Karnataka Day: Celebrating Kuvempu's 'Naada Geethe' (State Anthem) On Rajyothsava

On 1 November, celebrated as the Rajyothsava, this time the sixty-seventh Karnataka Formation Day, let’s get into the nucleus of Karnataka's ‘Naada Geethe’ - Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujaate – and observe the panoramic lyrical narrative that asserts its birth from the national entirety, albeit with a stately-pride.

It describes the state’s natural lush environs, rivers and waterfalls, poets and reformers contributing to its all-encompassing beauty and beliefs.

Kuvempu's exceptional imagination

Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa) was born on 29 December, 1904, at Kuppali in Teerthahalli District of Karnataka. As a primary school student at Teerthahalli, he would often gaze at Mother Nature.

Even before entering high school at Hardwicke, Mysore, he had read ‘Jaimini Bharata’ a version of the Mahabharata written by Kannada’s noted writer Lakshmisa.

Kuvempu is known to have understood the true philosophy reflected by Mother Nature's divine spectrum.

Says Kannada Development Authority Chairman, and award winning film maker and actor TS Nagabharana, “Kuvempu’s poetic brilliance, perception and virtuosity is overwhelming. When one discovers the hidden layers of understanding embedded in the Naada Geethe, one realises what the “richness” is all about.

"What makes its lyrics so contemplative that it was chosen for the State Anthem amidst a flurry of other poems in the reckoning?

Kuvempu’s creative intellect and acumen had flagged off with the opening lines “Jai Bharatha Jananiya Tanujaate, Jayahe Karnataka Maate!” (As the child of Mother India, Victory to you Mother Karnataka). The linguistic identity is safely preserved, while being part of a federal structure!”

Nagabharana goes on to explain that in the oceanic realm of literature and poetry, Kuvempu’s works occupy a pride of place.

His writings span across expansive classics, poems, novels, plays, short stories, essays, literary criticisms, biographies and translations, and his own autobiography ‘Nenapina Doniyali.’ 

He was bestowed with the honour of ‘Rashtrakavi’ in 1964, Padma Vibhushan in 1988, and was the first Kannada poet to receive the Jnanapith Award in 1967 for his epic, ‘Sri Ramayana Darshanam'.

Kuvempu Memorial ‘Kavimane’ the childhood home of Kuvempu at Kuppalli is now a museum created by the Trust, Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Pratishtana.

“When you essentially explore the make-up of Naada Geethe you discover Kuvempu’s stature as a Kavi and his graceful Kavya.

"It surges one to be part of a secular understanding of the social fabric, it steers you away from cultivating materialistic values, it pushes you into appreciating your own green innards, it awakens your senses to the larger understanding of spirituality from reformers as Shankara, Ramanuja, Vidyaranya; Basaveshwara, Madhwa amongst others.

"Poets as Ranna, Pampa, Ponna, Janna and Kumaravyasa spoke of Bharata through their works from Kannada land!” explains Nagabharana adding that “as one grows listening to the State Anthem one can nurture the seed of thought sown in. No wonder every Indian was happy when Kuvempu was honoured with the Jnanapith Award.”  

Forging a new identity

Former director of IGNCA, vocalist and neuroscientist Deepti Navaratna is happy for the song being part of one’s growing psyche in schools and later at state events.

“They say music succeeds when all else fails. This is true when it comes to the matter of anthems and their abilities to evoke and create a sense of unity - a conjoint identity of either a statehood or nationhood, when there are a million divisive forces in action,” she says.

Deepti, who likes to study history through songs and has authored the recently released book ‘Maveric Maharaja’ on the Mysore Royal, Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, asserts that the unification of Karnataka into a State was historically a difficult affair.

“It was not just an amalgamation of the lands that were historically understood as either Hyderabad-Karnataka, Mumbai-Karnataka, Old Madras areas and Coorg - it was the resurrection of a new personality for the Kannada-speaking people. The need of the hour was to forge a new identity that could breathe in the new Republic of India.

