Kabbinale

Kabbinale, a village at the foot hills of the Western Ghats (Sahyadri) Agumbe range, is situated in Karkala taluk of the Udupi district of Karnataka state, India. In the Kannada language, "kabbinale" means "abundance of sugarcane ". This small village is around 50 km from UdupiTown, and the nearest town is Hebri, which is around 20 km from Kabbinale. The area is covered by thick rain forests, evergreen, and populated by wild animals. The scene of ghats is worth seeing Fact|date=January 2007 during monsoon season. There is only one way to enter the village, as further you go its a dead-end, the road enters the forests and the ghats. The last settlement, called Kuchur, is around 1500 feet above sea level. Korth Baill is the highest, and last point of village Kabbinale. It can be reached from Hebri via Mudraadi or Bachappu or Ajekar via Munniyal.Kabbinale village has been included into the Kuduremukha National Park Project.

Kabbinale village is considered an ideal place for breeding, reproduction and habitation for the King Cobra.

Mythology

This village has been inhabited by people for thousands of years past. Traces of stone age culture dating back to at least 6000 years are visible around the village. The houses are scattered and found up to 2000 feet above sea level and some of the settlements are virtually inside forest and national park.

Kabbinale had a lot of Jain settlers in the initial times, that is a few thousand years back, but the latest settlers (a few hundred years back) are Sthanika Brahmins, families who migrated from a place called Sulkod or Suligod, a place close to Kollur.

Few families migrated here, as they had a major family feud with other parts of their families.

Today, the maximum number of population and families are Sthanika Brahmins. One can find small number of Shivalli Brahmins, Bunts, and Billavas as all of the families settled here.

But it can be easily told that this village belongs to the Sthanika Brahmins families, who were the early settlers, as now the migrated family have grown to more than 90 individual houses/families.

Kabbinale Village is one of the populated settlements of Sthanika Brahmins families. All these families have a common Surname Hebbar.

The main occupation of the Hebbars are agriculture, they grow a lot of cash crops like betel nut, vanilla, coconut, coco & spices of various kinds, cardamom, black pepper, clove, ginger, etc. Kabbinale village is one of the highest contributors of milk to Manipal KMF Dairy.

The Hebbars are very intelligent, hardworking, smart and brave people. The life in Kabbinale is not so easy, as it rains for almost 5-6 months, it receives a very heavy downpour, as it is in the foothills of Agumbe Ghat.

There are wild animals in this hilly region, and the village is infested with leeches, poisonous snakes and other smalltime animals. Some of the families have a licensed gun for self protection.

There are two temples in Kabbinale; these temples are called Mathas. Both these temple deities have a unique story behind them.

Kellaa Matha

The older of the two temples is called Kellaa Matha, as it is situated in a lower altitude, and in Kannada the word 'kella' means down or below. Lord Sri Gopalakrishna is the deity of this temple. The Uniqueness of the Deity is as follows:

The story goes like this: a few hundred years back, Kabbinale Village, didn't have any temple, and the village elders thought of building a temple for Lord Krishna. Now as the families had migrated from a place called Sulkod or Suligod near Kollur, after some family feud, so the male members, of the migrated families had a plan, they raided their old village temple at Sulikod/Suligod, and brought the same idol of Lord Sri Gopalakrishna to Kabbinale, in the night and when the villagers of Sulkod/Suligod, came to know of this it was already morning.

They came to Kabbinale in search of the idol, there was a big fight among each other, but the people of Sulkod/Suligod, could never find the idol, and the settlers of Kabbinale always maintained that they had not stolen the idol. The idol was kept hidden inside a Pond, as nobody could find it.

The idol remained there for several years, and then it was removed from the pond and installed in the temple. During all this tussle for the idol, the flute of the idol broke, therefore today also one can find a silver flute in the Black Granite idol, of Lord Sri Gopalakrishna.

Mella MattaThis second temple is in a bit higher altitude so its called as Mella Matha, in kannada mela means up or higher altitude, here the main deity is Lord Sri Laxmi Narayana. This idol of Sri Laxminarayana is very unique, in that Goddess Laxmi is sitting on the Left leg of Lord Narayana, this kind of Posture of Lord Laxminarayana is very rare.

Life

Serpentine paths lead to several houses, which will be usually in the midst of arecanut garden. As this village was considered very remote, education facilities are minimal. Several elders even today are not well versed with letters. But with difficulties, they learnt to read. Almost all house holds depend on garden produce for livelihood. People are very descent and cordial to new comers. Even though some private buses ply up to half of village, the other half still depend Auto rickshaw or trekking for conveyance and the total length of village is more than seven miles!

The Natives of kabbinale are very much attached to their village. It is the Hebbars, who are the land owners, and the care takers of the Forest. They take care of the natures blessings, and look after the surroundings.

In summer when there is an accidental fire in the Forests, the Villagers themselves fight like the Fire Fighters and take utmost care of the forest and douse the flames, without any help from the government or outsiders.

Today most of the families have their children's, who have done very well in academics and are based out of Kabbinale, few of them are software professionals, engineers, MBA's, and have a very highly placed jobs, in Pvt, Govt & Banking Sectors.

The Hebbars of Kabbinale are related to each other, and have a great bonding as they all belonged to a single family, once upon a time.

The Hebbars, are pure vegetarians, and pray all the Hindu Gods, and also worship Spirits. Bhoota worship and Naga worship is common in each and every household of Hebbars.

Every Hebbars House, in Kabbinale has Bhootadaa Kotegee, and a Naga Bana. The Kuldevatha of Hebbars is Lord Subramanya the serpent God.

They have Unique names for their Houses/Estates. The houses are inside their estates, and distance between each houses are average 1-2 km away from each other.

Few Estate names are MelleMane, KellaMane, Sampige, KellaKemmolli, Gubbimaar, KhajiKal, Korth Bail, Honna Koppalla, Guleall, Kepan Makki, Kollegee, Perla, Kuchur, Kotebettu, Kajaane, Bayarbettu and all these are very interesting and worth studying in linguistic angle.

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* [http://www.censusindia.gov.in/population_finder/Sub_Districts_Master.aspx?state_code=29&district_code=16 Census of Kabbinale]