Profiles

Satkāvya and Adhyātma

A Heart for the Welfare of the Society

There is absolutely no doubt that Sharma was always loyal to the tradition. There are some typical ‘norms’ connected with the scholarly world. One such ‘norm’ is that a person who is known to be a scholar in a certain field of learning usually does not even explore the bounds of the particular subject. It is hard to find scholars who are experts of multiple domains.

ಮೆಯ್ ದೃಢ, ಮನಸ್ಸು ದೃಢ,
ದುಡಿವೆನೆಂಬ ನಿಶ್ಚಯ ಇವಕೆ ಸಮನಾಗಿ
ದೃಢವಾಗಿರುತ ನಮ್ಮ ರಾಜಣ್ಣ
ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಅವೆಷ್ಟೊ!
ಅವುಗಳ ಜಾತಿ ಇನ್ನೆಷ್ಟೊ!

[Firm body, firm mind,
Firm resolve to work hard,
Being firm, our Rajanna
Written by him
are books – how many!
Genre spanned –
how many!]

...ಕಾವ್ಯವನು ರಚಿಸುವುದು ಎಂತಂತೆ
ಅದರರಿವ ಹರಡುವುದು ಇದೆ ರೀತಿ ಪುಣ್ಯಕರ
ರಾಜಣ್ಣ ಈ ಪುಣ್ಯವನು ಪೂರ್ಣ ಗಳಿಸಿಹರು.

A Humorous Episode

Once, Venkannayya had fallen ill. It was a disease that troubled him on and off – something stomach-related. When I heard the news, I wrote the following quatrain on a postcard and sent it to his college address in Mysore:

vaṃkāyòkkaṭè kaḍupulò।
saṃkaṭamunu galugujeyunayyā nūnan॥
iṃkanu virupanu jeritè।
vèṃkaṇṇā! grudda cinugi brovakagalade॥

DVG Ārādhaka (A Worshipper of DVG)

Commitment

Pondering about his work in the press reminds me of a sad incident. Around 1902 or 1903 he lost his son. His daughter and son-in-law Dakshinamurthy too expired (may be due to plague). During one of these troubled times before the body would be taken to the crematorium Venkarakrishnaiah said to someone “Oh dear! today’s article isn’t ready yet? Go get paper and pen.” thus he made sure it was ready. This was his commitment to work.