Google doodle marks 'Rashtrakavi' Kuvempu's 113th birthday

Google on Friday dedicated its doodle to the renowned Kannada writer and Jnanpith awardee Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa aka Kuvempu to mark his 113th birthday.

Moreover, the word Google has been written with Kannada letters in the doodle, it is entirely rare.

The writer completed his studies at Mysore University and he served as a professor for three decades there. Later he became the Vice-Chancellor of UoM. He advocated for Kannada medium for learning throughout his life.

Kuvempu was the first Kannada writer to receive the Jnanpith Award, in 1968. Earlier, the Independence Day flower show at Lalbagh in Bengaluru had themed  ‘Kuvempu Malenadu’ to commemorate the golden jubilee of his Jnanpith award for ‘Sri Ramayana Darshanam'.

The Government of Karnataka honoured him with the tags 'Rashtrakavi' (National Poet) in 1952 and 'Karnataka Ratna' (Gem of Karnataka) in 1992.

He penned the poem 'Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate' which was later declared as the Karnataka State Anthem in 2004.

The Google blog piece featured one of his poems, 'Poovu' (The Flower). It is "rhapsodizing on the beauty of the poet’s natural surroundings. Kuvempu loved his writing to reflect the simple wonder of the world around him, especially flowers," the blog piece read. 

Two years back, Prof KSS Seshan wrote about Kuvempu's first attempt in poetry in the Deccan Herald Spectrum: "A significant but lesser known aspect in the literary career of Kuvempu is the fact that he began writing poetry not in Kannada, but in English. Kuvempu had a great penchant to write poetry even as a small kid. But those poems were all in English, influenced by modern English poets. He was encouraged by teachers and friends as well. When he was in class 10, in 1922, he even published a 16-page anthology of collected poems in English. After this, he joined the Maharaja College in Mysuru and continued to write English poetry."

A workshop involving the study of Kuvempu's works is beginning today at Kupalli in Shivamogga district, organised by The Rashtra Kavi Kuvempu Prathishtana.