"The State Anthem, if one examines the lyrics, does exactly this by evoking shared experiences beyond Kannada, drawn from the larger spirit of nationhood and the symbolism of Bharata Maata: Victory to you Mother Karnataka, the daughter of Mother India who is hailed by Kapila, Patañjali, Gautama and Jina," she says.

Deepti points to the conclusion that makes it another specialty in anthems:

“In the final stanza, when Kuvempu proposes the Kannada-identity, it is beautifully wrapped in the mother-children emotion; something that is monolithic and primal: Kannaḍa nuḍi kuṇidāḍuva gēha! Kannaḍa tāyiya makkaḷa dēha! Finally, he rests the case for Karnataka in the lap of Bharata-janani (one who has taken birth from Bharata).

“In a way the song is an excellent example of neuro-linguistic programming, where through a song an identity is birthed, larger communities can be created and sustained,” says Deepti studying the song from the neuro-scientific temper.

Looking back at history

The idea of a central anthem and benediction for the State of Mysore had existed since the time of Chamaraja Wadiyar X, much like ‘Jaya Bharatha Jananiya Tanujaate’ the Mysore Anthem,  says Deepti, evoked unity and allegiance to the state by invoking the symbolism of a mother-goddess Gowri to build an emotional consensus.

In 1881, Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar X to re-assert his sovereignty over Mysore, had sought the power of a benediction on the occasion of his coronation. A new identity for Mysore beckoned. “Thus was born the Mysore Anthem, ‘Kayao Shri Gowri, Karunalahari’ (God protect the King)".

Battered by battle and several travails of power, Mysore found a new stirring loyalty to the crown in the Anthem with three stanzas and a refrain.

Wadiyar’s court poet Basavappa Shastry penned the Mysore Anthem to which Veena Venkatagiriyappa and bandmaster Bartels had added a majestic tune in Western Ionian mode equivalent to the Carnatic Shankarabharana scale.

Early years of the Rashtrakavi

D Javare Gowda, well known litterateur and former Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University, a student of professor Kuvempu in 1938 at Maharaja’s College in Mysore had earlier recalled to this reporter on how the contents of Kuvempu’s work on Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananada had taught him the significance of a secular outlook.

Gowda later went on to write a book on the poet titled ‘Soundarya Yogi Kuvempu’ saying “In nature, Kuvempu used to search God’s beauty.”

After passing Kannada MA, in 1929, Kuvempu became lecturer in Mysore University. Swami Siddeshwarananda of Ramakrishna Vidyashala had once visited the budding poet and asked him, "Puttappa, how can a poet like you live in this dingy place?"

Kuvempu’s only reaction was “That’s ok, look at this,” pointing to the Champaka tree in his courtyard environs. His poem "Champak tree" (Sampigeya Mara -1928), is perhaps inspired by this tree! feels Gowda.

Gowda points out that even in his early college days, Kuvempu read the works of Wordsworth, Milton, Kelly, Tolstoy and Thomas Hardy, along with Vivekananda's selected lectures and Rabindra Nath Tagore's 'Geetanjali'.

So fascinated was Kuvempu by Robert Browning's Pied Piper of Hamlin that he recreated it in Kannada as ‘The Kindari Jogi of Bommanahalli.’

Dr Pradhan Gurudatta, visiting professor, 'Kuvempu Chair for Poetry' during Kuvempu's Centenary Celebrations observed that Kuvempu wrote poems in English as early as in 1922, just as an 18-year-old.

He was instrumental in setting up a post graduate centre in Mysore 'Maanasa Gangotri' against all odds.

In 1964 Gurudatta wrote a book "Urmila - A Comparative study" based on Kuvempu's description of Laxmana's wife in his classic ‘Ramayana Darshanam’ and Rabindranath Tagore's depiction of the character.

According to Gurudatta, Kuvempu was amongst the very few then who reflected upon the unsung heroine Urmila, unfolding her as a 'tapaswini' as her quiet penance would have been hard-hitting, while Sita's journey through the forests was more in focus in most writings.