A chance discovery of 199-year-old land records of Sangolli Rayanna, the army chief of Kittur kingdom, during excavation near the historic town of Kittur in Karnataka’s border district of Belgaum, has triggered a controversy with the government in a dilemma on veracity of claims and counter-claims. After an iron box containing Rayanna’s land records was uncovered from land belonging to Gangappa Dodwad, a resident of Sangolli, near Kittur, families which claim to be descendants of Rayanna, dubbed the documents as fake. Prominent leaders of Kittur, however, are certain that the records are genuine and rubbished claims of members of Rogannavar family that they are descendants of Rayanna. Meanwhile, the government has been trying to verify these claims and counter-claims with the help of experts of the department of archaeology. Mallikarjun Kudoli, a senior resident of Sangolli, says the British bond papers on which Rayanna’s father Doddabharamappa and latter’s younger brother Sannabhar-amappa wrote their will transferring 11-acres of land at Sangolli to Rayanna are genuine. “K.D. Rogannavar, who falsely claimed to be the descendant of Rayanna, is afraid that the truth about his claims will come to light once the land records are officially declared as genuine. Mr Rogannavar created fake documents in support of his claim that he is a descendant of Rayanna,” he claimed. Other leaders, including Kudoli, Vijaykumar Shinde, and Mallappa Panthi, said they would not stoop to such levels and enact a drama about recovery of land records of Rayanna. They said they were even prepared to face an inquiry. Some of them took local MLA Vishwanath Patil along to submit the documents for verification by officials in Bailhongal taluk office. The government’s final decision on the documents would end the controversy over Rayanna’s records.
