01From Keladi to Bidanur
The Keladi Nripa Vijayam, the court chronicle written by Linganna Kavi in the eighteenth century, tells how Chaudappa, a farmer’s son of Keladi, was raised to rule the district under Vijayanagara around 1499. His successors moved their seat to Ikkeri and in 1639 to Bidanur, now Nagara, and held the Kanara coast with its pepper and rice ports. They were Veerashaivas, but they built and endowed for Shiva, Vishnu and the mathas alike, Sringeri among them. Rani Chennamma ruled from Bidanur from 1672 to 1697 and in 1689 gave shelter to Chhatrapati Rajaram as he fled to Jinji. Hyder Ali took Bidanur in 1763, and the kingdom ended.
02The temples and the museum
In the village the Rameshwara and Veerabhadra temples stand side by side in one walled court, built of grey stone in the late Vijayanagara manner, with yali pillars in the open mandapa and a gandaberunda, the two-headed eagle of the dynasty, carved on the ceiling. The kings worshipped Rameshwara as their family deity. A small museum in the village, run with a research bureau, holds palm-leaf manuscripts, copper plates and coins of the Keladi kings.
The life of this place
- c. 1499Chaudappa Nayaka founds the Keladi line.
- 1639The capital moves to Bidanur.
- 1689Rani Chennamma shelters Chhatrapati Rajaram.
- 1763Hyder Ali takes Bidanur and ends the kingdom.
