Kuvempu's house becomes national monument today

By Our Staff Correspondent

SHIMOGA, APRIL 6. The long-awaited inauguration of the anecestral house of the renowned poet and Jnanapeeth Award winner, Dr. K.V.Puttappa (Kuvempu), at his native village of Kuppalli in Tirthahalli taluk of Shimoga District will take place on Saturday.

The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, will dedicate the house which has been developed as a national monument. He will also release the comprehensive works of Kuvempu brought out by the Kannada University of Hampi.

The well-known Kannada poet, Dr. G.S.Shivarudrappa, will inaugurate the memorials erected at the "Kavi Shaila" -- a hillock adjacent to the ancestral house of Kuvempu, which have panaromic view of the exquisite Sahyadri ranges. It was on this picturesque hillock that Kuvempu, who rechristened it as "Kavi Shaila," drew inspiration from nature's bounty for his literary pursuits. He was cremated atop this hillock.

The Union Minister for Culture and Tourism, Mr. Ananth Kumar, will declare open the photo gallery consisting of rare pictures of Kuvempu.

The President of the Kuvempu Pratisthana and former Judge of the Karnataka High Court, Mr. N.D.Venkatesh, will preside over the function.

The formal inauguration of the national monument by Mr. Krishna was fixed for February 2 but it had to be put off in view of the Gujarat earthquake.

The proposal to develop the ancestral house of Kuvempu into a national monument on the lines of Shakespeare's monument in England was mooted by the then Chief Minister, Mr. S.Bangarappa.

The pratishthana was formed by the Bangarappa government in 1992 to take up, among other things, the preservation and promotion of Kuvempu's literature, development of his ancestral house in Kuppalli into a national monument and to conserve the enchanting surroundings of Kuppalli.

The Government initially sanctioned Rs. 25 lakhs to the pratishthana with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 5 lakhs every year to meet the recurring expenditure. The pratishthana was formed under the Chairmanship of Prof. D.Javare Gowda, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore.

The present members of the pratishthana are: Prof S.P.Hiremath, Vice-Chancellor of Kuvempu University (vice-president), the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. P.Ganeshan, (secretary) (ex-officio), Mr. Kadidal Prakash (joint secretary), Mr. K.T.Narayana Murthy (treasurer), Mr. Bangarappa, former Chief Minister and Shimoga MP, Mr. D.B.Chandre Gowda, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Kagodu Thimmappa, Minister for Social Welfare, Dr. Hampa Nagarajaiah and Dr. Kamala Hampana (founder-members).

According to Mr. Venkatesh, the ancestral house of Kuvempu, which was almost in a dilapidated condition, was acquired by the Pratishthana after paying suitable compensation to the legal heirs of the joint family. Attempts have been made to retain the original parts of the house which were found intact while renovating it to suit the thinking of the poet.

He said the renovation of the house was taken up at an estimated cost of Rs. 70 lakhs. It was proposed to keep the monument open to cultural and literary activities throughout the year, he added.

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