Frayed Lines, directed by Kannada film director, Priya Belliappa, won the best short film award in the Karnataka competition section of the 10th edition of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF).
Tabu, an Assamese migrant worker, who has journeyed 2,000 km to work on a Coorg coffee plantation, frets that she has no documents to prove her citizenship back home. “I don’t even know the identity of my parents, where will I get a birth certificate?” she asks herself bitterly, worried that she may be forced to leave her country.
A young Kadappa, who has a PhD and comes from a poor Kodava (as people from Coorg are known) family, prefers to work on a coffee plantation plucking coffee seeds, earning Rs 700 a day rather than getting a job in the big city.
These two characters who don’t speak a common language strike up a silent ‘connection’ and set off on a journey to migrate to the city. This is the crux of the multi-layered, nuanced short film, Frayed Lines, directed by Kannada film director, Priya Belliappa that won the best short film award in the Karnataka competition section of the 10th edition of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). “It was an obvious choice,” said Anand Varadaraj, festival director, who adds that the festival entries got more traction this year.
This Oscar Academy accredited film fest, held completely online for the first time, had nearly 6,500 viewers who had logged in to watch the 150 films streaming on their website. (as compared to the 1,000 registrations for their offline event last year).
In a conversation with Firstpost, Frayed Lines director, Priya Belliappa too admits that she was surprised by the ‘amazing response’ she had received from the four-day online fest as opposed to a theatre screening, which would be limited to a geographical location.
“It is also not a straight-forward narrative but still people understood the film’s premise, the silences and spaces and connected with it,” remarks the director, who made her debut in Kannada cinema with a commercial movie, Ring Road, based on a high-profile crime involving a young law student, Shubha Shankarnarayan, who was found guilty of masterminding the murder of her fiancée.
Frayed Lines, which is a slice-of-life movie, was shot in early 2019 much before the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) had become a national conversation. While researching for her film, Beliappa had met Assamese migrants who felt helpless without proper documents and she wanted to capture that ‘helplessness’.
The character of the troubled Assamese migrant worker, portrayed brilliantly by talented actress Gitanjali Thapa, reflects on her surreal situation with these words: ‘In these uncertain times of blurred and broken lines, strange is the land that you don’t belong. Stranger that I have lived within these boundaries all my life.’
Gitanjali Thapa in a still from Frayed Lines
According to Belliappa, her film however is not a direct comment on the ‘complex’ issue of the NRC. “I just wanted to tell the story of people who don’t have official documents for various reasons. I wanted to explore their emotional state of mind as they grapple with being suddenly told they don’t belong in their own country.”
Belliappa had stumbled upon the subject when she was exploring the coffee estates on a visit to her hometown Coorg, after she had completed her first feature film. She had built up a visual diary of people working on a coffee plantation and found enough material to make a film. The film also draws attention to the language dilemma migrant workers face in the coffee plantations, where people largely converse in Kodava takk.
The short film effectively captures the local flavor of a Coorg coffee plantation with real labourers working beside the two protagonists, which includes Kannada actor, Avinash Mudappa. For that reason, it is a ‘fiction immersed in reality’, explains Belliappa, who expects to take the story of the same couple in Frayed Lines forward when she makes her feature film.
The short film gave her the opportunity to explore the subject in all its dimensions. “Shorts give you creative freedom but unfortunately are not recognised in India like in Europe. Slowly, however that is changing with more festivals and more experimentation in the digital medium,” says Belliappa, who is comfortable in any format as long as she is wielding the camera.
Belliappa, who has a background in design and has beenan art director for O&M in Sri Lanka made a career switch mid-way after enrolling herself in FTII in Pune in 2003. Incidentally, Belliappa’s diploma film, Hazy Grey Skies, which has been screened in international fests, including the Karlovy Vary, featured actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pataal Lok protagonist Jaideep Ahlawat. The film is about a monsoon-drenched day in the life of a Mumbai taxi driver, played by Siddiqui.
Belliappa is a film-maker who loves to challenge convention and age-old prejudices. She is an admirer of British comic actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her series Fleabag. “I love the way she is able to say the unpleasant without squirming. Her characters are flawed but she shows them for who they are. I want to be able to break down my prejudices and freely explore negative dimensions of a person without restraint,” says Belliappa, who is further inspired by Waller-Bridge’s brilliant writing and for breaking the glass ceiling barriers in Hollywood. She is one of the co-writers for the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die. (Waller was brought in by actor Daniel Craig to liven up the script) “Women in Hollywood too are fighting for their space in a male-dominated industry,” she points out wryly.
