The Baliga surname is used by three major families in the Goud Saraswath Brahmin community: the Bantwal Baliga, Manjeshwar Baliga and Kallianpur Baliga.
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The faction of the Baligas that reside in current day Bantwal, called Bantwal Baligas, are said by some to have hailed from the Hegde family.
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During the Goa Inquisition in 1567, soon after the temples in Salcete had been destroyed, a meeting of its inhabitants was convened by the invading Portuguese and they were asked to disclose under oath the information regarding the properties held by the destroyed Hindu Temples.
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The other notable mention is in The Ancient History of South Canara written by Ganapathi Rao Aigal, which mentions one Damarsa Bale, among nine other Samasthas (Noblemen) of Bantwal, signing a copper inscription of offering to Sri Bhadra Narasimha Temple of Manjeshwar.
A group of four B.A. graduates— Sriyuths U. Srinivas Rao, B. Padmanabha Baliga, B. Vaman Baliga and Arkal Vasudev Rao—with a mission to educate the Gowda Saraswat Brahmin community in Mangalore were the first teachers and proprietors.
Baliga received an MBBS, from St. John's Medical College, Bangalore in 1984 and post-doctoral degree Doctor of Medicine, from Bangalore Medical College/Bangalore University in 1988.