It stands on a narrow branch of the Tungabadra. The river splits near Kenchanagudda in to two channels which enclose between them the island of Desanuru, six miles long, and reunite at its lower end.
The name Siruguppa means “ pile of wealth” and is well earned by the striking contrast which its rich wet land, watered by two branches of an anicut channel from the Tungabhadra, affords to the Settlement Officer Said in 1896 “ I may say, without hesitation, that these are the very best of the lands I have seen in any district ( and I have served in eight district including Tanjore), especially those of the Desanuru is land.” They are nearly all a black loam, and some 20 acres are the ordinary lighter regada. From tem are sent to Bellary and Adoni large quantities of paddy, plantains, coccoanuts, sweet potatoes, pine-apples and garlic. The village boasts larger revenue assessment (Rs. 26,000) than any other in the district. The town has not however advanced rapidly in size. It lost 9 per cent. Of its population in the 1877 famine and in the thirty years between 1871 and 1901 its inhabitants only increased by 5 per cent.
The picturesque reach of the Tungabhadra which separates the village from Desanuru island flanked on the hither side for about a quarter of a mile by the old Siruguppa fort, while the other bank is fringed with the cocoanut palms of the island. On a bastion of the fort stands the temple to Sambhu Linga, the oldest in the Village. Within its enclosure are two inscribed stones, but one is broken in two and the other is chipped. Opposite the temple to Ur-amma, the village goddess, is another inscription. In the hospital is yet another. The most frequented temple in the place is the new one to Kotturu Basavanna, with the conspicuous gopuram. It was built (as the inscription over its doorway testifies) in 1887 by a local sowear.
Siruguppa taluk takes its name from its headquaters town. Siruguppa means “pile of wealth”. This taluk came into existence w e f 1st October 1910 after merging 46 villages from the Bellary taluk, 29 from the Adoni taluk and 23 from the Alur taluk. However Siruguppa taluk was abolished on 1st April 1923. But again, w e f 15th April 1929, 33 villages from the Adoni taluk,7 villages from Alur taluk along with the villages included in the Siruguppa Deputy Tahsildar’s division of Bellary taluk, constituted into a new taluk with Siruguppa as its Headquarters.
This is a border taluk where a significant number of people speak telugu. There is perfect hormony between kannada and telugu speaking people.The taluk is bounded on the north by the Sindhanoor taluk of Raichur district, on the south by Bellary taluk and the east by the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and on the west by Hospet and Bellary taluks.
Siruguppa is about 32 miles due north of Bellary. A Sub Magistrate is stationed here, who has also jurisdiction over 74 of the surrounding villages. The town is built on the south bank of the Tungabadra, and some of the minor channels pass among the houses. The situation m is low, the streets narrow and ill-ventilated, and the general health of the people is not good.
Hirehal is on the Bangalore road, 10 miles south of Bellary. There are the remains of a strong fort here. The public Bungalow has been handed over to the Department of Public Works, but a room is reserved for district officers on circuit. Brass work is done here very largely.
Kenchengodu on the banks of the Tungabhadra is now almost in ruins. The gardens and fort were built by Kenchengowda, the founder of the place. For services rendered to the vijiyanagar State, the villages of Siragupa and Desanur were conferred in jag hire on his descendant Basavanagowda. In the time of his son the place was taken by the Subadar of Adoni. It is now almost deserted. There are some curius paintings on the ceiling of one of the rooms of the palace, and a lengthy inscription in Hali Canarese inserted in one of the walls.
Tekkalakota:
This town is 43 kms. from Bellary city. After downfall of Vijayanagara, Tekkalakota came under the control of Palagar Hanumappa Nayaka of Bellary. He built a fort around Amareswara temple in the village.Subsequently Hanumappa’s family lost it to the Muslim governer of Adoni in 1725. Again in 1775 it was captured by Hyder Ali who built the square stone fort adjoining to Siruguppa road.
A village of 4,516 inhabitants, and containing a police-station, 27 miles north of Bellary on the Siruguppa road. West of it lies a bold group of granite hills containing many fine blocks and tors. Mr. Bruce Foote says that one of the latter “ on the south-western spur of Tekkalakota gudda, as seen from the north by morning light, has the exact shape of a huge bear sitting upon his haunches.” With the villages adjoining, Tekkalakota (like Bellary and Kurugodu) was granted by the king of Bijapur after the downfall of Vijayanagar in 1565 to the Baluda Hanumappa Nayak who has already been mentioned in the account of Bellary town above. He built a fort which stood round about the Amaresvara temple in the southern part of the village, but of which scarcely a trace now remains “southern fort,” the adjective disstiguishing it, perhaps, from the Halekota futher north. The headman of the village possesses a MS. Which gives further details of its history and which, where it can be tested, is accurate. This says that in 1725 Hanumappa’s descendants, who ruled Tekkalakota from Bellary, lost it to the musalman governors of Adoni, who in the next year appointed over it an amildar called Nawab Tali Amul Khan. In 1759 Basalat Jang, who then held the jaghir of Adoni, appointed Hassanulla Khan as amildar. This is confirmed by the inscription on a stone beside the Virabhadra temple at the entrance to the village ahich, after narrating the Appointment, calls upon all whom it may concern loyally to obey the new officer or take the consequences. Teu years later, in 1769, Basalat Jang gave the place in Jaghir to one Pir Jaji Mohidin Sahib. In 1775 haidar Ali, After taking Bellary and Kurugodu, captured Tekkalakota also, and it was he who built the square stone fort which adjoins the Siruguppa road. This in fair condition, but contains little but prickly-pear.
Well to the south of the village is a strikingly steep isolated rock crowned with a round watch tower.
The Amareshwara temple already mentioned contains an inscription which says that in A.D. 1511 one Jakka Raya Built it as an offering to Siva and in honour of king Krishna Raya of Vijayanagar. The temple is nearly buried in earth and debris but has been partly excavated and provided with a set of steps leading down to it. Some 20 or 30 yards from it is a small hole in the ground at the bottom of which some masonry appears, and probably there are other building buried there.
West of the village is the temple to Kadu Siddappa, a local saint, and the mantapam in which he lies buried. Between them stands an ancient and gnarled margosa tree which is regularly worshipped. Above the saint’s grave is the cot which he is said to have used. He was a Lingayat and a man of that sect looks after the worship.
Many are the miracles which he performed when alive. He brought rain whenever it was wanted, protected the village cattle from wild beasts and on one occasion saddled a wall, mounted it, and made it trot. His help is still invoked when difficulties arise. Prayers for rain are now-q-days made by some holy Musalmans, who hold an inam for this service. They go out on the day appointed by their dreams and offer intercession in a grotto among the line of hills which flanks the village on the west.
In the north-east part of the village, two miles away ,is a temple to Hari Mallapa, wherea considerable festival and fair is held annually.
The only industry in Tekkalakota is the weaving of coarse cotton fabrics (from thread spun at Bellary) by Pinjaris or Dudekulas, who are more than usually numerous in this village. They make purdahs and cloth for native tents, sometimes coloring the thread with the clayey pigments found in the Sandur hills.
