About

Malali is a village which is about 4 miles south to Shanthigrama, en route to Channarayapatna from Hassan. The famous Malali Giddamma resides here. Malali Amma came to Madarahalli and hence the name "Malali" came into existence. A senior citizen from the village thus explains as to why and how the usage of that name started :

“One night, three thieves went to steal from a wealthy Gowda in Vijayanagar and they stole a chest each from him. As per their plan, they took those chests to Mellalli which was outside the main water body of Malali. On opening those chests, they saw that the first one had gold coins, second one had precious jewels/ornaments and the third one had the idol of Malali Amma. The thief who got the idol, gets disappointed and throws it away near the Yagachi river there. The next morning, a termitarium was formed there. There are around 300 families in Malali now. Some of these families have branched out from Kanchina Thundina Kallu Maligegowda's house. For the whole of Malali, Kanchina Thundina Kallu Maligegowda's house was the only house to be built of stone. At his place, there was a servant boy who used to look-after the cows. One of those cows started giving blood instead of milk. The house members were surprised and the servant boy was punished as well.

One day, the servant boy, wanting to investigate the reason behind this, followed the cow. The cow started swimming across an overflowing water body and the boy followed it too. He finally saw that the cow was actually giving all it's milk to the termitarium which had grown over the spot where the thief had thrown idol. Kallu Maligegowda, who too had come following the boy to know what he was upto, also saw this rare spectacle.

Later that night, Kallu Maligegowda saw in his dream, the Goddess in that termitarium and she told him that she was Malali Amma from Vijayanagar. She also told him that she would come to Madarahalli the next day. Kallu Maligegowda asked as to know a sign that would indicate her arrival. She then told him that the bund of the main lake in their village will break in 7 different places and that would be the sign of her arrival. The next day, the entire village was stunned to see the lake bund which had ruptured in 7 different places and also on the southern outskirts, the Goddess had emerged. The places in which the lake bund had ruptured can be seen even today. Another interesting and notable point is that the villagers accept the Goddess as one of their own and decorate her with ornaments in a way similar to themselves. Merchants of precious stones and gems once rested beneath the platform where the Goddess had emerged after tying their Oxes to a nearby Pipal tree. After resting for three when they decided move on, they found that the stomachs of their oxes had swollen and they were not able to move. The panic stricken merchants went to the village Gowda for a solution and he suggested to consult an astrologer.

At that moment, a radiant woman in the form of a Koravanji comes along asking if anybody is interested to know Shastra. The merchants explained their problem to her and asked her to give them a solution. Then the Koravanji points to the nearby termitarium and says Malali Amma resides there. If you build her a shrine, not only would your oxes recover but you will also get a very good price for their gems and stones. She suggests them to do that and disappears. The merchants, faithfully vowed to do that and as promised the oxes recovered, they got a very handsome price for their gems and became very rich. The happy merchants built a small temple within a day itself. From that day onwards, Madarahalli came to be known as Malali and Malali Amma came to be known as Giddamma and eventually Malali Giddamma. She is also referred as Kyalamma and Lakshmi too. Some say that Kyalamma is not Malali Amma, but her younger sister. Some say she is Giddamma's daughter while some others argue that she is Giddamma herself.

Giddamma is our heart, our spirit, our everything. The people of Malali strongly believe that they should always remember her in times of difficulty and wellness, in birth and death and marriages. During any feast they should always offer her any eatables they eat and also before they let the hen brood on her eggs, one of the eggs must be offered to Giddamma. They offer everything they eat from veg items like beans curry to non veg items like chicken, mutton and pork. Ugra Narasimha Swami is believed to be the husband of Giddamma. Once Giddamma started accepting non-veg offerings from her devotees, he got upset and is believed to have left her and settled at Mallalli. There, a cow grazing boy supposedly made a comment that he has left his and come. An embarrassed and angered Narasimha stared at him with his furious eyes and the boy seems to have died on the spot by coughing blood. Not wanting to face criticism for anyone else, Narasimha faced the wall and even now, once a day Poojas are performed on his spinal region. Before that they perform pooja to Giddamma and only then proceed to Mallalli to perform pooja to Narasimha.

Giddamma is supposedly very far-sighted and very fond of the Shepherds from Tenkana region. The villagers believe that she is responsible for all the pros and cons in their lives and see Her beauty in Nature and all forms of life. “