Back in 2015, Belliappa too defied convention in south Indian cinema and roped in an all-women crew to make her film, Ring Road. It didn’t take her long to realise that she was the only woman on set while working as an associate director in a Kannada film, I am Sorry Mathe Banni Preethisona, which went on to win state awards.
“This effort started a conversation in a male-dominated industry. Many people would drop by our set to comment on how well the crew was managing the set,” she says, adding the rider that it is however talent and hard work that matters and not gender.
source: http://www.firstpost.com / FirstPost.com / Home> Entertainment News / by Kavitha Shanmugam / September 06th, 2020
An outburst of saxophone flurries sits you straight up in your chair. The tone is rich but with a cutting edge.
It has to be Rudresh Mahanthappa. The riveting cry of his alto saxophone is one of the most recognizable sounds in jazz.
But those darting runs coalesce into Charlie Parker’s “Red Cross.” So it can’t be Mahanthappa, can it? He has made 15 straight albums of original music. He doesn’t do covers, right?
On his 16th recording, Hero Trio, Mahanthappa breaks through to the past—his and ours. He proudly proclaims Parker’s bebop—but then “Red Cross” flies apart, into free showers of 16th notes. It is startling to hear Mahanthappa playing songs you know, even lilting ones like Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed” and time-honored standards like “I Can’t Get Started.” Of course, his versions do not stay lilting or standard for long. By the sixth track, you’re ready for anything—except “Ring of Fire.” Rudresh Mahanthappa doing a Johnny Cash song? There must be a story there.
The story begins in Colorado—specifically, Boulder. Mahanthappa’s father is a noted theoretical physicist who came to the United States from India to get a Ph.D. at Harvard and stayed in the American academic world, settling at the University of Colorado. The school’s website says that K. T. Mahanthappa is “interested in grand unification theories, fermion mixing and masses including charge fermions and neutrinos.” His son Rudresh shares a proclivity for the intellectually challenging and the arcane, but in 16th notes, not neutrinos. (There are two more sons in this high-achieving family, both with Ph.D.s in the sciences.)
Mahanthappa grew up in Boulder, listening to people like Stevie Wonder. He started on alto saxophone in the fourth grade. He matriculated at the University of North Texas in 1988, right after it changed its name from North Texas State. The school had a reputation for turning out notable jazz musicians. Billy Harper, Lyle Mays, Bob Belden, and David Weiss went there. So did Norah Jones, briefly. (So did Meat Loaf, briefly, though presumably not in the jazz program.) Snarky Puppy started there.
Mahanthappa was not happy at North Texas. He says, “For me it was an uncreative place. There was kind of one way of doing things. And as a brown person in Texas, I never felt comfortable.” After two years, he transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston, a school even better known for turning out notable jazz musicians. “I had always wanted to study with Joe Viola, who was one of the great American master teachers of the saxophone. Berklee was more the vibe I needed.”
When he took his degree in 1992, he did not, like so many Berklee graduates, relocate immediately to New York City. “I wanted to go to a big city that wasn’t New York, and Chicago was a place you could play a lot.” He entered a master’s program at DePaul University. By 1997, he was ready to make the move. “I always said I wanted to play with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette someday, and that was never going to happen if I stayed in Chicago. In the mid-’90s, you had to be in New York.”
Mahanthappa hit the jazz radar not long after arriving in town, when he joined forces with pianist Vijay Iyer. They began gigging and making records, some led by Iyer (Blood Sutra on Pi Recordings; Panoptic Modes, reissued on Pi), some led by Mahanthappa (Mother Tongue, Pi), some co-led (Raw Materials, Savoy). Today, Mahanthappa and Iyer are two of the most respected, most decorated musicians in jazz.
They dominate the critics’ polls in the alto saxophone and piano categories, respectively, and most years appear at or near the top of categories like “musician of the year” and “album of the year.”
Back at the turn of the millennium, though, they were up-and-coming players who were unusual for two reasons: There were few Indian-American jazz musicians, and they played strange stuff. Iyer is an autodidact who has always had his own percussive, polyrhythmic piano language. As for Mahanthappa, when you listen to his early recordings now, he already sounds like no one else. He already has that sublime alto saxophone shriek. His art is already dizzying in its diversity, juxtaposing melodicism and dissonance, formal focus and freedom. In his playing, you hear intimations of many moments in saxophone history, from primary sources (Coltrane, Coleman), to footnotes (Jimmy Lyons, Sonny Simmons). You also hear lyricism in beautiful new jagged shapes.
