#Devanuru Mahadeva

[indizombie]

A nice illustration of how the RSS and their progeny create deception: the defamatory propaganda they are indulging in about Tipu Sultan. Tipu Sultan's reign was from 1782 to 1799. The Sangh Parivar's RSS scholars contend that Tipu Sultan was involved in the religious conversion of 69,000 Hindus in Kodagu (then Coorg) into Islam. Examine the population details of Kodagu district in the state gazetteer any which way mathematically and the population of Coorg at the time never crosses the upper limit of 69,000. If their contentions are true, then shouldn't Kodagu be entirely Muslim by now? However, Kodagu's muslim population stands at about 15% today. The RSS scholars are blind to this, nor does it puzzle them. Sow the seeds of deceit, and watch it grow. Tragically, these seeds of deceit are growing. The RSS and its family are even harvesting this crop of chicanery. It is evident from these that there is no Godliness in them. Deceit is their deity. It appears that these factories of deceit have strangled their own conscience.

Devanuru Mahadeva, 'RSS: Depth & Breadth'

[lyricsraaga]

ಒಡಲಾಳ - ದೇವನೂರು ಮಹಾದೇವ | ಭಾಗ 2 | Odalaala by Devanuru Mahadeva Book Review | Kannada Novels | Books

[seavoice]

it’s hardly the craziest thing in his life but my grandfather living with devanuru mahadeva (for a little while) in his youth sent me to the stratosphere when he told me yesterday

[gokul2181]

Enduring love for literature - The Hindu

New Post has been published on https://jordarnews.in/enduring-love-for-literature-the-hindu/

Enduring love for literature - The Hindu

Dr. G.S. Amur, who passed away recently at the age of 95, occupies a unique position among the literary critics in Kannada. This exceptional scholar and critic was not swayed by the demands of literary/social movements and stuck to the canons of literary theory and criticism

Gururaja Shyamacharya Amur’s (1925-2020) departure acquires a symbolic dimension in view of the anti-intellectual and anti-academic atmosphere that pervades the contemporary literary scenario in Karnataka. Cultural polemics based on societal and political issues and an effervescent creativity that relies more on experiences, ideas and attitudes rather than a meaningful dialogue with language are vying with one another to gain attention. These forces are abetted by media which revel in exaggeration and adulations.

Dr. Amur who excelled as a scholar and literary critic for seven decades was a brilliant student with a firm grounding in English, Sanskrit and Kannada. He obtained a doctoral degree in English for his much-celebrated treatise, ‘The Concept of Comedy: A Restatement’ (1963) and occupied various academic positions in Karnatak University, Dharwad and Marathwada University, Aurangabad. He had stints of academic research in Yale University and Santa Barbara University, California as a Senior Fulbright scholar (1972-73). He was sponsored by the British Council to work as a researcher in the United Kingdom. He was awarded the D.Litt. degree by Karnatak University in 2012.

He laid greater emphasis on his writings in English prior to his retirement and shifted his focus towards Kannada literary criticism, thereafter. He was slightly disillusioned with literature as an institution during the last decade of his life and pursued philosophical and spiritual pursuits as evident by his works on Mahabharata, Bhagavad-Gita and Dakshinamurthy Stotra. However, all these phases were suffused with academic rigour and his major interests were interwoven.

Dr. Amur occupies a unique position among the literary critics in Kannada. He was not swayed by the demands of literary/social movements and stuck to the canons of literary theory and criticism as practiced in the West, even though he was familiar with the tenets Indian Poetics. He could apply the theory and the tools obtained there to Kannada literary works belonging to various genres. His scholarship was not confined to the British and American varieties of literary practices and encompassed the continental modes also. He did not enter the portals of now prevalent cultural criticism and managed to have his say without any bias. But academic scholarship if it becomes an end in itself, could prevent a critic from observing emergent social patterns and the consequent creative modes.

Dr Amur has published about thirty books in English. They constitute three domains. He has written extensively on Indian writers in English. He has edited many books containing essays that serve the purposes of pedagogy. He has done yeoman service to Karnataka by translating many literary classics from Kannada into English. They include, ‘The Spider and the Web’ a very competent translation of many important poems by poet Da.Ra. Bendre. He has translated novels such as ‘Sandhyaraaga’ by A.N. Krishna Rao and ‘Om Namo’ by Shantinatha Desai. His monographs on Manohar Malgonkar, A.N. Krishna Rao, Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre and Shantinath Desai serve as useful introductions to the writers and their oeuvre. ‘T.S. Eliot’s Poetics’, ‘Ideas and Images’ and ‘Saints and Poets’ all the three published by Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta, represent Amur’s foray into more theoretical topics.

Noted critic Giraddi Govindraj releasing collection of plays of Girish Karnad and a book by G.S. Amur at a function organised by Manohar Granthmala in Dharwad.  

Amur has carved a niche for himself in Kannada as a literary critic of enduring merit. He has published forty odd books all of them dealing with literary criticism. He has adapted various modes of writing such as Book Reviews, literary biographies, practical criticism, literary theory et al. It is a matter of curiosity that all his writings are confined to modern Kannada literature. Pre-modern Kannada literature spanning ten centuries is conspicuous by its absence in his literary musings. However, he has written extensively about fiction, poetry, drama, criticism and other literary forms. Fiction was his forte, as evidenced by well-thumbed volumes surveying Kannada novels and short stories. He made it a point to study a writer in all aspects of his life and writings as a continuum. ‘Bhuvanada Bhagya’ a full-length study of the life and works of Da.Ra. Bendre, won him the prestigious Central Sahitya Akademi award. This is pioneering work tracing the evolution of a writer through his entire career and evaluating his works in their entirety. It goes to the credit of this great writer that he could write another book ‘Ommukha’ delineating Bendre’s poetics and discussing the merits of his translations. He has written similar analytical and objective books on Kuvempu, Shriranga and U.R. Ananthamurthy.

