Malenadu Culture

What is Malenadu culture?

Malenadu culture is the shared way of living of the communities who farm, worship and tell stories in the hill country of Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Hassan and the hill edges of the coastal districts. It is shaped first by rain, then by forest and then by the thota (ತೋಟ, the mixed garden of areca, coconut, banana and pepper) that most families live on. For the map and the meaning of the word, start with our guide to Malenadu in Karnataka and the list of Malenadu districts and taluks.

What sets Malenadu culture apart from the plains is distance. Villages here are not tight clusters of houses. Each family lives on its own land, often far from the next house, so the home, the temple and the yearly jatre become the places where people meet.

A few threads run through almost every part of Malenadu culture:

• The monsoon calendar. Planting, festivals, Yakshagana and even weddings follow the rain.
• The joint farm home. Big tiled houses with a courtyard, a veranda and an attic for drying crops.
• Respect for the forest. Sacred groves, snake shrines and worship of the earth itself.
• Stage and oral arts. Yakshagana, folk songs, harvest dances and stories on the veranda.
• Food that keeps. Pickles, dried kokum, jaggery and spices stored for the wet months.

This page covers ten Malenadu traditions: the communities, the farm day, Yakshagana, folk dance, old kingdoms, writers, crafts, sacred groves, food and the festival year.

Who are the Malenadu people?

The Malenadu people are not one community but many, each with its own speech, gods, food and farming habits. What they share is the land: steep hills, heavy rain and gardens carved out of the forest. Here is a short, respectful introduction to the main groups.

Community	Where you mostly meet them	Known for
Havyaka Brahmins	Sirsi, Siddapur, Yellapur, Sagara, Hosanagara, the Puttur side	Areca and pepper gardens, Havyaka Kannada
Vokkaligas	Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Shivamogga hill taluks	Paddy, coffee and areca farming
Kodavas	Kodagu	Coffee estates, clan houses (ainmane), Kodava takk
Deevaru (Idiga)	Sagara, Soraba and nearby villages	Hase Chittara wall art, Bhoomi Hunnime baskets
Siddis	Yellapur, Haliyal and Dandeli side of Uttara Kannada	African ancestry, damami drum dance
Kunbis	Joida and the northern forests of Uttara Kannada	Forest farming, a Konkani-based speech
Gowlis	Forest hamlets (gouliwadas) of Uttara Kannada	Cattle keeping and dairy
Halakki Vokkaligas	Ankola, Kumta, Honnavar toward the coast	Folk songs, Suggi dance, paddy work
Forest communities	Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga hills	Malekudiya, Jenu Kuruba, Yerava, Hasalaru and others

Lingayat, Jain, Muslim, Christian and Gowda Saraswat families are part of Malenadu culture too, as are the Arebhashe-speaking Gowdas of the Sullia and Madikeri side. Two Halakki women from Ankola taluk, the folk singer Sukri Bommagowda and the tree planter Tulasi Gowda, received the Padma Shri for knowledge carried without books.

What is daily Malenadu life like on a farm?

Malenadu life on a farm begins before sunrise and follows the garden, the cattle and the rain more than the clock. Most families are small farmers. A typical day looks like this:

1. Early morning. Someone lights the fire under the hande (big copper pot) for bath water, milks the cows and sweeps the yard.
2. Breakfast. Dose or kadubu (steamed rice cakes) with pickle, often with a spoon of joni bella (liquid jaggery) or ghee.
3. Thota work. Weeding, mulching, spraying areca in the rains, picking pepper in the cool months, carrying leaf manure.
4. Afternoon. Rice, saaru (thin rasam), huli (thick gravy) and a tambuli (cool curd dish), then a rest on the veranda with betel and areca.
5. Evening. Cattle come home, the lamp is lit and the elders talk on the jagali (raised veranda).
6. Night. An early dinner, then stories, TV or, in season, a walk to a Yakshagana show.

In Malenadu culture the year matters even more than the day. Areca harvest runs through the cool months, pepper is picked around the turn of the year and the monsoon is for planting paddy and staying indoors. Our Malenadu crop calendar lays out the farm year month by month.