All the unfamiliar sonorities led many listeners, including critics, to assume that Mahanthappa and Iyer were bringing Indian influences into their jazz. “Not so much,” Mahanthappa says. “I knew very little about Indian music at that time. When I was a kid, my mother sometimes played bhajans on Sunday mornings. They were like Hindu hymns. She had this stack of 45s. But that was it. When I became a musician, I mostly ran the other way. I got tired of people expecting me to be an expert on Indian music.”
But a revelation occurred while he was at Berklee. He went to India to play with a Berklee student band at Jazz Yatra, a festival that no longer exists. “It was my first time in India in over 10 years, my first time going as an adult, without my parents. And I was going there to play music. It was a lot to deal with. I was terrified. I was confronting head-on all these questions: ‘How Indian are you? How American are you?’ It was a mindfuck. Then I went to an all-night event in Bangalore. There is a tradition in India of concerts that go all night, ’til dawn. What I heard blew me away. It was unbelievable. I found out later that some of the greats of Indian classical music had performed that night, both Hindustani and Carnatic. I went to record stores the next day and bought as many cassettes and CDs as I could carry. And that’s about all I listened to for a couple of years.”
When Mahanthappa made the recordings with Iyer in the early 2000s, he was not yet ready to incorporate Indian elements into his work: “I kept thinking, ‘How do you put these things together and still maintain reverence and integrity?’ Because I knew that Indian symbolism and iconography had mostly been engaged very superficially in jazz. For a jazz group to bring in a tabla player did not automatically result in a cross-cultural collaboration. I knew I wanted to create something that didn’t sound like cut-and-paste. If I was going to deal with Indian rhythms or Indian melodic content, it had to be integrated.”
The turning point came in 2005, when he again traveled to India, this time to Chennai, on a commission. He spent time with Kadri Gopalnath, who played Mahanthappa’s instrument, the alto saxophone, but in a style that was decidedly non-Western. Gopalnath employed microtones derived from the Carnatic music of southern India. After Mahanthappa made another trip to India on a Guggenheim grant, he felt ready to record with Indian musicians. The result was Kinsmen, his collaboration with Gopalnath, released on Pi in 2008 to widespread astonishment and praise. Two dissimilar musical cultures, both prioritizing improvisation and energy, meet and commingle organically. Mahanthappa visits ragas and quarter tones, and Gopalnath visits bebop and the blues. They whip all these ingredients into wild eight- and four-bar exchanges and wailing, extended joint ventures.
Kinsmen was important, but it was a one-off project. Around the same time, Mahanthappa formed another ensemble that drew deeply on his Indian heritage, a trio that continues to the present day. Indo-Pak Coalition is two Americans with roots in the Indian subcontinent (Mahanthappa and guitarist Rez Abbasi, born in Pakistan), and a third American, Dan Weiss, who studied for 20 years with tabla master Pandit Samir Chatterjee. Their album Apti (Innova, 2009) expanded upon the cross-cultural explorations of Kinsmen. (They released a second album, Agrima, in 2017, available as a digital download or double LP from Mahanthappa’s website (rudreshm.com) and from HDtracks.com.)
was American Songbook standards and the pop music of his youth. He says, “There was a part of me that always wanted to record standards. But when I was younger, I guess I had a certain agenda, certain ideas and energies that I wanted to get out there in the world. I didn’t want to be just one more saxophone player doing ‘Now’s the Time’ [Charlie Parker’s bebop classic]. I felt like I had a perspective that would not come across effectively if I played ‘I’ll Remember April.'”
It took Mahanthappa a long time to record with Indian musicians, and it took him even longer to record “I’ll Remember April.” But there it is, the seventh track on Hero Trio. When you hear it now, it is unclear why he had once feared that such a song would not allow his “perspective” to “come across effectively.” The perspective on “I’ll Remember April” is radical and personal. It opens with a commanding bass announcement from Franáois Moutin and violent drum detonations from Rudy Royston. Then Mahanthappa fires quick blasts that soon run together into long spilling arcs. It is a rush when Gene de Paul’s time-honored melody clarifies out of abstraction. Mahanthappa hits “I’ll Remember April” hard then spins off it for free, blistering runs, then returns to the song with fervent embellishments.
In our present jazz era, it is common for albums, especially those by younger musicians, to contain all or mostly all originals. But skilled players far outnumber gifted composers. Mahanthappa analyzes the problem this way: “A lot of new players today are coming out of academic settings. There is a kind of unspoken checklist of things you’re supposed to do. One is compose. Everyone puts ‘composer’ in their title now.” Mahanthappa’s exclusive preference for recording original music was understandable in his first 15 albums. He was defending a unique aesthetic position, and he was an accomplished composer. But Hero Trio opens new vistas. It turns out that “I’ll Remember April” does not limit jazz creativity. The opposite is true: The song provides a base pattern embedded within Mahanthappa’s own vast design. He can glance off the form, using it as a touchpoint, a known frame of reference, one resonant with historical associations.
