D. R. Bendre
Dattātreya Rāmachandra Bēndre, popularly known as Da Rā Bēndre, is generally considered the greatest Kannada lyric poet of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the history of Kannada literature. A pioneering poet of Kannada's Navōdaya movement and a leading figure in the linguistic renaissance of Kannada in the region of North Karnataka, Bendre forged a new path in Kannada literature and modern Kannada poetry through his original use of desi Kannada, particularly Dharwad Kannada – the form of Kannada spoken in the North Karnataka region of Dharwad. The richness, originality, and euphony of his poetry, his preternatural feel for the Kannada language, and his charismatic personality would result in him being hailed as a Varakavi by the Kannada people. In a poetic journey that spanned almost 70 years, Bendre engaged continuously in what he called Kāvyōdyōga or 'The High Yoga of Poetry'.
As a multidisciplinary genius, his library is said to have held books spanning 102 subjects, including Quantum Physics, Mathematics, and Physiology.
From very early on, Bendre published his poetry as Ambikātanayadatta. Often mistaken for a pseudonym or pen name, Bendre described Ambikatanayadatta as the "universal inner voice" within him that dictated what he, Bendre, then presented in Kannada to the world.
In 1973, Bendre was awarded the Jnanapitha, India's highest literary award, for his 1964 poetry collection, Naaku Tanti . Recognized as Karnataka's Kavikula Tilaka by Udupi's Adamaru Matha, he would also be called a Kāvya Gāruḍiga for his ability to create magical poetry. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1968 and made a fellow of the Sahitya Akademi in 1969.
Biography
Early years
Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre was born into a Chitpavan Brahmin family in Dharwad, Karnataka. He was the eldest son of Ramachandrabhatta and Parvatibai. The Bendres, also known as Thosars for some time, originally belonged to Kumbaru, a village in the Colaba district of Maharashtra, but a series of migrations which took them to Kalasi, Nasik and Tasgaon where they finally settled down, along with their patrons, the Lagu family in Shirahatti, a town that was formerly part of the princely state of Sangli and is now a part of Gadag district, Karnataka.Bendre's paternal grandfather, Appashastri , was a Dashagranthi who composed several kirtans in Marathi. He was also a Vedic scholar who wrote a treatise on the Arya metre, titled Chhandodaharana. Appabhatta took Sanyasa deeksha in his old age, Later he died in Shirahatti still his Samadhi is in killa oni of Shirahatti. Bendre's father, Ramachandra Bendre, was a Sanskrit scholar who died of scrofula when Bendre was only 12 years old. Bendre's mother Parvatibai, who died in 1924, was Ramachandra Bendre's second wife. She was the youngest child of her mother, Godubai.
Bendre's maternal grandmother, Godubai, was related to the Dixit family of Naragund on her father's side and the Natu family of Mulagund on her husband's side. Extraordinarily strong-willed, she confronted being cast out by her in-laws following her husband's death by moving, on her own, to Dharwad with her newborn child and her two older daughters. Over there, she set up a khanavali to support herself and her three daughters. Later in life, given her son-in-law Ramachandra Bendre's ill-health and early death, she became a substantial provider for her daughter's family of four sons also. Consequently, Bendre would grow up under the aegis of his mother and grandmother. In his autobiographical essay titled 'The High Yoga of Poetry', Bendre says that "deprived by fate of my father's and his family's closeness, it was by direct observance of my mother's and grandmother's conduct that I realised my manhood." In a poem he wrote in his seventies, Bendre would pay tribute to Godubai's courage by remembering her as someone who has "fed him tiger's milk".
The oldest of four boys, Bendre completed his primary and high school education in Dharwad. Matriculating in 1913, he joined Fergusson College, Pune, and graduated in 1918 with a BA in Sanskrit and English. While in Pune, he lived with Bandopant Bendre, his father's younger brother. With no children of his own, Bandopant would, until the end of his life, act as a great support to his older brother's wife and children. Upon finishing his BA, Bendre returned immediately to Dharwad, where he became a teacher at the Victoria High School, thereby transforming into "Bendre Maastaru", a title he held for the rest of his life.
College years
Bendre left for Pune in 1913 to attend Fergusson College. Joining him was Shridhar Khanolkar, a classmate from his very first day of primary school. A poet himself, Khanolkar too would return to Dharwad after his BA and work alongside Bendre at Victoria High School. Bendre would "with affection" dedicate his 1938 poetry collection ಉಯ್ಯಾಲೆ to Khanolkar's friendship and encouragement and their warm relationship would last until Khanolkar's death in 1965.During his years in Pune, Bendre came in contact with Professor B. V. Patwardhan. Patwardhan had taught at the Basel Mission High School in Dharwad and was an influential person in Pune's literary circles. Through Patwardhan's cousin, K. R. Paranjape, Bendre would come to know Ram Ganesh Gadkari, a pioneering poet of modern Marathi literature. While in college, Bendre would also become very involved in the 'Sharada Mandal', a group built by Prabhakar Hari Khadlikar and his friends. The Mandal was dedicated to the promotion of national identity and the mother tongue. This 'Sharada Mandal' would serve as a model for the famous "ಗೆಳೆಯರ ಗುಂಪು ", the "literary circle" that Bendre would put together in the years following his return to Dharwad.
