D R Bendre

Early life and education

Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre was born into a Chitpavan Brahmin family in Dharwad, Karnataka. His grandfather was a Dashagranthi ("Master of ten volumes of sacred lore") and scholar in Sanskrit classical literature. Bendre's father, a Sanskrit scholar himself, died when Bendre was only 12 years old. Bendre later adopted the pen-name of Ambikatanayadatta. Bendre completed his primary and high school education in Dharwad with his uncle's help and completed his matriculation in 1913. He joined the Fergusson College, Pune, for his higher education. After obtaining his degree Bendre returned to Dharwad and started teaching at Victoria high school. He married Laxmibai from Ranebennur in 1919. He earned his Master of Arts degree in 1935.

Career

Starting his career as a teacher at Victoria high school(Renamed as Vidyaranya High school after independence) in Dharwad, he worked as a professor of Kannada in D.A.V. College Solapur between 1944 and 1956. In 1956 he was appointed an advisor for All India Radio's Dharwad station.

Later life

Bendre formed the Geleyara Balaga ("Group of Friends") in 1922, a peer group inclined toward the study of culture and literature. This friends circle drew poets, writers and intellectuals from different parts of Karnataka including Ananda Kanda, Shamba Joshi, Siddavanahalli Krishna Sharma, Enke, G.B.Joshi, Krishnakumar Kallur, V. K. Gokak, R. S. Mugali and Pandhareenathachar Galagali. In 1926, Bendre started the cultural movement "Nada-habba'", a celebration of the land and its culture which is still prevalent in Karnataka. This festival is celebrated during the time of the Hindu festival Navaratri.

In 1932 Bendre was sentenced to home imprisonment in Mugad village for writing Nara Bali ("Human Sacrifice"), which was branded seditious by the British government. Bendre's two sons Panduranga and Vamana and daughter Mangala were the only surviving children among nine who were born to him. In 1943, he presided over the 27th Kannada Sahitya Sammelana held at Shimoga. He went on to become a fellow of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat. In 1972 the Government of Karnataka produced a documentary on his life.

Works and message

Bendre started with simple and earthly romantic poetry, often using the "spoken" form of the language. His later works dug deeper into social and philosophical matters. According to G. S. Amur, a leading critic in Kannada, "Bendre believed in the value of an integrated personality but loved to project himself as a threefold being: Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre - the biological self, the thinking self and the creative self. According to Amur, the three 'selves' were conceived as mutually supporting 'selves', as the imagery Bendre used to concrete this idea clearly suggests. He spoke of Ambikatanayadatta and Professor Bendre as two entities that were closely related just as the river and its bank or the belly and the back. One could not exist without the other.

Bendre is usually considered the father figure of modern Kannada poetry. His poems are linked to the Kannada poetic tradition through their use of folklore, the vachanas and the Kirtans. Apart from native prosodic forms, Bendre also employed native imagery, folk beliefs, references to Indian mythology and the language spoken by the common people. Nada Lila ("The Play of Sounds") is perhaps the most remarkable among his collection of poems. All the features of Navodaya poetry like patriotism, the reformatory zeal, critical attitude, Indian culture, consolidation of traditional strength, mystical faith and assertion of a poet's individuality can be found in this collection of poems.

Bendre used diverse techniques for spiritual lyrics, classical style for sonnets, and traditional as well as colloquial idioms for pastoral and folk lyrics. Symbolism is characteristic of his poetry. His poem Patargitti (Butterfly) which is sung as a nursery rhyme is about the colors of temptation. Mudalmaneya ("Dawn") is symbolic of all pervading peace or, the poet's yearning for it. In the Kuniyonu bara ('Let us Dance") all diverse currents of thought meet in on great confluence. Apparently, all of Bendre's poems could be set to music and abound in alliteration; but there was always a hidden layer of meaning which only a trained poetic mind could decipher.

Towards the end of his life Bendre was deeply absorbed in numbers. This was not just a new interest but one that became a central concern. When Dom Moraes visited him during his exploration of Karnataka in 1976, he found Bendre immersed in numbers. In his books Vishvadharanasutra and A Theory of Immortality Bendre made ambitious attempts to intuit all knowledge into numbers.

In popular culture

In 1972, film director and playwright Girish Karnad made a Kannada documentary film, D. R. Bendre on his life and work.

Awards and honours

And many more.