Saturday of the month to provide advanced health care. The polyclinic serves the needy in Kandavara and surrounding villages.

Kandavara has no sanitary sewer system. It has no solid waste disposal system. Sanitary sewers and storm sewers consist of open stone lined gutters. Water is secured through two functioning deep wells that pump water to a fair sized water tank but not all households have piped water supply. The water from the two wells is salty and not suited for cooking and drinking but is adequate for all other purposes.

Majority of households have electricity but are subject to the chronic blackouts that is endemic to India. Cable television service is available. Mobile telephone reception is excellent.