Bellary, officially Ballari, in the eponymous Bellary district, is a major city in the state of Karnataka, India. It is 311 km from the state capital of Bangaluru and 358 km from Hyderabad. This town is famous for steel industry. There are several legends explaining how Bellary got its name. The first is that a few devout travelling merchants stopping in Bellary, could not find a Shiva Linga for their worship. They then installed a balla (a measuring cup or seru used to measure grain) upside down as a Shiva Linga and worshiped it. Eventually, that place was turned into a temple dedicated to Balleshwara or Shiva, which became distorted to Malleshwara, and thus Bellary derives its name from this temple.
The second legend is that the city is named after Indra, the king of Gods, who slew a Rakshasa (demon) named Balla who lived nearby. Balla-ari means 'enemy of Balla' (ari – enemy in Sanskrit). The third legend derives the city's name from the old Kannada word Vallari and Vallapuri.
Source : Wikipedia
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