For nearly forty years of the middle decades of this century, Manjeswar, a coastal Karnataka town (now in Kerala), was a place of literary pilgrimage. What conferred that status on the that far off, sleepy town was the presence there of one who has now rightly been regarded as the Grand Old Man of Modern Kannada Litera ture, a herald of renascent Kannada poetry and a doyen of Historical research. Any writer's trip to South Kanara would have been incomplete without a visit to Manjeswar. The one who put Manjeswar on the literary map of Karnataka was Rāştrakavi M. Govinda Pai (1883-1963). To say that Govinda Pai was, so far as histori cal and literary research is concerned, an insti tution by himself rather than an individual, would be to use a wellworn cliche, but few other expressions would adequately convey the bulk and range of his investigations and conclusions.
PROFESSOR VENKAT MADHU RAO INAMDAR (b. 1913), who has established his reputation as a novelist and critic in Kannada, has taught English in various colleges in the State of Mysore. He was for some time Principal and Professor of English in the Poorna Prajna College, Udipi. After his retirement as Professor of English in the Sahyadri College, Shimoga, he has worked as University Grants Commission Research Professor in the Department of English, Banga lore University. In addition to his writings in Kannada, he has published in English a critical estimate of Uttara Räma Carita. He has also rendered into Kannada some novels from Marathi like Don Dhruva, Yayati etc. Of his recent works special mention should be made of Pascatya Kavyamimamse. Well known among his writings in Kannada are Möhini (in four parts), Sapa, Mürabatte, Vijaya Yatre, Kanasina Mane and Mangalyandinalli Muru Vara. He is the recipient of the State Sahitya Academy Award. Dr. H. M. Nayak, General Editor of the series Kannada Writers and Their Work, is Professor of Kannada and Linguistics and Director, Institute of Kannada Studies, University of Mysore.
At the time of the inauguration of the Rashtrakavi Govinda Pai Research Centre at Udupi in 1966, I had occasion, through the good offices of Prof. K. S. Haridas Bhat, then Principal of the M. G. M. College, to deliver a lecture on the poetry of Govinda Pai. The lecture was subsequently published as a small book by that College in its "Navodaya Prachara Pustaka Male." That in a way marks the beginning of my active interest in the work of Govinda Pai and that small book has been some sort of a nucleus for the present one. Perhaps because of it, Dr. H. M. Nayak, Director, Institute of Kannada Studies, Mysore University, suggested that I write about him in the present series. I accepted the suggestion willingly; but as I sat down to work, I found that I had been rather rash in acceding to the suggestion. Govinda Pai is not an easy subject to write about and, on the whole, it has been a strenuous undertaking. But I suppose, at least I hope, that the effort has been worth while and that the following pages provide a proper introduction to his work. It is a pity that almost all his research papers lie scattered in various periodicals and learned journals. That they are not available between two covers has precluded an overall view of his work in that field and has prevented any comprehensive comment on or criticism of his various findings. Contemporary reactions which his findings provoked lie similarly scattered and are not easily available. Fortunately, because of the perseverence and labour of Dr. Srinivasa Havanur and Sri M. V. Nayak, we have at least a bibliography of his writings in Govinda Pai Vangmayadarkana. I am greatly indebted to that work in my attempts to give in bare outline an idea of his work in the field of historical and literary research. No criticism of his conclu sions has been attempted for the obvious reason that it is not my area of work or study. I have, therefore, contented myself with describing the range and extent of his research work and with offering a summary statement of his findings. I am grateful to Dr. Nayak for the opportunity he has given me to write this book and thus extend my study of Govinda Pai's work, and to the Institute of Kannada Studies for having published it.
Kannada, spoken by about 30 million people, is one of the major languages of India. It is the language of the state of Karnataka in South India. Karnataka has an area of about 1,92,000 square kms. and a population of about 37 million. It has made a unique contribution to the wealth of Indian Culture through its significant achievements in literature, in fine arts and in religious and spiritual realms. Kannada people have their unbroken literary heritage of more than one thousand years. This heritage is very rich in quality, variety and volume. From the point of view of anti quity Kannada is next only to Sanskrit and Tamil in India. The earliest specimen of the language belongs to the fifth century A.D. The first available work is Kavirajamärga (9th century A.D.) which deals with poetry and poetics. No doubt, a fairly rich literature was existing prior to this, although the works of this period have not survived. The tenth century A.D. was the golden period in the history of Kannada literature. The twelfth century A.D. was the age of revolt. A new literary form called Vacana, which is very typical of Kannada literature, emerged during this period. As a result of it, literary usage came closer to the spoken word. Saint poets, epic poets, scholar poets and mystics have subsequently enriched the tradition. The modern period may be said to begin with the advent of the English in the 19th century. Modern Kannada literature takes its colour and tone from the contemporary life. It has been acquiring new dimensions from ever-growing contact with the literatures of other regions of the country and the world at large. Kannada literature with its glorious past and rich heritage has great achievements. The literary products of the last half a century assure us of a great future.
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