Mangalore

Template:Infobox Indian urban area Mangalore , ('ಮಂಗಳೂರು' in Kannada), is the chief port city of the state of Karnataka, India. It is situated on the west coast of the country on the Arabian Sea, with the Western Ghats to Mangalore's east.

Mangalore is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada (South Kanara) district in the southwestern corner of Karnataka, and developed as a port on the Arabian Sea - to this day it remains one of the major ports of India. Lying on the backwaters formed by the Nethravathi and Gurpur rivers, it has long been a roadstead along the Malabar Coast.

Mangalore is known for its beaches, temples and industries. There are several languages spoken there, including Tulu, Konkani, Kannada, and Beary (somewhat of a mixture of Tulu and Malayalam).

The landscape is dominated by the characteristic coconut palms accompanying rolling hills and streams flowing into the sea. The landscape is dotted with tiled-roof buildings, topped with the famous Mangalore tiles made with the local hard red clay and typically walled with laterite blocks. Older houses are commonly found with elaborate wood-work.

History

The city Mangalore was named after the local Hindu deity Mangaladevi. According to legend Matsyendranath, one of the important protagonist of the Nath cult had arrived at Mangalore with the princess of Kerala, Premaladevi, he converted the princess to his cult and she became his follower. He rechristined her Mangaladevi. It is believed that they could not proceed further as Mangaladevi died after a brief period of illness and a temple was consecrated in her name at Bolar. Later the Mangaladevi temple was renovated by the Alupa king, Kundaverma Alupendra II in 968 AD.

There are many historical references regarding to the town. Cosninos Indigo Plsustes referred to the port of Mangarouth. Pliny, a Roman historian made references of River Nithrias, a Greek historian Ptolemy referred to Nitre. Both the references probably referred to River Netravathi. Roman writer Arien called Mangalore Mandegora. A copper inscription belonging to 7th century called Mangalore, Mangalapura.

The ancient history proveds Mangalore had been the capital of Alupa dynasty till 14th century. A traveler, Ibn Batuta who had visited the town in 1342 stated that he arrived at a place named Manjurun or Mandjaur situated on a large estuary. He had mentioned that the town was trading centre and Persian and Yemen merchants were involved in trading activities. In 1448, Abdul Razak, a Persian Ambassador passed via this route to Vijayanagar. He said that he had seen a glorious temple here. The inscriptions at Moodabidri stated a king Mangaras Odeya was the governor of Mangaluru Raajya during the reign of Vira Harihararaya II of Vijayanagar dynasty. Another inscription stated that Deeva Raaja Odeya ruled the Mangalura Raajya in 1429 A D during the reign of Vijayanagara King Veera Devaraya II.

Various powers have fought for control over Mangalore. The major dynasties that ruled the town till the arrival of Portuguese were Kadambas, the Western Chalukyas, Rastrakutas, Alupas and Hoysalas. In 1520 the Portuguese took over Mangalore from Vijayanagara rulers. In 1695, the town was burned by the Arabs in retaliation for Portuguese restrictions on Arab trade. Mysore sultan ruler Hyder Ali (1722–1782) conquered Mangalore in 1763, and it was under his administration till 1768. The British took over the control of Mangalore for brief years between 1768 to 1794. Later in 1794 Hyder Ali's son Tippu Sultan again took over Mangalore, and again lost to British with the fall of Srirangapatana in 1799,The town was then annexed by the British, Since then it was with Madras Presidency and in 1956 it was merged with unified Karnataka.

Other names

The cosmopolitan nature of Mangalore is centuries old. This is reflected in the names used by the various linguistic groups in this region. The native Tuluvas call it Kudla. Konkanis use the variant Kodial. Bearys, a small, vibrant Muslim community who speak a language of their own, call it Mikala. The neighbouring Malayalis officially use the word Mangalapuram.

Language and religion

Tulu, Kannada, Konkani and Beary bashe are the widely spoken languages that are understood among Mangaloreans along with English, Hindi, and Urdu. The official language is state language Kannada.

Hinduism is followed by large number of the population. Among the indigenous Hindus, the Billavas, Bunts and Mogaveeras form the biggest groups, also Shivalli Brahmins and Gowda Saraswat Brahmanas form a considerable portion of the hindu population. Besides the Hindu pantheon of gods, divine spirits are also worshipped here.

Followers of Christianity forms sizeable population of Mangalore, Konkani speaking Catholics are the highest in number among the Christians. The Protestants with various sub-divisions consist of an appreciable number of locals who speak Kannada and Malayalee population

Muslims constitute minority of the population, among them Beary form the 80% of total Muslim population.

There is also sizeable group of people who were basically land owners, following Jainism. Some famous Jain centers of pilgrimage are located here like Gomateshwara Betta in Karkala and Dharmastala and some more Jain temples in Moodbidri. Buddhism also flourished here in the early centuries.

Transportation

Mangalore is connected to the rest of India and the World by road, rail, air and sea. It is notable here that a native of Mangalore U Srinivas Mallya (a Member of the Indian Parliament) was instrumental in getting the National Highway system, the Mangalore Airport and the New Mangalore Port to Mangalore. In his tribute there is a statue of him along NH 17 near the Kadri Park, and another at the entrance of the New Mangalore Harbour.

Roads

Three National Highways pass through Mangalore connecting the city to the rest of the country. NH-17, which runs from Panvel (in Maharashtra) to Cranganur Junction (near Edapally in Kerala), passes through Mangalore in a north-south direction, while NH-48 runs eastward to the state capital Bangalore. NH-13 runs north-east from Mangalore to Sholapur, and a state highway connects it to the city of Mysore passing through the hill town of Madikeri. There are about 300 buses from Bangalore to Mangalore on daily basis.

Currently this cluster of highways is inadequate to handle the traffic that flows through the region, resulting in a NHAI has decided to upgrade the national highways connecting New Mangalore Port to Surathkal on NH-17 and B.C. Road junction on NH-48 . Under the port connectivity programme of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), a 37.5km stretch or these highways will be upgraded from two-lane to four-lane roads.

Railways

The Mangalore Railway Station used to be the last station connecting Mangalore to the state of Kerala in the south and to the rest of the country. While the British had left behind an extensive railway network when they left India, the stretch between Mangalore - Mumbai, and Mangalore - Hassan had never been connected.

A metre gauge railway track was built through the Western Ghats in the east, connecting Mangalore with Hassan. While this provided a very picturesque journey, it was not very successful, and the tracks were removed several years later to be replaced with a broad gauge line. However, due to lack of funds, and official apathy, and political backtracking and hard lobbying by the surface transport sector, the conversion project was halted for several years. It has since resumed and some sections of this track are now functional. The broad gauge track connecting Mangalore to Bangalore via Hassan is open for freight traffic since May 2006. Movement of passenger traffic will start after December 2006.

There had similarly always been a strong need to connect Mangalore to Mumbai. Hence the Konkan Railway came into being. The project was completed in 1998 and since then the travel time to the north of the country have come down considerably.

Sea

The Mangalore Harbour provides a connection by sea to the rest of the world. Currently dry, bulk and fluid cargos are handled by the New Mangalore Port, providing an important gateway to the state of Karnataka. It is also the station for the Coast Guard. The modern port 10 km north of the town, is now India's ninth largest cargo handling port.

Air

Mangalore International Airport (IATA: IXE) is located near Bajpe, around 20km north-east of the city centre. Until 2005, its small 1.6 km (5,200 ft) runway meant that it could only handle Boeing 737-sized aircraft. However, in January 2006 an Airbus 319 of Kingfisher Airlines was the first aircraft in that class to land on this runway. Furthermore, a new international length (2.9 km) runway was constructed and commissioned on 10 May 2006. With larger aircraft now able to fly to Mangalore, a new terminal building, which will reduce the distance between Mangalore city and the airport by about 7km, is currently under construction.

At present, daily flights are available to Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, while plans are underway to have night landing facilities in order to facilitate International and long distance internal flights. On 3 October 2006, an Air-India Express Boeing 737-800 (flight IX-802) from Dubai became the first international flight to land at Mangalore, touching down at 6:11 (IST). . Flying three times a week, the flight enables passengers to avoid flying into a regional hub, in particular CSI in Mumbai, before taking an internal flight to Mangalore.

Industry

Mangalore's economy is dominated by agricultural processing and port-related activities. Imports include tropical timber from south-east Asia for furniture making, a necessity since India places major restrictions on its own teak felling. The port handles 75% of India’s coffee exports and the bulk of its cashew nuts. The latter are brought from many coastal areas (notably from Kerala); the National Cashew research centre is nearby at Puttur.

Mangalore is home to the automobile leaf spring industry. In 1950 the Canara Workshops Ltd started production under the brand name Canara Springs, and in 1976 Lamina Suspension Products Ltd stared production under the brand name Lamina. Thereafter various small scale manufacturers have put up shop in the industrial area at Baikampady to manufacture leaf springs. Over the period there has been a lot of consolidation because of some of the smaller units shutting down. Currently there are about six or seven units producing about one thousand metric tonnes of leaf springs per month. They cater almost entirely to the replacement or after market of South India.

Modern Industry

Major information technology and outsourcing companies have started locating their facilities in Mangalore. IT major Infosys was one of the first to movie in and establish a large presence followed soon after by Wipro . Outsourcing major MPhasis BPO was one of the first outsourcing companies to set up their facilities near the city.

Three dedicated IT parks are currently under construction. Two such parks are under construction, one Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) at Ganjimatt and a second IT SEZ near Mangalore University. A third IT SEZ is being proposed at Ganjimat.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC plans to invest over Rs. 35,000 crore in a new 15 million tonnes refinery, petrochemical plant and power and LNG plants at the Mangalore Special Economic Zone. This will be the first Petroleum, Chemicals, Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) of the country .

Banking and Finance

Three of the nineteen nationalised banks were established in Mangalore during the first half of the 20th century. The three banks are:-

• Corporation Bank (founded in 1906 by Late Khan Bahadur Haji Abdulla Haji Kasim Saheb Bahadur)
• Canara Bank (founded in 1906 by Late Shri Ammembal Subba Rao Pai)
• Karnataka Bank, (founded in 1924 one of the larger private sector banks which escaped nationalisation)
• Syndicate Bank, though established in nearby Manipal, was co-founded in 1924 by Dr. T M A Pai and Sri Upendra Ananth Pai from Manipal, along with a Mangalorean Sri V S Kudva.
• Vijaya Bank (founded in 1931 by Late Shri A B Shetty)

These banks are considered quality institutions across the country - the national character taken on with nationalisation has been combined with the culture and quality of service inculcated by the founders. Prior to nationalisation, these banks were stewarded by very efficient and competent teams of managers, predominantly Mangaloreans. During this tremendous growth phase, these banks spawned a whole generation of bankers from Mangalore across these firms from the top to bottom. A large proportion of the Konkani and Bunt community from Mangalore were at one point employed by these banks.

While Karnataka Bank and Corporation Bank are still headquartered in Mangalore, Vijaya Bank and Canara Bank are headquartered in Bangalore and Syndicate Bank is headquartered in Manipal. Even to date, a large proportion of employees at all levels in these banks are of Mangalorean origin.

Traditional Areas

Mangalore developed as a fishing town and this has been maintained to this day, with the local diet maintaining a high proportion of fish. The fishing industry employs thousands of people, and their produce is exported around the region.

The nationalisation of the banking sector was a big blow to the Mangalorean economy, but it has not affected the entrepreneurial spirit of the population. Mangalorean firms have had a major presence in the tile, beedi, coffee and cashewnut industry, although the tile industry has been in decline due to the predominance of concrete in the modern construction.

Education

With the growth of the banking institutions in the early 20th Century, Mangalore had a large middle class and affluent population. Also, Mangaloreans have always placed high emphasis on education. The combination of the above two factors resulted in the establishment of some quality educational institutions, including:-

Click here for partial list of educational institutions

Since the 1980s, there have been a large number of professional institutions established in a variety of fields including engineering, medicine, dentistry and hotel management. These institutions attract students from all over the country due to the quality of their programs.

On 10 September 1980, the Mangalore University was established. It caters to the higher educational needs of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts. The University Campus has become a major centre for advanced academic studies and research. Although Mangalore University is one of the youngest universities in the country, it has within its ambit some of the oldest and prestigious institutions of higher learning. Besides 26 post graduate departments offering different Post Graduate programmes on the Campus, the University has 118 affiliated colleges (including two constituent colleges) imparting education in the field of arts, commerce and management, science, law and education.

Culture

With several famous pilgrim centres, a trip to Mangalore is incomplete without watching the classic Yakshagana - an elaborate dance - drama performance unique to Karnataka. A night-long event, with people adorned vibrantly, and dancing to the beat of drums, Yakshagana performance attracts thousands of people.

Hulivesha (Tiger dance) is a unique form of folk dance in Dakshina Kannada that fascinates the young and the old alike. Since tiger is considered as the favored carrier of Goddess Sharada (the deity in whose honor Dussera is celebrated), this dance is performed during the Dussera celebration. It is also performed during other festivals like Krishna Janmasthami. Bhuta Kola or spirit worship is practised here. Bhuta kola is usually done in night. Kambala or buffalo race is also conducted in water filled paddy fields.

Mangalore has had a tradition for strength in education, and accordingly has become a focus for local media. Despite its relatively small size, it has its own versions of national English-language newspapers The Times of India and The Hindu, as well as several local-language publications.

Meteorology

The most pleasant months in Mangalore are from December to February - at this time of the year the humidity and temperatures are the lowest by Mangalore standards. Day time temperatures fall below 30°C and night time temperatures fall below 20°C.

This pleasant season is soon followed by a "hot" summer season from March to May, when temperatures rise as high as 38°C. However, a high relative humidity of more than 90% makes it feel above 40°C.

This is soon followed by the monsoon season. Mangalore receives very heavy rainfall compared with other urban centres in India. Rains measuring up to 4000 mm fall during the period from June to September. The rains finally subside in September, with the occasional rainfall catching people unaware in October.

Attractions

Temples

• Mangala Devi Temple.
• Kadri Manjunath Temple.
• Shri Guru Parashakthi Mutt, Marakada, Mangalore.
• Shri Polali Rajarajeshwari Temple, Polali , Bantwal Taluk.
• Shri Sharavu Mahaganapathi Temple.
• Sri Venkataramana Temple, Carstreet Mangalore
• Somanatha Someshwara Temple, Someshwar, Mangalore
• Gokarnatheshwara Temple, Kudroli, Mangalore
• Kukke Subrahmanya Temple in the village of Subramanya
• Sadashiva temple near Surathkal beach.
• Iddya Mahalingeshwara temple,Suratkal
• Shri Durga Parameshwari Temple , Talapady
• Mahalakshmi Temple, Uchila

Beaches

• Panambur Beach and Panambur Rocks
• Tannirubhavi beach
• KREC Surathkal Beach & Light House
• Ullal Beach (Summersands)
• Someshwara beach
• Mukka beach
• Sasihithlu beach

Nature

• Kadri Park
• Pilikula Nisargadhama
• Light House Hill

Churches

• St Aloysius College Chapel.
• Rosario Church
• Milagres Church
• Immaculate Conception Church
• Immaculate Conception Church, Kinnigoli
• Sushanthi Church, Mercara Hill
• Shanthi Church, Balmatta

Mosques

• Zeenat Baksh Juma Masjid

Other Sights

• New Mangalore port.
• Pilikula park-boating centre.
• Major hospitals of KMC, AJShetty
• Sulthan Battery, Boloor

Mangalore pictures

• 
  Sunset at Panambur beach
• 
  A view of the Kadri Park
• 
  Fishing in Mukkah, near Mangalore

Nearby places

Mangalore is the chief city of the Tulu Nadu region. Known for its religious places of worship, the region is also blessed with green fields, water falls, beautiful beaches, and a rich variety of flora and fauna.

• Udupi Shree Krishna Matha.
• Malpe Beach.
• Kaup (pronounced Kaapu) Light House & Beach.
• Dharmasthala
• Turtle Bay, Kundapur.
• Udupi/Sri Krishna Temple
• Karkala
• Kateel Sri Durga Parameshwari Temple
• Bekal Fort near Kasaragode
• Kollur near Kundapura, Sri Mukambika Temple.
• Anegudde Ganapathi Temple near kundapura.
• Hattiangadi Sidhivinayaka temple.
• Madhur Mahaganapathi temple, Kasaragod.
• Sri Krishna Temple at Kumbla and Mujungavu.
• Ananthapura Lake Temple near Kumbla, with crocodile in temple tank.
• Kukke Sri Subrahmanya Temple, with Kumaradhara river behind it
• Kumaraparvatha, a welknown trekking spot
• Sri Venkataraman Temple, Mulki
• Shri Mahamaya Mahaganapati Temple, Shirali

External links

• Mangalore City Website
• Mangalore City Corporation Website
• Mangalore City Photo Gallery
• Mangalore University
• Mangalore Telecom
• Mangalore City Website
• STPI Mangalore (Software Technology Park of India)
• Mangalore Customs
• New Mangalore Port
• Mangalore Property Portal