Concrete mantapa coming up on 1,400-year-old temple site in Bengaluru

Historians are appalled at a concrete structure coming up on a temple site that dates back to the 8th century.

The work is in progress at Manne in Bengaluru Rural district. Originally called Manyapura, Manne was the second capital of the Western Gangas, who ruled southern Karnataka from 350 to 1000 CE. It is now a village tucked away in Nelamangala taluk, about 50 km from Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.

A sprawling site, housing temples built during the Ganga reign, is in ruins today, strewn with plastic waste and overgrown with weeds.

When DH visited Manne, the building under construction was explained as part of a renovation project undertaken by Narse Gowda, who lives in Yelahanka. A new mantapa will eventually come up on the site.

Village festival

Venkatesh, local guide and artist, who designed the arch for the Someshwara temple nearby, said the mantapa held religious significance for people living in Manne.

“There was a platform here. Our grama devathe (local deity) Mannemma Devi used to be placed on it for Vijayadashami. Over the years, the platform disintegrated and that’s why Narse Gowda is building a mantapa there,” he said.

Historians say the construction will further ruin the already deteriorating historical temple, and the authorities should no longer remain apathetic.

The site has not received a ‘protected’ tag, and that makes it difficult to initiate legal action against the construction.

Well-known epigraphist H S Gopala Rao is among those trying to get the monuments in Manne recognised and protected by the authorities. If excavated, the site could reveal many hitherto unknown aspects of Karnataka’s past, he says.

Sri Vijaya connection

A Jinalaya (Jain temple) built in 798 AD by Sri Vijaya stands in Manne. Historians speculate this could be the same Sri Vijaya who wrote the oldest discovered Kannada text, Kavirajamarga. The scholarly treatise on poetics discusses advanced aspects of style, and even defines how poetry should not be written.

“We have been trying to get the Archaeological Survey of India and the state archaeology department to declare Manne a protected site,” Gopala Rao told DH.

In 2016, the state archaeology department submitted a request to the ASI to excavate the land near one of the monuments, but the ASI declined, citing insufficient staff. In 2019, ASI officials visited the site and promised to take steps to preserve the monuments, but again, little has happened since.

The sites have no boards indicating their antiquity. A shrine dedicated to two sisters, called the Akka Thangi temple, was never completed during the Ganga reign. It has now been fenced off with bamboo by people living in the vicinity.

Manjunath K, former Nelamangala tahsildar, said efforts to build a mantapa began in 2022. “During Mahanavami last year, some people dug up the land next to the heritage temple to build the mantapa but I stopped them and reported it to the police. They stopped me from filing an FIR so I let them off with a warning,” he said. He was unaware that construction had resumed after his transfer to Belagavi.

Neither Arundhathi, the current tahsildar of Nelamangala taluk, nor the state archaeology officials responded to DH’s calls.

Will visit Manne soon: ASI official

Bipin Chandra Negi, superintending archaeologist, Bangalore Circle, ASI, said the law prohibits construction within 100 metres of any site recognised by the ASI. Manne is yet to get such recognition.

“But we can direct the district collector to take action against people who take up activities that harm these sites. Manne is a very important historical site, so I will do a field site soon to see the potential for excavation.”