“What is the use of you eating so much? The body gets nourished from whatever is assimilated by the stomach; remainder is expelled as waste. You may earn how much ever, but what is it that you acquire? A fistful of flour, isn’t it?”
These lines — a translated version by a music company — may sound familiar to some, new to some others, but largely make sense to both categories.
DVG’s (D.V. Gundappa) ‘Mankuthimmanna Kagga’, considered one of Kannada literary world’s masterpieces, lives on even in 2018, reinventing itself in more modern avatars as well. From an app dedicated to what is referred to as the ‘Bhagavad Gita in Kannada’ to animated videos explaining the content, the popularity of the classic has not diminished even 75 years after it was first published.
Animated musical
A city-based music studio has created videos, some in animated form, some others as a motion picture, introducing the kaggas (collection of verses) to newer audiences. Up on YouTube, one of the renditions is a peppy number with English subtitles (cited above).
M. K. Ramanujan, the music composer, whose Musicloud Studio and Technology in Sahakarnagar has made the videos, said he was a DVG fan from his school days. “Becoming a music composer was a childhood dream. I composed music for a Tamil film in 2010. But I have always felt closer to Kannada language and literature, and wanted to bring out something similar to Malgudi Days . That is why I decided to bring out musical stories for Mankuthimmanna Kagga , which has a lot of relevance to today’s life,” he said.
The team has composed an animated music video for one kagga, and one has been translated into English. “Another one has been made into a motion picture using stop footage,” he added, explaining that the intention was to keep the kaggas like a jingle to keep the audience engages as the verses are all about reading between the lines.
Dedicated apps
There have been other attempts at making the magnum opus readily available. Dedicated apps offering Mankuthimmanna Kagga have been well received by literary connoisseurs. Venugopal. M.N., the creator of one such app which has over 28,000 downloads, is a corporate engineer who has developed over 50 apps as a hobby. Only two among them are of books — DVG’s work and the Bhagavad Gita. “ Mankuthimmanna Kagga is considered the main Bible for humanity. It contains truths about life and every kagga tells how one can lead life,” he said.
Kagga yatre
Admirers of the magnum opus have an event to look forward to this year. On October 16, which is the death anniversary of DGV, ‘Samanvita’, a cultural organisation, will take out a ‘Kagga Amruta Yatre’ from Devanahalli (‘D’ in DVG stands for Devanahalli) to DVG Road, which will see the organisers set up platforms at places on the way with programmes to honour the book.
Radhakrishna K.V. from Samanvita, who is also from the Department of Kannada and Culture, said the kaggas resonate with people even today just like the vachanas as they speak of an ‘ideal society and norms and summarise the principles of life’.
Pointing to the government’s efforts in keeping the popularity of the book alive by introducing ‘Kaggarasadhaare’ on Kanaja, the knowledge portal, in text and audio format with interpretations last year, he said there were parallel efforts by others too.
