There is this old joke saying that when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon in 1969, he was greeted by a malayali teashop owner holding a cup of tea for him. Those tea-stalls are an all-India phenomenon. Similarly, another universal phenomenon is that of Udupi hotels. It is hard to find a town without a Udupi hotel, particularly so in south India. But why did the folks from Udupi became famed for their restaurants? I can only contemplate. May be because Udupi is the town which Krishna calls his home! We all know how much Krishna loves food be it as fat-full as butter or as fat-free as avalakki (Remember Sudaama?) Anyway, whatever be the reason, Udupi hotels have become very popular in several states outside of Karnataka, particularly so in states such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Udupi Krishna
Not only Udupi hotels have become very commonplace in Tamil Nadu, but they have also caught on a new meaning. They are used as a synonym to saying ‘vegetarian’. So if you see a board such as “Saravana Bhavan (udupi)”, it means it is a vegetarian restaurant, irrespective of whether the proprietor is from Andhra or Assam!
Outside India, hoteliers have marketed this Udupi name quite effectively to their advantage. There are many a restuarants called ‘Udupi -something’ or ‘Udupi-something-else’all the way from Washinton DC in the eastern coast to Seattle in the state of Washington on the west coast. I do not know how many of these are run by folks from Udupi. But one thing is certain. All these places are Udupi, just in name – not necessarily in taste. If you order a dOse, you will get a dOse which looks very authentic, but the reality literally seeps in as soon as you take a byte!
Oh, let me stop with this Udupi puraana, and think of Tirupati Timmappa! In here, there is a idli-dOse restaurant called ‘Tirupati Bheema’s’. We know Bheema for his abilities in the kitchen, but what in the world is Tirupati doing with Bheema and his kitchen? Till I came across this composition of Purandara Dasa, I was not aware of the relation between Tirupati and the restaurant industry.
Tirupati Venkateshwara
Here is that song – I have given it in dEvanAgari script:
धणिय नोडिदॆना वॆंकटन मनदणिये नोडिदॆना! ॥पल्लवि॥
धणिय नोडिदॆ शिखामणि तिरुमलना! ॥अनुपल्लवि॥
केसक्कि अन्न उंबुवना बड्डि
कासु बिडदे हॊन्न गळिसुवना!
दोसॆ अन्नव मारिसुवना तन्न
दासर म्याळदि कुणिदाडुतिहना! ॥1॥
बॆट्टदॊळगॆ इरुतिहन मन
मुट्टि भजिपरिगिष्टव सल्लिसुवना!
कॊट्ट वरव तप्पदवन
सृष्टिगधिक श्री पुरंदर विठलन! ॥2॥
Here is the meaning of the song:
pallavi: I saw him! Venkata, the Lord of Tirumala, My master!
anupallavi: I saw my Lord, the jewel in the crown to my heart’s content!
charaNa 1: (I saw him) who relishes ‘kEsakki’ (a variety of rice?) , who earns money with interest, who gets dOse, and other food items sold, and who participates joyously with the dancing haridAsas
charaNa 2: ( I saw him) who resides in the hill, and him who gives whatever wished for to those who are his true believers, him who stays true to his word, Purandara Vithala, who is the greatest in this creation
Because this song mentions Tirumala on the hills as the home of Purandara Vithala, we can be very certain that this was written about the deity at Tirupati. Don’t we all know the story of Srinivas Kalyana, that tells us that Tirupati Timmappa is still earning money to repay the interest for the loan he took from Kubera for his wedding.
The key phrase here is ‘dOse annava mArisuvana’; the Lord of Tirumala is credited to having had places where eatables like dOse, and rice were sold. This tells that there were restaurants in Tirupati almost 500 years ago ( Purandara’s time frame) where travelers could buy food. Of course, we know about dharma shaales that provided food and water to the travelers free, but this reference is not to such establishments. These are actually places that made selling food a businesses.
It is not for nothing that it is said that literature is a mirror of the society. But shh….! Don’t tell anyone. Because, now places such as Udupi Hotels, and Bengalooru ayyangar bakeries exist at least namesake. Otherwise, they might start thinking of changing their name to Tirupati!
-neelanjana
image courtesy: Google images
(Translated from a Kannada article I had written a while ago. You can read the original article here: ತಿರುಪತಿ ತಿಮ್ಮಪ್ಪನೂ ಉಡುಪಿಯ ಹೋಟೆಲೂ …
)
7 comments
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ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 10, 2009 at 10:47 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
kAlaharaNa suratrANa
In Tirupati (keLage) there is popular hotel called Bheemas which is quite popular and expensive.
KanakadAsaru “bandEvayya govinda sheTTy” haaDalli timmappa deshakke prasAdavannu naDesuvudanna varNisidaare. I couldn’t fully understand that song but I feel it is satirical.
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ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 10, 2009 at 7:37 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
ಬಂದೆವಯ್ಯಾ ಗೋವಿಂದಶೆಟ್ಟಿ! « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] A comment on my previous post made me look for the words for a song of Kanaka Dasa (1509 AD- 1609 AD, as per Wikipedia). Kanaka Dasa is one of the very prominent dAsas in the haridasa tradition of Karnataka. […]
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ಮಾರ್ಚ್ 19, 2009 at 4:55 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Govinda Smarane, Saptakshari Mantra and Blog Hits « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] single post “Lord Venkateshwara and Udupi Restaurants“ attracted lots of hits in the last month. You might ask what is so special about this […]
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ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 9, 2009 at 1:43 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Orginal-Bheemas-hotel-fan
Nice post.
I heard from my grand mother white color job of 1940s was a “cook”. Lot of brahmin people left their villages and moved to cities to cook food for the city people, started their own hotels or cooked in mess or hotels.
then in 1950s to 1970s when PSU started in Bengaluru again people left small towns and villages to come and work in PSU.
Now our generation IT, kids of these people who moved to Bengaluru..moved to US or else where. and then are moving back to Bengaluru.
coming back to food and hotel.
Bheemas was one of better run hotels in 1970s and 1980 in town of triupati (not on the hill, but below)
Now(after 1995s) there are too many good choices. But if you were middle class or upper middle class and went to visit Triputi in 1984, then you will mostly go to eat in Bheemas as that was clean, had AC and was center of the city.
untill mid 1980s Bengaluru was mostly cooler and Triupati was Hot (most of year)and dry/humid (depending on month) place. so you really need a clean AC hotel to eat good food.
Triumala on the other hand is 3000 ft high and is much cooler.
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ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 30, 2009 at 6:03 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
venkateshvenkatesh
We visited Seattle, Chicago and found our Udupi hotels. But they were not genuine ‘Udupis’ ! Some Andhraits managed hotels. But the food did not taste well !
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ಜೂನ್ 22, 2010 at 4:57 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Tirupati Hotels
In tirupati all places are very nice, beautiful and peaceful places. Here food is also very nice. Tirupati balaji is very historical god. awesome post…thanks for sharing this nice information.
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ಜನವರಿ 2, 2011 at 3:42 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
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