The other covers (if “covers” is the term for such unbridled acts) also lead to inspirations of memory. “Ring of Fire,” with a new beat in the third measure, is the most surprising choice, but Mahanthappa says Johnny Cash was vital to his childhood. Charlie Parker was vital from his adolescence onward. He made a widely praised Parker tribute in 2015, Bird Calls, on the ACT label, but at that time he was still committed to recording his own material. Bird Calls has music motivated by, not composed by, Parker. The decision to record three Bird tunes on Hero Trio is significant. (Besides “Red Cross,” the others are “Barbados” and “Dewey Square.”) Mahanthappa burns these iconic themes into the air then repurposes them in his own vivid timbre and energy. Perhaps the piece that is most literally a cover is Ornette Coleman’s great lament, “Sadness.” Mahanthappa’s version is faithful, concise, and passionate.
Mahanthappa has played with Moutin in various settings for more than 20 years. His association with Royston goes back to 1991, in Colorado. But until the new album, they had never played together as a trio. The saxophone trio with bass and drums is one of the foundational formats in jazz. Trios led by Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano (and, more recently, J.D. Allen) are important examples. Mahanthappa, with a few brief, minor exceptions, has bypassed the format—until now.
Moutin and Royston are extraordinary on Hero Trio. Their aggression establishes drama, even before Mahanthappa enters. Moutin reminds you of David Izenzon with Ornette Coleman. Izenzon was the first bassist who proved that it was not only okay, it was levitational, for a bassist to play so many notes, to become a semi-autonomous whirlwind of energy within a jazz ensemble. Mahanthappa says, “I always wanted to make a classic saxophone trio record. And I always wanted to make an album of music that was not my own. I realized that now was the time, for both. François and Rudy and I are so connected. Anything you play with them sounds fresh.”
He explains how, in live performance, the three of them developed a system of cues: “I play a melodic figure that cues a particular bass line, a certain groove. And the idea is that we can vibe on that for a while and then I’ll start playing a tune, a standard, and everybody will kind of fall in. Then I’ll cue another bass line. Let’s say I have six or seven of these cues. You can play a whole set of standards that are bridged together by these grooves. It works really well live. It’s very organized but it sounds sort of stream-of-consciousness. It puts an original light on standards. The challenge with this album was, ‘How do you capture that spontaneous thing that happens live on a studio recording, a five-minute track?'”
“I Can’t Get Started” shows how the trio meets this challenge. A quick melodic flourish from Mahanthappa, repeated twice, indeed cues a groove, an ominous, slow ostinato from Moutin. Then Mahanthappa floats in over the groove. He is playing the alto saxophone, but the sound comes from so far east of Boulder that he might be playing the double-reed shehnai of India. His wavering, hypnotic lines suggest distant ancient ceremonies and processionals. A song by Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke is transformed. The transformation could only be imagined by someone who grew up in the presence of the American Songbook, was sent on a mission by Charlie Parker, ventured outside of Parker, then returned to where he started, on a passage that included a stop at an all-night concert in Bangalore.
“I Can’t Get Started” is the closing of a circle. Ideally, it would have been a live album. (Surprisingly, Mahanthappa has never made one.) He says, “The original plan was to play a club somewhere for maybe four nights and record everything and then figure out what the record should be.” For various practical and logistical reasons, the plan was abandoned. Hero Trio was recorded by engineer David Amlen at Sound on Sound Studios in Montclair, New Jersey, within long walking distance of Mahanthappa’s home. The upside (as is often the case when weighing the pros and cons of live vs studio recordings) is the sound. Sonically, the album is dynamic and visceral. You are close enough to Mahanthappa’s alto saxophone to reach out and touch it. The mix by Liberty Ellman brings the bass and drums far forward—appropriate given the centrality of Moutin and Royston to this trio’s impact.
You can’t talk to a jazz musician in mid-2020 without inquiring about how the global pandemic has affected their life and work. Mahanthappa says, “This was supposed to be a big touring year for me. I had some major stuff lined up, including a long tour with a project for the Charlie Parker centennial.” (It involved an all-star band co-led with Terri Lyne Carrington and was called “Fly Higher: Charlie Parker @ 100.”) “Of course, everything got cancelled. But I’m doing okay. I’ve been teaching at Princeton for four years now, so I’m less dependent on income from touring. My wife is a therapist, and she has been able to do that from home, by Zoom or whatever. Her field is actually one that ramps up in times like these. I’m more concerned for all my good friends and colleagues who rely mostly on performing. I’m glad that a lot of organizations have mobilized to help.”
When told that many musicians report an unprecedented availability of practice time while sheltering in place, he speculates, “They must not have young children.” (He has a son and a daughter, ages 7 and 4.)
“I imagine the trio will probably do a bunch of touring to support the new album in 2021.” We can only hope.
source: http://www.stereophile.com / Stereophile / Home> Music and Recording Features / by Thomas Conrad / September 04th, 2020
Tasked with curating the India episode of ‘Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted’, Anurag Mallick & Priya Ganapathy wondered what food adventures could they dish out to a
Gordon Ramsay is no stranger to India. In his 2010 series Gordon’s Great Escape, he learnt Lucknowi biryani, Rajasthani khud gosht, Bastar’s chapda chutney to blood sausages in Nagaland. In South India, he tried sattvik fare and cooked on a houseboat in Kumarakom. For Uncharted, Gordon would undertake a culinary adventure in remote parts of the world learning food secrets from emerging chefs and locals, ending in a Big Cook with his take on the region’s cuisine.
The Season 2 of the series would take him to Tasmania, South Africa, Louisiana, Guyana, West Sumatra, Norway and one wondered how India would match up. We drove via Coorg to Kannur in mid-October last year on a weeklong recce. The Mapilas, Kerala’s second-largest community, are known for their unique cuisine. But Uncharted went beyond the food to the source with emphasis on foraging.
Though kakka irachi (fried clams) is a kallu shaap (toddy shop) favourite, Valiyaparamba backwaters where women dove in shallow riverbeds for the elambakka (clams) was too far north. Kannur’s legendary thattukadas (food stalls) serve typical Malabari snacks like pazham pori (banana fritters) and ari kaduka — green mussels stuffed with rice dough. At Ezhara Beach, local fishermen rued the late monsoon’s effect on the sea’s salinity and the reduced spawning of the kallumakai (green mussels).They ventured on a two-hour boat ride to rocks mid-sea for a sizeable catch, holding their breaths for 4-5 minutes in each dive. Too dangerous and time-consuming!
Coorg Pandi curry
Our friends Nasir and Rosie acquainted us with some local fishermen. The best kallumakai came from Thottada and none knew these waters better than 70-year-old Moiuddin or Moidu ka. His group used the caravela or dragnet technique — two men waded in to spread out a wide net that the crew dragged in an arc to dredge the catch ashore. Moidu ran an eatery in Bengaluru before he settled for a quiet life by the sea. “Those were wild days when he was “Yeshwantpur ka Don,” his vivacious wife Shakila teased the mellowed Moidu, clearly showing who was boss now! He humoured her by baring his battle-scarred body — reminders of drunken brawls at his eatery. We told them about a crazy British chef who would learn the ropes from him —perhaps Shakila could teach him a fish curry? On the itinerary was a kachhkada serving fruit pickled in brine and chilli. Just the spice test Gordon needed (though he never made it to the kachh, a fiery red tamarind chutney used as a topping.)
In Coorg, we were early to harvest honey with the Jenu Kurubas. Monsoon-centric activities like hunting for bemble (bamboo shoot), kumme (mushrooms), kembu (colocasia) and termay (fiddlehead fern) or collecting ripe Garcinia fruits to make kachampuli, Coorg’s signature black vinegar, was out. Seasonality dictated our choices and we couldn’t ask Gordon to come back in the rains! Coorg’s legendary pandi (pork) curry was on the menu but didn’t really have a foraging or adventure angle. Besides coffee, bitter limes would be in season, so we opted for chutta kaipuli pajji — the smoky flavoured chutney made with roasted bitter lime and Kodagu’s delicious kumbla (pumpkin) curry.
Vonekk Yerchi or smoked pork
On the pre-shoot scout in mid-November, the production team unanimously chose Coorg as the Big Cook locale. The network zeroed in on Chef Sri Bala from Chennai, an authority on ancient Chola cuisine and Kerala local Harish. The India shoot was sandwiched between Indonesia and Guyana.
Come coffee picking season, estate workers are beset by ant nests. Enter chigli (Weaver Ant) chutney, a dish not native to the Kodavas but consumed by the Gowda community from neighbouring Malnad. He dubbed his attempt to catch the ant nest ‘the funniest TikTok dance ever’. Pavithra from Mudigere helped us make the chutney in a grindstone. Eventually, chigli chutney was the ace up Gordon’s sleeve though he didn’t bargain for the ants in his pants! At the Big Cook, the graceful Kodava ladies fearlessly critiqued his pandi curry. “Less kachampuli, more spice… ’cos we are all spicy ladies,” they chimed in. Ramsay promised to return with his mum. The latest in the grapevine is that he plans to open a restaurant in Kerala! Wouldn’t that be a coup?
IAS Officer Annies Kanmani Joy, a native of Kerala, who is serving as the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kodagu district in Karnataka for the past two years, celebrated Onam, the harvest festival of her native State, at the DC Bungalow in Madikeri, Kodagu.
The DC, attired in traditional costume, is seen making Pookalam (‘poov’ meaning flower and ‘kalam’ means colour sketches — floral rangoli) in the portico of her house this morning as part of the celebrations.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Photo News / August 31st, 2020
In a significant judgement regarding restoration work of monuments at Madikeri in Kodagu district, the Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to take up permanent restoration work of the ancient Fort, Palace premises and tombs (Gadduge) of Kodagu Kings at Madikeri town, the district headquarters of Kodagu, while also asking it not to levy service charge to the State Government for carrying out the work.
A Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi, which heard a PIL filed by J.S. Virupakshaiah, a retired IAS Officer and a resident of Kodlipet in Somwarpet taluk in Kodagu district in 2017, directed the Kodagu Deputy Commissioner to nominate an officer not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner to frequently visit the site of the monuments.
Instructing the officer to be designated to take up the issue with ASI if he/ she finds that the work is not carried out as per the DPR (Detailed Project Report), the bench also directed that the Assistant Commissioner shall submit a report as regards the status of the emergency work and also the status of major restoration or repair works.
Observing that it is a great deal of importance that the said work is carried out efficiently, properly and expeditiously as it is the duty of the ASI to ensure that the protected monuments are restored and maintained, the HC Bench directed the ASI to complete all emergency works within Oct. 14, 2020.
On the service charge issue, the Court directed the ASI, which had contemplated a 23.7 percent service charge on the State Government, not to levy the service charge for carrying out the restoration or repair work.
Noting that there is no justification at all for the ASI to levy service charge to the State Government, the Bench held that the ASI is not empowered and also not entitled to collect service charge from the State Govt.
The petitioner J.S. Virupakshaiah, in his PIL (Public Interest Litigation), had contended that instead of preserving the protected monuments, the State Government had been running its offices on the Palace premises.
However, during the course of the PIL hearing, the District Administration vacated the offices of Social Welfare Department, Land Records Department and District Library from the ancient Palace premises and had handed over the premises to ASI.
Also, following directions of the Court from time to time, the State Government has released Rs.10.76 crore for permanent works as per the DPR.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / August 26th, 2020
The management of Kodava Samaja, Mysuru, has decided not to hold the annual get-together function of Kailpoldh Festival-2020 in view of COVID-19 pandemic and has decided to convene the Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of 2019-20 on Dec. 20, 2020, according to a press release from the Kodava Samaja Hon. Secretary M.M. Ponnappa.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> In Briefs / August 28th, 2020
Every year, lakhs of devotees visit Talacauvery and Bhagamandala to offer prayers to goddess Cauvery. (News18 Kannada)
The Deputy Commissioner of Kodagu, Anees Kanmani Joy has informed the Kodavas that she would discuss their demand at the highest level and would try to find a solution at the earliest.
The recent torrential rains and landslide resulted in the deaths of the chief priest and his family members at Talacauvery, the birthplace of river Cauvery. The Brahmin priest Narayana Achar, his wife and three other family members perished in a huge landslide, last week.
Now, the Kodava community, the natives of the hilly district, have demanded that the state government should return priestly duties to them from the Brahmins. Locals fear that if this issue is not dealt with carefully, it might lead to a legal battle which could take on a political colour.
Every year, lakhs of devotees visit Talacauvery and Bhagamandala to offer prayers to goddess Cauvery. Amma Kodavas, a priestly class among the Kodavas have made an official request to the Deputy Commissioner of the district in this regard.
According to them, the pooja and all other associated rituals at Talacauvery were handled by Amma Kodavas for centuries and the Brahmins had no role in Kodava religious traditions and rituals. About 150 years ago, after the annexation of princely state of Kodagu or Coorg by the British in mid-19th century, the priestly jobs were transferred to the Brahmins from the neighbouring Mysore kingdom.
