Kuvempu house to be open for sammelana visitors

The participants of the 83rd Akhila Bharatha Kannada Sahitya Sammelana can visit Udayaravi, the house of Kuvempu (Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa), who is called as Rastrakavi. He is also the first Kannada writer to win the Jnanpith award.

Former vice chancellor K Chidananda Gowda, son-in-law of Kuvempu, the present occupant of Udayaravi, also called 'Kuvempu Mane' in VV Puram in the city, said, the visitors can see the Vaagdevi idol and citation of the Jnanpith award and, also, trophies and citations of other awards that were bestowed upon Kuvempu.

A half-day literary tour has been organised by the Karnataka Tourism Development Corporation in association with Mysore Travels Association. The visitors to the sammelana can avail it from November 24 from the Maharaja's College Grounds, the main venue of the sammelana. The three-day sammelana will start on November 25. Open jeeps will be operated from 10 am to 1 pm till November 27 to ferry the visitors on the tour.

The tour includes a visit to the house of R K Narayan, which has been developed into a museum at a cost of Rs 30 lakh, on the lines of the memorial of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon at Udayagiri, and the Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies of the University of Mysore on Manasagangothri campus, besides Udayaravi.