Namadhari Naik (original) (raw)

Namadhari Naik or Halepaika is a Hindu Kshatriya community (the same Community also known as Halepaika) predominantly found in Uttara Kannada, Udupi district and Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka State in India and are numerically a majority community in the Uttara . They have sub castes - Dasa Pantha and Bhakti Pantha. They are the followers of Sri Madvacharya and Sri Raamanujachaarya. They originated from the South coastal region of Karnataka. They are an agricultural and priest community, though agriculture once formed an important source of income. The people of the community use Nayak (ನಾಯಕ)and Naik (ನಾಯ್ಕ), Gowda as surnames. The community considers the Lord of Tirupati Venkataramana as their deity, apart from the local gods and Local group of family deities depending on their p