History

Mangalore is the anglicized version of the name MangaLooru. Premilla, a queen of Malabar, renounced her kingdom and became a disciple of Matsyendranath of Nath cult. She traveled with her Guru towards Kudla (or Mangalore) but had to settle near Bolar as she fell ill on the way. Eventually she died there and local people built a temple in reverence to her. The temple was renovated subsequently by an Alupa ruler, Kundavarma during the year 968 AD. Thus the town was known as Mangalapura.

The term Mangala also means fort.In fact, the name Mangalapura is found in the inscriptions earlier to the period of installation of Mangaladevi temple, ie., 968 AD. The Mangaladevi temple in the southern part of the city, reminds us that the city was named after goddess Mangaladevi. Thus Mangalapura later became Mangalooru during the Vijayanagar period. They called it Mangalur Rajya.

The name Kudla is a native geographic term indicating confluence of two rivers. The words KooD or KooDi (joined)+ala=rivers) have become kooDala > Kudla. In other words, Koodla or Kudla is the Tulu equivalent of the Sanskrit word, sangam.The word Koodala is also there in Kannada. The river confluence of Kudalasangama is quite famous since the time of Basaveswara, the social reformer .Similarly the township at the confluence of Tunga and Bhadra rivers in Shimaoga district is known as Kudli.

A number of significant geographic modifications have taken place in Mangalore area during the historical past. At present, River Nethravathy flows westerly and joins the Arabian Sea, south of Mangalore town and north of Ullal area. And the other River Phalguni (Gurpur) flows westerly up to Tannirbavi, near New Mangalore Port. Near Tannirbavi, very close to the beach, hardly 500 meters from the beach-sea interface, River Phalguni takes an abrupt southerly turn and flows southward till it joins the River Nethravathy north of Ullal.

This geographic situation was much different during the historical past. The rivers Phalguni and Nethravathy were flowing within the present city area of Mangalore and joining the sea near the Alake-Bokkapatna area.