Sunnadahalli Anajneya Devastana and Aalaemanae

Sunnadahalli is a small village on the right bank of river Bhadra, near Bhadravathi. Sunnadahalli literally means 'lime village' (Sunna + halli). Probably the village was known for lime production. I've known this village since my childhood days when we lived in Bhadravathi. We used to go walking from our home in MPM Colony to Sunnadahalli Anjaneya temple. A foot bridge connected the two banks. I used to be scared while crossing the bridge when the water level was high. Often the bridge would remain submerged for days. Apart from casual walks, we went to the river during Ganesha Habba. Colony people sent their Ganeshas away in river Bhadra.

Farmers in and around Sunnadahalli grew mostly paddy and sugarcane. The latter was fed to sugar mills or to Aalaemane (jaggery production unit). I remember seeing one Aalaemanae, a bright red glow was visible from a kilometer.

Pushpa and I stayed overnight at Bhadravathi while traveling from Dharwad to Bangalore via Sirsi.

February 23, 2020

Bhadravathi to Sunnadahalli is around four kilometers. We reached the village by 7-40 am. This is the arch across the village entrance.

The temple wasn't open. A hand written board said it opened at 9-00 AM. I was surprised and amused, temple opening like an office. Anyway, we did Namaskara to the temple and left. The place had changed over the years. A big ficus tree dominated the village square and there used to be lot of monkeys. The trees gone, so are the monkeys. In a way, this village has lost its charm.

At the village entrance was a Aalaemanae. On the way out, I suggested we see it. Pushpa was seeing one first time. The cane crusher was not running at that moment but the large pan of sugarcane juice was boiling on the stove fueled by bagasse.

The landlord of this mill is a local man, he was away on some work. His workers monitored the pan.. the liquid needs to stirred every few minutes and the fire needs to be fed. The white material on the floor is bagasse, the fibrous residue of sugarcane after the juice is extracted. After crushing, bagasse is dried & stacked for future use.

Sugarcane juice is boiled for eight hours continuously so that it loses water and becomes a thick liquid jaggery. Next to the pan is a special floor, lined with stone slabs. The pan is hoisted using a chain pulley and pour the hot liquid jaggery on to the floor. The thick liquid is allowed to cool naturally and solidify. The workers make small cakes or blocks for retail sale.

One batch- crushing, boiling and cooling -runs upto 24 hours. The workers man the operation is shifts. These people spoke Hindi, their Kannada was broken. They seems to be immigrants form up north.

Bagasse stack, looks like last year's stock. New bagasse is being dried on the side. The workers gifted us a small cake of dark brown jaggery.

The short stopover was nice. As we turned in to the highway, I noticed this stone slab with the village's name inscribed on it. May the inscription remain as is for a long time to come.

.........