Sitting in my office with a guy from Melkote village of K’taka, I was discussing how Tipu massacred 800 Iyengar brahmins of Melkote on the night of Diwali. He was surprised to see that I was aware about this incident despite being from “North”.

Shedding all his hesitation he elaborated on how this horrendous series of events unfolded. It was Diwali and hence, all the village folks had gathered around the Narsimhaswamy Temple to perform the yearly worship.

Some people came running to this gathering and started shouting “Tipu has left Mysuru and is coming to destroy the Narsimhaswamy idol”. All of them ran away except the Iyengar Brahimns. About 800 of them – men, women and children stood their ground, hid the idol behind a newly constructed wall.

Tipu arrived and was frustrated to see the idol missing thus, he gathered all the Iyengar Brahmins while warning them that he’ll start killing if they don’t divulge where the idol has been hidden. As you might have guessed, no one opened their mouth and eventually, he killed all the adult males first (like they always do).

He abducted the children as he was a documented pedo. Then he gathered around 40 pregnant women. He slit their wombs open so, they bleed to death.

There were rapes and eventually all 800 of them were killed but no one divulged the hiding place of the idol. He said that his village still doesn’t celebrate Diwali because of this incident and they call the day as “Naraka Chaturdasi”.

Today’s media will give you 100 incidents where Brahimns would have committed atrocities on the other folds of Hindus.

I don’t deny anyone’s experiences but there are infinitely more incidents in the history where they have given their lives for the sake of Dharma’s protection. If Sanatan Dharma stands today on its feet, it’s coz of their sacrifices over the centuries.

An interesting thing to note is if you open the tourist pages of the Narsimhaswamy temple in Melkote, you’ll find that it glorifies Tipu by saying that he donated a drum there. That’s the collective memory of this community.

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @Kandyman2412 on November 09, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)