Mundkur is a small village in Karnataka’s Udupi district, located on the banks of the Mulki (Shambavi) River on the Kinnigoli-Balman road. The area is well-known for its Durga Parameswari temple. According to Dr. Gururaja Bhat, the worshipping Durga idol was originally installed around the 13th century AD. The image below depicts a scene from the temple car festival, which takes place during the temple’s annual festival. The ornate wooden car or chariot is topped with a globular wood and cane superstructure decked out in red and white flags. Since years, the colourful and vibrant car festivals have inspired devotees.

According to traditional temple anecdotes, a bad rakshasa named Mundakasura was harassing people in this area. Lord Durga Parameswari, the Godess, killed him and brought peace to the people, and so on.

Mundkur or Mundakur village is known in Tulu as Munder. I believe the name Munder arose from the fact that it was an early settlement of Munda tribes in Tulunadu. Many villages in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts bear the Munda tribes’ names: Munduru, Kalla Mundkur, Mundaje, Mundodi, Mundadi, Mundoli, and so on. All of these place names contain a reference to the tribal term Mund-. Linguistic and anthropological studies have suggested that Austro-Asian Munda tribes predated Aryans and Dravidians in India.

These villages appear to be relics of the earliest recorded settlements in our land. Furthermore, one of the tribals in Tulunadu is known as Mundaladakulu (= Mundala people).

The place name Pirak, where several early Indian tribes, including Vedic and Tulu tribes, lived, formed the words pirak in Tulu, prak in Prakrit, and Sanskrit that mean ‘ancient.’ The words were most likely formed after these tribes migrated from the pirak area into present-day Indian lands.

All of these tribes may have worshipped Brahma or the Brahman (referred to in Vedas and Upanishads). Bermer (the respectful word for Brahma, pronounced berm’er) was the name given to the Tulu people’s first God. In Tulu, the suffix –er is a plural indicative or respect indicative suffix. The Bermer concept was later carried by migrating Tulu tribes to their Tulunad homeland. For centuries, the Bermer was the most important God to the Tulu people. Bermere gunda or Brahmasthana (=Brahmas shrine) existed in many Tulunad villages until the 1970s or 1980s. They may still exist as relics in remote villages. Pad-dhana, Tulu folk literature, depicts Tulu heroes Koti and Chennaya worshipping the God Bermer. The Garodis (traditional Tulunad gymnasiums) housed idols of the God Bermer.Surprisingly, the idols of Bermer, in the majority of cases I’m aware of, were represented by a human male figure mounted on a horse. Della Valle, an Italian tourist who visited Queen Abbakka Devi at Ullal, a small coastal town south of Mangalore, Karnataka, in AD 1623, also described a similar Bermer idol within a small shrine in the area.

With the rise of Shiva and Durga worship in Tulunad, the Bermer concept is gradually fading. However, the word bermer was expanded as a suffix denoting God to Naga bermer (=Naga /serpent God), who was also devotedly worshipped by Tulu people.

Pushkar, Rajasthan, has a Brahma temple that has been described as the only Brahma temple in India. However, the preceding discussions make it clear that Brahma or Bermer was a significant God for several early Indian tribes.

The concept of Brahma or Bermer worship appears to have evolved with the passage of time. Archeological excavation teams discovered relics of early clay horse statues in the Pirak region (ca.1700 BC), which may represent the Bermer as worshipped by Tulu people until recently. Early Indian (Tulu and Vedic) tribes may have worshipped the original Brahma, a human male figure straddled on a horse, as the Creator or Almighty. As a result of the dominance of Shiva and Vishnu cults, the original horse-seated Brahma may have evolved into a four-faced, Chaturmukha Brahma over time. Thus, the early horse-riding Bermer and the subsequent four-faced neo-Brahma stages in Brahma worship in the Indian subcontinent can be distinguished.

The Pushkar region is an ancient civilization site where early Brahma/ Bermer gods were worshipped. In Pushkar, the appearance of Brahma has changed over time. Pushkar’s Brahma temple now has a four-faced Brahma idol.

Even as his appearance has evolved, the Brahma has retained his position as the creator of the world in Indian mythology. However, with the dominance of Shaiva, Shaktha, and Vaishnava philosophies, the concept of Brahma as the original creator and supreme God has taken a back seat.

Before Shaivism made a significant impact in southern India, migrant Tulu tribes brought Bermer concepts with them to Tulunad. Shiva worship in Tulunad, as evidenced by the dating of linga/shiva idols, began in the early Christian era.

