VORVADY

When the Grand Old Matriarch Rukmini Heggadthi moved from her ancestral house of Muthoor to the newly built house in Vorvady in 1893, the event marked the beginning of the Vorvady House.

Rukmini was the daughter of Bhagamma of Guddeguthu and Manjaya Hegde of Anjar Beedu. She was married to one of the wealthiest landlords of Tulunadu, Chandayya Hegde of Hirebettu. She was put up in the manorial house of Muthoor where she brought up her five sons and three daughters. Thimmappa was her eldest son and Durgalakshmi was the oldest among the daughters.

Vorvady lands were a part of the estate of an unknown Jain landlord of Karkala. The political and social turbulence during the rule of Tippu Sultan of Mysore who annexed the coastal belt of Karnataka spurred major Jain landlords of Karkala to migrate to Mysore suburbia. This migration was a manifestation of their survival instinct. Meanwhile, Rukmini’s children were growing up. They became prosperous as a result of wholesale trading in rice and timber. The eldest of them, Thimmappa Hegde was in command of the household fortunes and he thought of moving out of the Muthoor ancestral house to a nest nearby. He negotiated with the Jain landlords and purchased the Vorvady property which included a number of surrounding villages of Hiriadka, Pernankila, Belle and Parkala.

Thimmappa Hegde laid the foundation stone of the Vorvady House. In 1893 when the grand Vorvady house was ready, he persuaded his mother Rukmini and sister Durgalakshmi to relocate to Vorvady House. Rukmini was in her twilight years. She was too happy to live under the protective wings of her eldest son. In this way, the new Vorvady House started throbbing with life. The matriarchal Rukmini who was the virtual owner of Vorvady passed away peacefully. She could neither read nor write. She used to affix her thumb impression on official documents including the historical Partition Deed of 1916. The vast Vorvady lands were divided among the three female offspring of Rukmini. Durgalakshmi was granted title to the vast Vorvady property yielding a whopping 800 muras of rice annually. Other daughters of Rukmini were allotted equally large tracts of land in adjoining villages in Parkala, Belle and Shirva (Nerma).

When Durgalakshmi came of age, she was married to a scion of the Anjar family, Anjar Monappa Hegde. She, however, stayed put in Vorvady where she became heir to the Vorvady property under the matrilineal custom of inheritance.

Durgalakshmi thus succeeded her mother Rukmini as the Grand Matriarch of Vorvady Family. While she was the de jure heir, the Vorvady property was looked after by her elder brother Thimmappa Hegde, an influential landlord and businessman in his own right. However, a large number of Vorvady tenants used to admire her for her humane qualities. She used to care for the health and happiness of her tenants and they often called on her for help during difficult times. Affectionately called by a pet name Rati by one and all, Durgalakshmi had high regard for her eldest brother Thimmappa who was the de facto Yajaman of the Vorvady family.

Durgalakshmi spent her last days with her daughter Akkaya in Manipal. She passed away peacefully at the ripe old age of 84 years in 1959 in the Vorvady House.