Prof. Amur was deeply concerned about the themes and forms of literary works. He was interested in the internal dynamics of a work caused by literary devices such as metaphor, image and stylistic idiosyncrasies. He could also trace the evolution of a writer during his career. His vast reading and an ability to retrieve them at will helped him in making comparative assessment. He could overcome regional and personal bias unlike many of his illustrious peers. His writings on Kuvempu in general and ‘Sri Ramayana Darshanam’ in particular, bear witness to this. Similarly, he could transcend literary movements and write about great writers such as Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Shivarama Karanth, Yashwant Chittal, Lankesh, Tejasvi, Devanuru Mahadeva, Veena Shanteshvara and Vaidehi with equal concern and competence. Amur was intellectually so active till the very end, and his huge volume on Dakshinamurthy Stotram came out early this year.

Amur preferred the matter of fact, academic writing and did not seek limelight at any point of time. Nor did he aspire to be the darling of the media and crowds by making deliberate controversial statements. He was not a great orator, but had the desire of a teacher who wants to communicate, in fact, he was very stimulating in personal conversations. Success, in terms of awards and accolades did not come to him as a matter of course. He had to wait for them. He has received Central Akademi Award, Pampa Prashasti, Rajyotsava Award, Nrupatunga Award, and Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Lifetime Award and many other prizes.

I had the fortune of meeting him frequently after he shifted his residence to Bangalore because we lived in the same locality. We used to have long conversations mostly about academic and cultural issues. Lately, he was more concerned about life in its philosophical aspects. He was drawn towards Indian Philosophy in its myriad aspects. He used to remember Dr. Subbaramaiah, a professor of Nuclear Physics and his spiritual mentor with great reverence and fondness. I do not want to forget his affection for me. I represent many of his students scattered all over the country. We should celebrate the life of pious persons like Dr. Amur rather than mourn his death. It’s my wish to end this note by recording my tributes to his late wife, Shantha Amur, who held a degree in Physics and was an abiding source of inspiration to him.

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[indizombie]

When the BJP-led NDA came to power in 1998, the government of India's human resource development minister Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi included 'Priesthood and Ritualism' into school curriculum. During his time, astrology began to be taught instead of science-based astronomy. Learning how to perform the Putrakameshthi Yajna, a (Vedic) ritual to get a male child was also introduced. They are inculcating unfounded beliefs and foolishness into children's minds. Recalling Golwalkar's call for involvement in RSS activities to be essentially devoid of any critical thinking and discernment, once they are in power, they have set about implementing this in children's education. Recently, CBSE has removed several topics from their syllabus. Of these, topics such as democracy and diversity, impact of globalization on agriculture, popular (mass), movements and communalism were removed from the Class 10 syllabus. It is for this kind of school curriculum excisions that the RSS has nurtured one of its offsprings, the 'Shiksha Sanskriti Uttahn Nyas. It has consistently been pressurizing NCERT to remove from textbooks, allusions to 'the former prime minister Manmohan Singh's magnanimous apology for the Sikh riots', and the 'killing of around two thousand Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat riots'. This is their chicanery.

Devanuru Mahadeva, 'RSS: Depth & Breadth'

[indizombie]

Today, there is a sense of urgency and a special responsibility on these organisations to unmask the various guises of these retrograde groups who have created a big illusion of being the majority, but are actually a minority, which is advocating for the diabolical Chaturvarna system from our ancient past; their true colours need to be revealed to society. For this, in spite of all their other struggles, the ones leading need to be aware. At least now, organisations that seek to move our society forwards need to coordinate better amongst them, look beyond their small streams and unite into flowing river. For this, they need to let go of this disease of brahminical superiority. Inflated ego too needs to be jettisoned. One has to humbly accept that there may be many different paths to the goal. Singular rogue leadership has to be discarded. Instead of the pettiness of doing it for one's own/organisation's glory, we should seek a broad-based alliance, for the survival of the constitutional principles, for safeguarding pluralism and our federal system which is the life-soul of India, for participatory democracy in which all the citizens participate, for realizing the culture of tolerance, for the love of equality of coexistence without superiority or inferiority. Justice ought to thrive in our society. Mixing with communities and wider society ought to bring a new lease of life to all of us.

Devanuru Mahadeva, 'RSS: Depth & Breadth'

[indizombie]

Indira Gandhi of the (Indian National) Congress too was briefly dictatorial. This was only for a brief period, and her dictatorship was only administrative. During Indira's brief dictatorial stint, the judiciary, executive, the press, and autonomous institutions were not rendered impotent as today. However, under Modi's rule today, the judiciary, executive, the press and autonomous institutions are struggling for survival. The dream rule of the RSS has begun to annex all spaces of our society. This means that they (seek to) rule over (political) party, society, culture, executive… all of these. This is universal and unrestricted authority!

Devanuru Mahadeva, 'RSS: Depth & Breadth'

[lyricsraaga]

ಒಡಲಾಳ - ದೇವನೂರು ಮಹಾದೇವ | ಭಾಗ 1 | Odalaala by Devanuru Mahadeva | Odalaala Summary | Odalaala Story

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ಕುಸುಮಬಾಲೆ - ದೇವನೂರು ಮಹಾದೇವ | Kusumabaale by Devanuru Mahadeva | Kannada Novels | Kusumabale Story