Pirak village in modern times The Baluchistan province of Pakistan is known for ancient settlements and civilization relics dating back to around 1700 BC. Remains of horse statues have been reported from this area. The location is geographically close to Sumeria or southern Iraq (refer, post 2 below).

Some of the early Tulu, Kannada, and other Dravidian tribes that migrated from the Sumerian region due to natural disasters or famine may have settled in the Pirak area. This was a significant location where various cultural groups or tribes coexisted. Migrant tribes from Sumeria, Africa, and the Caucasus appear to have settled in this thriving cultural centre.

It can be asserted unequivocally that the Tulu tribes were present. The fact that the word Pirak is still used in the Tulu language lends credence to this argument. In Tulu, pirak refers to something from the past (for example, Avu baari pirakdaya! (=It is from the past! ), Pirakda kaladavu (=from the past).

Second, there were other tribes (Vedic Aryans?) who spoke a language called pirak or prak in other parts of the world. Later, the Prak language was refined and adapted for writing, giving rise to Sanskrit. Prakrit was the name given to the Prak language after it evolved from Sanskrit.

The Prak language (prakrit) has had a significant influence on the Tulu language. Prakrit is the source of many Tulu and Kannada words. Similarly, it is possible that early Tulu/Kannada language words influenced the formation of many words in Prakrit.

The Sumerian civilization flourished between 3500 and 2000 BC in the Mesopotamia region of northern Africa and Asia Minor, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The Sumerican lexicon has been rebuilt by John A.Halloran, and version 3 is now available on the internet. During the period 3400 to 1800BC, the Sumerian language was considered the spoken and written language in what is now southern Iraq.

Some of the words in Halloran’s Sumerian lexicon have equivalents in Tulu and other Dravidan languages.

Indeed, the origin of the word Tulu has long been debated. It is thought to represent something associated with water. 1.Tuluku (verb) in Kannada means to swish, oscillate, or overflow (like water). 2.Tuluve in Tulu also means soft fruit, and specifically refers to ripened soft watery jack fruits.

The Sumerian lexicon includes the following entries:

1.tul = a public fountain, a cistern, a lowland, or a well.
Tu=to wash, to bathe.
(i.e. water-related activity)

2.Tu-lu = to loosen or limpen.

(Numbers 1, 2,… are displayed for relevant comparisons)

During Sumerian civilization, Ur or Uru (=city) was a major city. Uru or Ooru (village or township) has entered nearly all Dravidan languages, including Tulu. Perhaps the name of the once-famous Sumerian city was later extended to all civilised settlements. It is now a common suffix in the majority of place names in southern India. Mangalur,Bengalur,Mundkur,Arialur,Trichur,Gudur, and other places.

In Sanskrit, the suffix -ur may have evolved into -pur or -pura. Jaipur, Udaipur, Mathura, Nagpur, Shivpura, and other cities.

Other Sumerian/Dravidian words with the same sounding verb -ur can also be found. Tulu, Kannada (Uri- is to burn) and other Dravidian languages have words that sound similar to Sumerian Uru (2) (= firewood.). Similarly, Uru (3) (=to till or grow) in Sumerian has Urpini/Ulpini (Tulu), Ulu (=to till) in Kannada.

Ia or I (=five) was one of the Sumerian numbers that meant “five.”

In Tulu, it is ain, and in Kannada, it is aidu.

In Tulu and Kannada, Sig (=sun burnt clay tiles) is equivalent to Sike or seke (=sunny sultriness) and Sigadi (=fire place/oven).

There could be more words like this in Sumerian and Tulu/Kannada/Dravidian.

The analogy is used here to suggest that some early Tulu, Kannada, and other Dravidian tribes may have migrated to India from the Sumerian region.

Tulu is a popular language in coastal Karnataka, India. Tulu-speaking people, on the other hand, have spread throughout the world as a result of globalisation and increased opportunities.
My father, late Budhananda K. Shivalli, compiled extensive data on Tulu language philology between 1977 and 1981, and his book “Tulu Patero” (written in Tulu using Kannada script) was posthumously published in Mangalore in 2004.
Based on the available published data and analytical interpretations, I wrote an editorial in the same publication (Tulu Patero) on the evolution of Tulu language and culture.One of the concepts I discussed in the aforementioned editorial was that Tulu tribes originated around 4000 years ago in the northern part of the African continent, and that some of the Tulu tribes may have migrated to the Baluchistan region as a result of sudden climatic, meteorological, or other changes.
Around 1700 BC, the town of Pirak in Baluchistan (now part of Pakistan) was a centre of civilization. The word ‘Pirak,’ which means ‘ancient,’ has been retained in Tulu. Tulu tribes migrated from Pirak to coastal Karnataka via what are now known as the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharastra.