Bellary

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

---

Bellary district map

Bellary (बेल्लारी), officially Ballari, in the eponymous Bellari district, is a city and district in the state of Karnataka, India.

Location

It is 311 km from the state capital of Bangaluru and 358 km from Hyderabad.

Variants

• Ballari (बल्लारी)
• Bilari बिलारी, मद्रास, (AS, p.631)
• Balihari बलिहारी = Billari (Billari) बिलारी (AS, p.612)
• Bellari (बेल्लारी)

History

Historical names of the Ballari area

• Kuntala Desha: Ballari was once part of an area also known as Kuntala Desha or Kuntala Vishaya (Vishaya – a territorial division or district of a kingdom). Many inscriptions refer to the Western Chalukyas as rulers of Kuntala or Kondala.

Sindavadi: An inscription during the Gangas of Talakadu speaks of a certain Sindha Vishaya, which consists parts or whole of today's Ballari, Haveri, Gadag, Dharawada, Koppala and Bagalakote districts. Many inscriptions by Yadavas[6] and Kalyani Chalukyas[7] refer to this areas as Sindavadi (ಸಿಂದವಾಡಿ) or Sindavadi-nadu (ಸಿಂದವಾಡಿ-ನಾಡು) (Sindavadi-1000).

   Nolambavadi

   During the rule of Western Chalukyas, the area around Bellary was part of Nolambavadi (ನೊಳಂಬವಾಡಿ) (referred to as Nolambavadi-32000), which included parts of the present Shivamogga, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Ballari and Anantapuram Districts.[8] Further, some inscriptions mention that Nolambavadi-nadu (ನೊಳಂಬವಾಡಿ-ನಾಡು) was a part of Kuntala desha[6]

बिलारी

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है .....बिलारी (AS, p.631) मद्रास (वर्तमान चेन्नई) में स्थित है। इसका प्राचीन नाम 'बल्लारी' या 'बलिहारी' कहा जाता है। एक प्राचीन दुर्ग भी यहाँ स्थित है।

---

वाल्मीकि रामायण में वर्णित वानरों की प्रसिद्ध राजधानी किष्किन्धा, बिलारी से 60 मील (लगभग 96 कि.मी.) की दूरी पर स्थित थी।