Ballari (Bellary)

The Gazetteer of the Bellary District (W. Francis, 1904) lists the Komatis among 'the merchant and shop-keeping castes of the Komatis, Balijas and Banajigas'. It also records a notable Komati religious institution and a distinctive social pattern: while most Bellary castes had by then dispensed with Brahman priests, 'The Komatis (and, in a less degree, the Kapus and the Balijas) form a marked exception to this general rule. The Komatis have a Brahman guru... at Narayanadevarakeri in Hospet taluk, to whom they pay the greatest reverence. He holds sway over the four western taluks and parts of Bombay and the Nizam's Dominions and travels periodically round his charge in much state with drums, silver-sticks-in-waiting and belted peons to visit his adherents. He settles disputes, fines the unworthy, purifies the erring and collects subscriptions - which are usually assessed at the rate of one month's income per head - towards the finances of his math, which institution is in addition supported by landed inams.' (The guru's personal name is given in the source but is deliberately omitted here.) Bellary is also named in the Dharwar gazetteer as one of the two places, with Kadapa, from which the Dharwar Komtis migrated.