Since then, the Brahmins have been conducting all religious activities at Talacauvery, which is a holy place for the Kodavas and other communities. According to Amma Kodava community leader Bananda N Prathyu, their community had transferred the rights of worship to Brahmins due to certain reasons. However, they argue that there are hundreds of historical records to prove their claims that Amma Kodavas have an ancient connection with river Cauvery and its origins.
“We are the original inhabitants of Kodagu district. We are nature worshippers. Cauvery is our goddess. We have the first right to worship at Talacauvery and Igguthappa temple”, he said.
After the tragic death of priest Narayana Achar and his wife, their two daughters who live in Australia, rushed back home to perform their parents’ last rites.
According to a report in the Kannada daily Vijayavani, when the local government officials issued a compensation in their names, they informed them that they are no longer Hindus and have converted to Christianity. This revelation has now created a furore among the devotees of Cauvery. Since the deceased priest was a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP), this has now taken a political colour with opposition parties questioning BJP’s commitment to Hinduism.
The priest’s daughters have declined to comment on the conversion and have gone incommunicado. Local Tahasildar has confirmed that their given names and names on record don’t match.
The Deputy Commissioner of Kodagu, Anees Kanmani Joy has informed the Kodavas that she would discuss their demand at the highest level and would try to find a solution at the earliest.
However, some fringe groups are opposing the handing over of the temple to Kodavas, by calling it a violation of old tradition. Kodagu, Karnataka’s tiny district is known as the coffee bowl of India. With its deep forests, rivers, waterfalls and hills, Kodagu is also known as the Scotland of Karnataka.
It was ruled by the Lingayat Kings from the Haleri dynasty till 1830s. The last King Chikka Veera Rajendra was a despot and the British exploited the resentment among his subjects to annex Kodagu with British India. The deposed King was sent to Vellore in Tamil Nadu and later Benares, now Varanasi, to keep him away from his subjects.
Hoping to get his Kingdom back, Chikka Veera Rajendra travelled to England to lobby with Queen Victoria and the British Parliament. After his efforts to secure the Kingdom failed, a dejected King died in London and was buried there. His granddaughter Victoria Gowramma, whose only son died in the First World War, breathed her last in London in 1930s ending the line of succession.
The British ruled Coorg/Kodagu as a separate state for over a century till 1947. It was a separate state with an Assembly till 1956. In 1956, Kodagu was merged with Karnataka State. The martial race of Kodavas have produced two of India’s best Army Chiefs Field Marshal KM Cariappa and General KS Thimmaya. They have their own language Kodava Thakk.
source: http://www.news18.com / News18 India / Home> News18> India / by DP Satish / August 26th, 2020
Berera Shambhu Aiyanna (73), former President of Bengaluru Kodava Samaja, a social worker and a resident of Vidyranyapura in Bengaluru, passed away early this morning at his residence.
He leaves behind his wife and two sons. Cremation was held this afternoon at Bengaluru.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Obituary / August 18th, 2020
Twenty years before the First War of Independence in 1857, there was the ‘Amara Sullia Dange’ or Kodagu- Canara Mutiny against the British government. This fight, which was labelled ‘Kalyanappana Katakayi’ (Loot of Kalyanappa), to tone down its significance, received unprecedented support from people in today’s Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka and Kumble region in Kerala.
After Tipu Sultan’s death in 1799, South Canara (Dakshina Kannada) passed into British hands. Neighbouring Kodagu, however, still maintained a precarious independence.
In 1834, the East India Company resolved to invade Kodagu, which was ruled by King Chikkaveera Rajendra of Haleri dynasty. On April 11, 1834, the political agent of the British at Mercara (Madikeri), Lieutenant Colonel J S Fraser, issued a proclamation annexing Kodagu into the British administration. Fraser also resolved to respect the social and religious customs of the locals, but the promise remained on paper.
The British introduced major economic, social, and even territorial changes in Kodagu, for their administrative convenience. Amara Sullia was separated from Kodagu and made part of South Canara district, which was then part of the Madras province. What further incensed the people was a change in the mode of tax payment, which was now to be made entirely in cash. The farmers were used to giving part of their produce as the tax, but the new system only added to their burden. Now, many of them refused to pay the tax outright.
After Kodagu’s annexation, there was a resistance movement planned. In 1835, Swamy Aparampara, a Jangama saint, appeared in Manjarabad in Hassan district and claimed that he was a legal heir to the Haleri throne.