Young Poet
Bendre's first published poem was "Tutoori". This poem was probably inspired by the Marathi poet's Keshavasuta's "Tutaari" – but there are important differences between the two. Bendre's poem is a lot shorter and lacks the revolutionary ardour of Keshavasuta's poem. It is possible that Bendre felt a kinship with Keshavasuta based on their common admiration for Keats. Govindagraja too might have exercised an influence on Bendre: the similarity in theme between 'Raatrige and 'Manatali Divasa Ratra' makes this a plausible supposition. However, in the total context of Bendre's poetry, the influence of modern Marathi poetry is limited. Bendre himself was of the opinion that the influence of Marathi poetry on modern Kannada poetry was negligible. Indeed, Bendre had his own views about "influence". In his opinion, "it is not imitation of theme or style that elevates a poet or his poetry. must constantly meditate on the lives of great souls". Drawn deeply to Sri Aurobindo's idea of 'Fourfold Beauty', Bendre would come to see the world and the universe in terms of the number four. This "idea of four" included what Bendre called his "guruchatururmukha" or "the four faces of the guru". For Bendre, these four gurus were the Irish mystic and poet, A.E., the Lebanese poet-philosopher, Khalil Gibran, "Gurudeva" Rabindranath Tagore, and the Indian revolutionary and seer, Sri Aurobindo. According to Bendre, A.E. showed him a new way of experiencing nature while Gibran deepened his awareness of the metaphorical depth of the avatara concept. Tagore, who was an earlier and much wider influence than either A.E. or Gibran, helped Bendre develop a strong sense of community besides "teaching to love mother" through the exquisite poems of 'The Crescent Moon' collection. In an early poem of praise titled "Gurudeva", Bendre calls Tagore 'the world's eye'. But Sri Aurobindo's was the greatest and longest-lasting influence. In his early years, his introduction to Sri Aurobindo was through the articles in "Arya" regarding "The Future Poetry". These articles would inspire Bendre to work towards the creation of a mantra-like poetry himself. In later years, his visit to the Pondicherry Ashram for a darshana of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother would make a profound impression and influence the trajectory of his post-1956 poetry.Public Recognition, Publication, and Elevation to "Varakavi" Status
Unlike poets like Tagore and Yeats and certainly unlike Keats, Shelley, and Rimbaud, Bendre's recognition as a poet came rather late, when he was in his early 30s. Though he began writing poetry in his late teens, published his first poem when he was twenty, and his first book came out in 1922, it was only after the public reading of his poem "Hakki Haarutide Nodidiraa" at the Belagavi Sahitya Sammelana in 1929 that he became famous, almost overnight. Like Masti Venkatesh Iyengar would say later, "...it is impossible now to describe the ecstasy listeners felt that day. that one reading was hardly sufficient to understand the various meanings the poem suggested, it was enough to astonish the thousand-strong audience. It was clear to everyone of standing in the "poetry world" that here was a new poet whose poetic shakti was his very own." This performance would be followed by the release of Bendre's poetry collection Gari in 1932. Like Shankar Mokashi Punekar says in his wonderful essay about Bendre's poetry, to read the poems in the Gari collection is to see "how much further along Bendre has cartwheeled in the ten years since Krishṇakumaari".This profound change in Bendre's poetry was not lost on critics. Despite their unfamiliarity with the Dharwad dialect that Bendre had used in Gari, critics like V. Seetharamaiah and Ti. Nam. Sri praised the collection, with Ti. Nam. Sri even going so far as to say that some poems in it were "deserving of a place in world literature". The publication of Gari would cause the floodgates to open, as it were, and the river of lyric poetry that rushed forth – in the form of the collections Moorthi mattu Kaamakastoori, Sakheegeeta, Uyyaale, and Naadaleele – would overwhelm the Kannada literary world with its newness, innovation, and originality. At the same time, it would appeal to the common people through its inherent naada and musicality. Writing the foreword to Naadaleele, Masti, whose keen critical sense had taken note of Bendre's work as early as 1926 and been stirred to actively support it after the Belagavi performance of 1929, would note that Bendre's poetry " not simply promising but achieved fulfillment".
In an essay written examining Bendre's "poetics", Shankar Mokashi offers an excellent presentation of the idea of a varakavi. He says, "...his is an important description of an important experience! The simultaneous blossoming of necessary words and rhyme with the blossoming of an idea is the experience of very very few poets.... But that this is part of creation in poetry is evidenced by the poetry of Valmiki, Shelley and supported by the theory of "expressionism" put forth by the Italian philosopher, Croce. We can also look to understand this through a number of Bendre's poems and the experience of other poets. Basically, what we are saying is that no sooner does a feeling and a word enter the poet's mind than a rhyme, a rhythm, and a euphony descend simultaneously.... This is a very piquant matter. This experience is at the root of the distinction made between the narakavi and the varakavi in our ancient poetics. In a varakavi, feeling-euphony-word descend in effortless simultaneity and take on form singly-doubly-triply."