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Sapaliga or Sapalya refers to the community traditionally employed in the temples of Tulu Nadu or the coastal Karnataka for conducting musical orchestrations for the ceremonies of the temples. The word Sapaliga refers to one who makes musical notes or sounds. The word ‘Sappala’ stands for sound. The word has been sometimes modified into Sapalya and Saphalya. Originally, it was a sub-community, developed from the Mogaveera group of Tulunadu. During 4th century CE, a new Kannada dynasty was established based on Banavasi (now part of Uttara Kannada) by Kadamba King Mayuravarma. He established new Temples in Tulunadu dedicated to Shiva, Ganesha etc within his territory that included Tulunadu. At that time the culture of temples was new to Tulunadu and only different forms of spirit worship and the cult of Buddhism prevailed until then. The newly built temples required personnel for carrying out musical orchestrations for the pooja and other routine ceremonies in the temples. In order to meet these musical requirements in the temples of Tulunadu, selected personnel were drawn from the Mogaveera community and were employed in the Temples after providing training in playing musical instruments like nadaswara, flute, drums etc. Thus, Sapaligas share common linage names with Mogaveeras and have matrimonial relationship. The families of these musical artists were commonly settled around agrahars around the temples and these with time became a separate sub-community known as Sapaliga-s. The Sapaligas follow lineage system like other Tulu communities, derived from the ‘moolasthana’ (=original place of dwelling) concept. Because of derivation from Mogaveeras they share most of the lineage names common to Mogaveeras. A person acquires lineage-based surname from his mother’s lineage. As per the lineage rules, members of same matrilineal lineage are considered cousins or blood relatives and are not allowed to marry. The common lineages are Amin, Bangera, Chandan, Gujaran, Kanchan, Karkera, Kotian, Kunder, Maindan, Mendon, Naika, Pangal, Puthran, Rao, Salian, Sapaliga, Shriyan, Suvarna, Thingalaya, and Tholar. The Ganigas (pronounced gaaNiga) of Tulunadu or the southern Karavali of Karnataka constitite a community related to Sapaligas.. The Karavali being a region replete with coconut palms, the extraction of coconut oil was a special profession. Some of the Mogaveeras and Sapaligas during the early historical days ventured into oil extraction and in the due course formed an independent sub-community. However, matrimonial relations between the two communities are in vogue. The oil extraction unit was known as gaaNa; hence those worked with gaaNa became Ganiga-s. These have become an independent community but maintain equivalent matrimonial relations with Sapalya community. There are Ganiga communities in other parts of Karnataka, which are not directly related ethnically to the Tulu Nadu Ganigas.
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