Yakshagana in Malenadu culture

Yakshagana is a dance drama with singing, drumming, painted faces and tall headgear, performed through the night. No art is more tied to Malenadu culture. A bhagavata (lead singer) sings the story from the epics. A chande (high-pitched stick drum) and a maddale (hand drum) keep the beat while the actors dance and speak their lines on the spot. Shows run in the dry months, roughly from Deepavali until the next monsoon.

There are two broad styles:

• Badagutittu (northern style). Found from Udupi district north into Uttara Kannada, with the Karnataka chande. The Uttara Kannada form, known for its acting, is the one most hill audiences grew up with.
• Tenkutittu (southern style). Found in Dakshina Kannada and Kasaragod, with drums and costumes closer to Kerala.

Talamaddale is a seated version with no costume or dance, where actors argue the story out in prose. It is popular in Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru as well as on the coast.

Yakshagana Malenadu centres: Keremane and Idagunji

The best known Yakshagana Malenadu name is Keremane, a village near Gunavante in Honnavar taluk of Uttara Kannada. The Keremane family of artists, Keremane Shivarama Hegde and his son Keremane Shambhu Hegde, carried this style of Yakshagana from the village to stages far beyond Uttara Kannada.

Touring troupes (melas) attached to temples still travel the hills. Towns like Sirsi, Sagara and Kumta run Yakshagana classes for children. A show in a village tent with the rain smell still in the air is Malenadu culture at its best.

Which other folk arts are part of Malenadu traditions?

Many smaller Malenadu traditions in dance, song and ritual live alongside Yakshagana. Some belong to one community and some to one season, but all are part of Malenadu culture.

• Dollu Kunitha. A powerful drum dance of the Kuruba community, linked to the worship of Beeralingeshwara and seen at fairs across Karnataka.
• Suggi Kunitha. The harvest dance of the Halakki Vokkaligas, performed around Holi with tall, colourful headgear.
• Siddi damami. The Siddi drum and dance, with an African root mixed with local rhythm, seen around Yellapur and Haliyal.
• Kodava dances. Men’s Bolakaat and women’s Ummathaat at Kodava weddings and festivals.
• Folk songs. Village bhajan groups, harvest songs and the Deepavali house-to-house singing called antige pintige.

Bhuta kola, the spirit worship ritual many people know from films, belongs mainly to the Tulu-speaking coast of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. You may meet it where the hills touch the coast. It is fair to enjoy it as a neighbour’s tradition rather than claim it as Malenadu culture.

Which kingdoms shaped Malenadu culture?

Three home-grown dynasties left the deepest marks on Malenadu culture: the Kadambas, the Hoysalas and the Keladi Nayakas.

Dynasty	Home base	What you can still see
Kadambas	Banavasi, near Sirsi	The Madhukeshwara temple town
Hoysalas	Origin story set at Angadi (Sosevur) near Mudigere	Belur and Halebidu temples
Keladi Nayakas	Keladi, then Ikkeri, then Bidanur (Nagara)	Temples at Keladi and Ikkeri near Sagara

The Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura were inscribed together as the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas on the World Heritage list in 2023. Keladi Chennamma, the queen who sheltered Rajaram, son of Shivaji, is still a local hero in Sagara. For the wider story and places to visit, read our page on Malenadu in Karnataka.

Which writers wrote about Malenadu life?

Some of the greatest Kannada writers grew up in these hills. Their books are the best way to understand Malenadu life from the inside.

• Kuvempu (K.V. Puttappa). He grew up at Kuppali near Thirthahalli, where his family house is now a memorial. His novels Kanooru Heggadithi and Malegalalli Madumagalu are set in Malenadu villages. He received the Jnanpith for Sri Ramayana Darshanam.
• Poornachandra Tejaswi. Kuvempu’s son, who chose to farm near Mudigere. Karvalo, Jugari Cross and Chidambara Rahasya are full of forest, coffee and very funny local characters.
• U.R. Ananthamurthy. Born in the Thirthahalli area. His novel Samskara (1965) is a modern classic. He received the Jnanpith in 1994.
• Na D’Souza. From Sagara. His novel Dweepa, about a family facing the waters of a new dam, became a film by Girish Kasaravalli.
• K.V. Subbanna. Born in Heggodu near Sagara, where he built a village theatre movement. He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

If you read one book to understand Malenadu culture, make it Karvalo in a good translation. It is short and funny.

