First Kannada Sahitya Sammelana of 21 century in Mandya

The undivided Belagavi district has the credit of hosting the meet eight times

Mandya, which has already hosted two Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelanas — 1974 and 1994 — has got an opportunity to play host once again in 2023 or 2024, for the first time in the 21st century. The prestigious event is being held in Mandya after a huge gap of 29 or 30 years.

The 108-year-old Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP), founded by then Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, has organised 86 Akhila Bharata Sahitya Sammelanas, till now. It has been skipped for several years due to various reasons, while it was held twice during two years — 1981 (Chikkamagaluru and Madikeri) and 1990 (Hubballi and Mysuru).

The recent reason for skipping was the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022. As the 86th literary festival was held in the first week of January in Haveri, this year, there are chances of the festival being held twice again, this year itself, in Mandya. It was held for the first time at Haveri, after a trifurcation from the Dharwad district in 1997.

The undivided Belagavi district has the credit of hosting the meet for the highest number of eight times. Even the bifurcated Bagalkot district has hosted the event thrice - Jamakhandi, Mudhol and Rabakavi. The mega event is held six times in Dharwad (twice in Gadag, including once after becoming district headquarters), Hassan, Raichur (Koppal and Gangavathi before division) and Dakshina Kannada (Manipal and Udupi before bifurcation).

After November 2017, Mysuru joined the toppers’ club (1917, 1930, 1955, 1990 and 2017 — and also the first Vishwa Kannada Sammelana in 1986). However, Mysuru is closely followed by Bengaluru (once in Kankapura, now in trifurcated Ramanagar district), Ballari and Chitradurga (twice in Davangere and once in Harapanahalli before division), Tumakuru (once in Siddaganaga), Mandya (in 1974 and 1994), Chikkamagaluru (after a long gap of 1921 to 1981) and Kolar (also after a long gap from 1924 to 1984 (in Kaivara before division) have hosted the event twice.

While the first two sammelanas were held at Bengaluru, Mandya took almost 59 years to host the event in 1974, probably because it was a part of the undivided Mysuru district, before 1939. In 1974, Jayadevithayi Ligade was the chairperson, while Subramanyaraje Urs, popularly known as Chaduranga, was the chairman in 1994.

The sammelana has also been held outside Karnataka — Kasaragod in Kerala in 1948; Solapur in Maharashtra in 1950; Mumbai, again in Maharashtra, in 1951; and at New Delhi in 1978. The Delhi event was the 50th sammelana. The new districts of Chamarajanagar, Bengaluru Rural and Yadgir are yet to open account, while Haveri hosted the 86th sammelana this year. The 85th sammelana was held in Kalaburgi in Februray 2020.

H V Nanjundaiah, a scholar and the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Mysore, was the president of the first three sammelanas and he himself inaugurated the meet. But, since Independence, chief ministers have been inaugurating the meets, even though eminent writers and scholars have been presidents or chairpersons.

The events were earlier funded by the Wadiyar kings of the erstwhile Mysuru state. The expenses were later taken care of by the Parishat itself. Since 1975, it was taken over by the State government. Thus the 48th meet in May-June of 1974 at Mandya was the last one held without Karnataka state government funding. It was also the first time that a woman was selected as chairperson.

When the 63rd meet was held in February of 1994, people voluntarily donated money to the organising committee, with district KSP president G T Veerappa, welcome committee president G Madegowda and chief patron S M Krishna. Thus, Rs 42 lakh was collected and only Rs 22 lakh was spent on the festival. Hence, the remaining Rs 20 lakh was spent on various development works of the Mandya city, including the construction of the District KSP building (Rs 6.25 lakh) at Bandigowda Layout. While Rs 8.50 lakh was donated for the construction of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar Kalamandira, Rs 4 lakh was spent on a statue of poet laureate Kuvempu and Rs 1 lakh was donated to Janapada Loka in Channapatna taluk.