Thursday, May 06, 2010

Kuppalli the Inspiration of Kuvempu

It was my long time wish to visit Kuppalli. Kuvempu, the first Jnanpith awardee of Kannada, is the bard of Malnad. He was born in 29 December 1904. Kuppalli was not only his beloved house, it was his inspiration throughout until his death in 11 November 1994.

In the beginning of last month, I got a rare opportunity wherein I was invited along with R.G. Singh to teach board games to children attending a summer camp there. The place is quite remote for people to reach, but there  is a direct overnight bus from Bangalore which will take you right in front of Kuvempu's house which is known as Kavi Mane (poet's home). Well people from elsewhere are not so lucky to have a direct bus to Kuppalli.

One has to go to Shimoga, take a bus from there to Tirthahalli and once there, jump onto another bus which goes towards Gadikallu. An autorickshaw will take Rs. 20 and 5 minutes from there to Kuppalli.

Well, anyhow, following are few photographs and panoramas I shot there. Let me know how are these...


This is the ancestral house of Kuvempu, Kavi Mane.


This is a panorama shot of the memorial of Kuvempu at Kavi Shaila. This is designed on the lines of Stonehenge which I feel to be quite lame. Why should we copy some one else? We should create original things.


This is a beautiful vista one can behold from Kavi Shaila. Just behind me from where I shot this panorama, there is a favourite rock of Kuvempu.

5 comments:

Exploring said...

Thank you for sharing these pictures Raghu. I agree with your Stonehedge comment. I sure there very local inspirations to draw from. The place looks so pristine. I hope it stays that way for years to come because God knows that the rest of the state is anything but pristine these days with all the cutting down of trees.

Shashank Duhan said...

Hi Raghu! I am Shashank Duhan from Haryana . I am planning to visit Mysuru for some photographic project. I found those stone age type stones in your blog and i am thinking that that would be a nice place to shot , can you help me to tell that how can i reach there?

H.S. Dharmendra said...

Hi Shashank,
These stone structures are not old. They were erected at the place where poet Kuvempu was cremated in 1994. The place is called Kavishaila (meaning the mount of the poet) at the village Kuppalli in the Teerthahalli taluk of Shimoga district in Karnataka. First travel to Shimoga and then 45 minutes drive to Teerthahalli and a further 20-30 minutes drive to Kuppalli. Shimoga is about 6 hrs away from Mysore. There is a direct bus from Bangalore to Kuppalli which leaves Bangalore at about 8 pm everyday, please go to KSRTC's online portal where you can also reserve your seat online. Hope this info is helpful.

H.S. Dharmendra said...

The online portal of KSRTC is http://www.ksrtc.in

Unknown said...

Anegundi / Anglo / Angilia / England

Dear now I find stonehenge roots. Stone henge had roots in Kishkindha kingdom....Anglo who reached present British land has roots in Anegindi...and so they named and remembered Hampi (Hampdhire) too.