Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/506

BRAHMAN of Vishnu above that of Siva, but there is little bitterness between Vaishnavites and Shaivites in South Canara,and there are temples in which both are worshipped under the name of Shankara Nārāyana. He denied that the spirits worshipped by the early Dravidians were manifestations of Siva's consort, but he accorded sanction to their worship as supernatural beings of a lower order.

" Shivalli Brahmins. The Tulu-speaking Brahmins of the present day are almost all followers of Mādhavāchārya, though a few remain Smarthas, and a certain number follow what is known as the Bhagavat Sampradāyam, and hold that equal honour is due to both Vishnu and Siva. They are now generally called Shivalli Brahmins, their head-quarters being at Udipi or Shivalli, a few miles from Mādhavāchārya's birth-place. Here Mādhavāchārya is said to have resided for some time, and composed thirty-seven controversial works, after which he set out on a tour. The temple of Krishna at Udipi is said to have been founded by Mādhavāchārya himself, who set up in it the image of Krishna originally made by Arjuna, and miraculously obtained by him from a vessel wrecked on the coast of Tuluva. In it he also placed one of the three sālagrāms presented to him by the sage Vēda Vyāsa. Besides the temple at Udipi,he established eight Mathas or sacred houses, each presided over by a sanyāsi or swāmi. [Their names are Sodhē, Krishnāpur, Sirur, Kānur, Pējāvar, Adamar, Palamar, and Puththige.] These exist to this day, and each swāmi in turn presides over the temple of Krishna for a period of two years, and spends the intervening fourteen years touring through Canara and the adjacent parts of Mysore, levying contributions from the faithful for his next two years of office, which are very heavy, as he has to defray not only the expenses