Our History:

The origin of the family is not known or documented. But a story narrated by the family elders describes the incident which occurred at least 200 years ago and hints that the family had strong presence in the area long before the event. The story goes as below:

Long-long ago at a point in history the Ackwale Family was left with just a couple. The couple had no children. Faced with the extinction of the family line the couple performed various poojas to obtain a child. At last as per instruction of the priests they performed poojas to the family Naga and also went on a pilgrimage to Tirupathi . On their way back they brought with them a Brahmin family from Madhughiri¹(Now in Tumkur District.Karnataka) to perform poojas to the Naga. They donated agriculture land yielding 100 Mudis of Rice (1 Mudi = 40 Kg) to the Brahmin family. Also they constructed a Srinivasa temple (Now called Bada Mutt ) and settled the Brahmin family there.

In course of time the political situation of the area deteriorated and the ruler of the land started tormenting the landlords and farmers by extracting very high tax forcefully. To escape the tormenting ruler the family abandoned its vast land holding and escaped to an undisclosed place. From the description of the situation we can comfortably assume that the event took place somewhere during the rule of Tippu Sultan².

The family then settled down somewhere near Upoor - The village of the husband. This is in contradiction to the Aliya Santana System followed. After few years they had children and they grew up in their father’s house listening to the story of abandoned vast ancestral property. In the meantime the political situation had changed and the British had occupied the seat of power. The “Marathas”³ who came for ‘Ellu-Amavasye’ Bath in Vadabandeshwara saw huge tracks of fertile land unoccupied. They with the help of British⁴ attained the ownership of the land and also got the PATEL title.

As the children of the Ackwale House couple grew up they chided their parents for abandoning the property which was rightfully theirs and living in acute poverty. This harassment and humiliation from the children repeated daily. Finally one day, while in the forest, the depressed lady prayed to Bootha (Daiva) “Malesavira” for help. The Bootha showed its presence by shaking the tree.

The next day Bootha showed its power and all the cattle in the house of the Maratha Patel fell sick and were not able to move even an inch. The marathas consulted the traditional practitioners and tried all the medicines but the situation of the cattle did not improve. They then consulted the purohits (priests) and they suggested that the real owner of the land was the lady from Ackwale house and the cattle would be cured only by her words. The Maratha patel family went in search of the Ackwale house lady and after much difficulty located the family in Upoor. They asked the lady to return to her land. The lady returned and asked all the cattle to get up and all the cattle were cured. The Marathas retuned small portion of the land to the lady. This is the stretch of land in which the Ackwale family people are currently staying.

As a support to this story we can see that the Marathas still worship the same set of Boothas as worshiped by Ackwale House Family.

Reference:

1. Even to the current day the Brahmin family has relatives and active contacts in Madhugiri
2. South Kanara Manual 1894 .Ch III : “Revenue History and Administration of Land”
3. Marathas were in charge of Bahaddurgada Fort in Malpe under Shivappa Nayaka’s rule . Kedajiraya was the chief of the Bahaddurgada fort located about three miles away from the sea shore in Badanidiyoor village of Malpe. Source http://aryamaratha.com/history.html [Now defunct website]. “Maratharu” by Mundood Dharmapal Rao Jadhav.
4. The British transferred abandoned /unoccupied land to anyone who offered to cultivate them.