Gubbi
Town
Tumakuru district
Karnataka
The best documented Komati episode in the whole Mysore gazetteer, and the only place in Karnataka where a colonial government source describes a Kanyaka Parameshwari temple as a Komati foundation. The town was so divided by the Komati-versus-Banajiga/Lingayat quarrel that authority ordered a wall built to separate the two factions' quarters, and 'the extreme measure of slaughtering an ass in the main street was threatened, which would have compelled all Hindus to abandon the town'. This maps directly onto Rice Vol. I's account of the right-hand/left-hand faction struggle, in which the Banajigas led the right hand and the Nagartas and Panchalas the left. Gubbi was also a great trade centre: 'At Gubbi is one of the chief annual fairs in the country, frequented by merchants from great distances', an entrepot for the areca-nut trade between the Nagar Malnad and Wallajapet in North Arcot, selling about 335 tons of areca-nut and 134 tons of dry coconut a year.
Community institutions
Komati temple to the virgin who entered the fire (Kanyaka Parameshwari), Gubbi
Temple ·
high confidence
Rice (1897), Tumkur District: 'Gubbi formerly suffered much from the party spirit of the contending sects of Komatis and Banajigas or Lingayits, and was at one time in imminent danger of abandonment from this cause. During the administration of Purnaiya, the erection of a temple by the Komatis to a virgin who had cast herself into the flames to avoid dishonour, excited the previous animosity of the opposite party to such a degree that the town was ordered to be divided by a wall in order to separate the quarters of the two factions.' The dedication described - a virgin who entered the fire - is Vasavi Kanyaka Parameshwari, the Komati kuladevata. Purnaiah was Dewan of Mysore c. 1799-1811, dating the temple to that period.
Vasavi Temple, Kote Beedi, Gubbi
Temple ·
medium confidence
A place of worship named 'Vasavi Temple' is mapped today at 13.3072 N, 76.9430 E, Kote Beedi (Fort Street), Gubbi. Its position on the old fort street of the very town where Rice records a Komati Kanyaka temple built under Purnaiah is a striking correspondence, though the two have not been proven to be the same foundation.
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Source
B. Lewis Rice, Mysore: A Gazetteer Compiled for Government, Vol. II - Mysore, by Districts (revised ed. 1897; AES reprint) - full text on archive.org
high confidence