What crafts come from Malenadu traditions?

The best known Malenadu craft traditions are Hase Chittara painting, Gudigar wood carving and bamboo work. In Malenadu culture most began as things made for the home and the temple, not for sale.

Hase Chittara wall art

Hase Chittara is a geometric folk painting traditionally done by Deevaru women of Sagara taluk and nearby villages. Patterns are drawn on mud walls and floors with a paddy straw brush, using colours from rice flour, red earth, charcoal, turmeric and lime. The designs show farm life, weddings and rituals in circles, triangles and lines. The same art decorates the butti (bamboo basket) carried to the fields at Bhoomi Hunnime.

At malenadu we use Hase Chittara style borders in our brand design, a small nod to the women who kept this art alive.

Gudigar carving and bamboo work

The Gudigars are carvers who work in sandalwood and other woods, mainly in Sagara and Soraba taluks and in Uttara Kannada. Their figures of gods, animals and panels were once made for temples and palaces. Because sandalwood supply is restricted, many carvers now use other woods.

Bamboo work is everywhere in the hills: baskets for areca and paddy, winnowing trays, mats and fish traps. That habit of carrying things in something strong and simple lives on in our Kannada printed small jute bag.

Why are sacred groves important in Malenadu culture?

Sacred groves are patches of forest kept for a local deity. They are among the oldest and most practical parts of Malenadu culture. In Kodagu they are called devara kaadu (God’s forest). In Uttara Kannada and Shivamogga the larger village forests linked to a deity are called kans.

Inside a grove you do not cut green trees. The deity might be a forest goddess, a snake god (naga) or a local guardian. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science have recorded more than a thousand sacred groves in Kodagu and hundreds of kans in Uttara Kannada and Shivamogga, many linked to springs and village tanks.

The practical side is simple. A grove at the head of a valley protects the spring that waters the garden below it.

Food in Malenadu culture

Food in Malenadu culture is built on rice, coconut, jaggery, sour fruits and home-grown spices. Almost every dish has a festival, a season or a rainy day attached to it.

• Sourness from the forest. Dried kokum (murugalu) and vate huli (monkey jack) replace tamarind in many homes.
• Jaggery over sugar. Joni bella, block jaggery and coconut-jaggery sweets are the everyday sweeteners.
• Leaf cooking. Kadubu steamed in jackfruit leaf cups (kotte), turmeric leaves or banana leaves.
• Tambuli. Cool curd dishes made from herbs at the garden edge.

In Malenadu culture honey has long sat beside ghee and jaggery on the Malenadu shelf. In Malenadu homes a spoon of it in warm water is given to adults for a dry throat in the cold months. A jar of honey still belongs on that shelf.

The sweet you will meet on almost every visit is coconut and jaggery cooked together. Our coconut jaggery burfi follows that home method. For recipes and ingredient names, see our guide to Malenadu food.

Festivals, houses and language: three deeper guides

Festivals, homes and speech are the parts of Malenadu culture that need a page each, so we have written separate guides for them.

• Festivals of Malenadu through the year. From Sankranti to Huttari, with Bhoomi Hunnime, Deepavali, the Sirsi Marikamba jatre and the foods for each.
• The traditional Malenadu house. Thotti courtyards, the jagali katte, the smoky attic and why these homes breathe in the monsoon.
• Languages and dialects of Malenadu. Havyaka Kannada, Arebhashe, Kodava takk, Konkani and a table of everyday farm and food words.

For a visitor the festival year matters most. The Sirsi Marikamba jatre comes once every two years, Huttari brings Kodagu together in the cool months and Bhoomi Hunnime turns paddy fields into picnic grounds in October.

Where to go next

The best way to understand Malenadu culture is to see it: plan a trip with our Malenadu travel guide, time it with a jatre or a Yakshagana night and stay in a farm homestay. If you cannot travel yet, the taste of the hills is the next best thing: you will find it in our full range of farm products.

Frequently asked questions about Malenadu culture