Kulyadi

Kulyadi is the name of a village in Karnataka, India. The people who have moved to different parts of the world from here call themselves Kulyadikars.

Today, the legendary village of Kulyadi is very difficult to trace on the Map of karnataka, since over a period of time after independence, its identity has been totally changed. However, ancestral shrines of the family Gods which are still there, point its location near a village named <Posral which has got a Mahalingeshwar Shiva temple nearby. Once a year, during the holy festival of Naaga Panchami, members of the families which belonged to Kulyadi, come together and offer Tender Coconut Abhishekams to the ancestral God. To reach the shrine, is an interesting walk through paddy fields and a river crossing through a small boat.

The village was developed by the Kulyadikars, which included the renowned Kulyadikar Pai's. Agricultural land was developed by smartly reclaiming the fertile river-side land.

After Independence of India, the Karnataka State government through an ordinance, ruthlessly seized the land of Kulyadi from its owners - the Brahmin Kulyadikars and handed it over to the labourers of the farm. However, the shrine of the family couldn't be touched or moved from its original place. It is this shrine which solitarily holds with it the existence of Kulyadi, and bonds the families which once inhabited the place.

In Mangalore and Udupi, the Kulyadikar's cloth shops are well known. There are people with different surnames who call themselves as Kulyadikar. Some of the surnames are Pai, Hegde and Shenoy, Kulyadi traders in hubli Karnataka is a well known electrical wholesale dealer.