Paduru Gururaja Bhat (1924 – 27 August, 1978[1]) was a teacher, historian[2] and archaeologist[3] of Tulu Nadu and of Barkur, the ancient capital of the Tulu kingdom.

[4] Born in 1924 in the village of Paduru in Karnataka's Udupi district,[1] Bhat graduated from the University of Madras in 1952.

[1] His thesis was entitled A Political and Cultural History of Tulu-nadu from the earliest times up to AD 1600.

[5] Another book, Temples of Dakshina Kannada, was started by P Gururaj Bhat, but was suspended for a long time after his death.

The project was later completed by Prof. Muralidhara Upadhya and Dr. P N Narasimhamurthy.