Madikeri Fort
His plan was to attack and occupy Madikeri Fort on December 5, 1836. The people of Kodagu believed him to be the son of Appaji, who was the uncle of Chikkaveera Rajendra. Aparampara planned a resistance movement with the help of other rebellions including Kalyanaswamy, Kedambadi Rame Gowda and Guddemane Appayya Gowda. Aparampara visited Subrahmanya and met Kujugodu Appayya Gowda and Mallappa Gowda, the representatives of the Ikkeri dynasty. From there, they marched towards Madikeri with a battalion.
The British got wind of the plan and imprisoned Aparampara, with the aid of Kodagu’s Dewan, Cheppudira Ponnappa.
Now, the responsibility of the movement shifted onto the shoulders of Kalyanaswamy. He claimed to be the second son of Appaji and therefore, a member of the Haleri dynasty. Declared a king by his men, he popularised the movement by proclaiming that if he became the king, he would stop collecting revenue for the first three years and abolish the duties on commodities.
Dewan Ponnappa proved that Kalyanaswamy didn’t belong to the Haleri dynasty. However, the rebel leader remained popular and enjoyed support from local leaders.
Kalyanaswamy slowly extended the movement to Sullia and other parts of South Canara. Kedambadi Ramegowda of Sullia was primarily responsible for the organisation of rebellion in South Canara. When Kalyanaswamy was travelling from Kodlipet to Wayanad, he was captured by the British forces, though his imprisonment was concealed. His friend Putta Basappa posed as Kalyanappa and continued the rebellion.
Meanwhile, the resentment against the new tax policy continued, and Kedambadi Ramegowda and Nanjayya decided to start a rebellion in Sullia. They killed Atlur Ramappaya, the Amaldar (Agent) of Sullia, who was loyal to the British.
The battalion, headed by Kalyanappa (Putta Basappa), Kedambadi Ramegowda and others reached Bellare and attacked the British treasury. The rebels then reached Mangalore and hoisted the Haleri flag in ‘Bavutagudda’ on April 5, 1837, to mark their victory over the British.
In response, the British brought in reinforcements from Kannanur, and attacked the rebels. Several leaders were captured and killed, while a few others escaped. Putta Basappa and Appayya Gowda were hanged.
The British Commissioner Cotton, who submitted a report on the Canara Insurrection to the government in 1839, mentioned the movement was a furtherance of the Nagar Peasants’ Revolt of 1830-32, in present-day Shivamogga. “The Amara Sullia insurrection has the features of primary resistance, as well as peasants’ movement; the main intention was to drive away the colonial intruders,” says K R Vidyadhara, a lawyer in Madikeri who has studied the uprising.
A few scholars have conducted extensive studies on the Amara Sullia mutiny, with the incident even being portrayed in a Yakshagana performance called ‘Kalyanappana Katakayi’.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Spectrum> Spectrum Top Stories / by Charan Aivarnad / August 15th, 2020
Kodava Education Society Joint Secretary Chiriyapanda Raja Nanjappa inaugurates ‘Kodavame Padipu’ programme at CIT PU College in Ponnampet on Wednesday. Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy Chairperson Dr Parvathi Appaiah, Academy member Dr Mullengada Revathi
People are busy in agricultural activities during the month of Kakkada and also it keeps raining during the month. Hence, our ancestors imposed restrictions on holding auspicious programmes during Kakkada month, opined Kodava Sahitya Academy member Dr Mullengada Revathi Poovaiah.
Speaking during ‘Kodavame Padipu’ programme, organised by Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy, at Coorg Institute of Technology (CIT) in Ponnampet on Wednesday, she said that the youth should understand the reasons behind the religious rituals. “Our elders gave a lot of importance to indigenous food and used them during the rainy season. They planned their food according to the seasons,” Revathi added.
Inaugurating the programme, Kodava Education Society Joint Secretary Chiriyapanda Raja Nanjappa said it is believed that the Kodava tribe was present during the origination of River Cauvery and called upon the present generation to get acquainted with the local tradition and culture.
He further said, “The Jamma land is not government land. It is inherited by Kodavas from generations. Also, the gun is used for religious rituals in Kodava culture. However, our ancestors did not use a gun for fighting. Gun rights of Kodavas should be preserved, he added.
During the programme, the resource persons spoke on the importance of ‘Kakkada Padinett’, ‘Kakkada Tingalra Pudume’, ‘Kodava Namme’ and ‘Kodava Takk.
Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy Chairperson Dr Ammatanda Parvathi Appaiah, member Padinjaranda Prabhukumar, CIT PU College Principal Dr Sannuvanda Rohini Thimmaiah, Thookbolak Kala Sahitya Vedike convener Madhosh Poovaiah and others were present.
Students of CIT PU College watched the programme online.
