One of the most popular anecdotes about Phakirappa Gurubasappa Halakatti is his interaction with D.C. Pavate, a professor of Karnatak University, Dharwad, in the 1950s.
The university had decided to present Halakatti with an honorary doctorate and invited him to Dharwad. The advocate arrived in his bala bundh coat and kept it on throughout- the ceremony and the lunch later. Dr. Pavate asked him to remove the coat during lunch as it would make him more comfortable. Halakatti responded in a resigned tone that he could not do it, as the shirt inside was torn. The coat was bought decades ago and he had no money to buy a new shirt.
That was not because he was a man without means, but because he spent all his money on collecting, conserving and publishing vachanas, a body of Kannada literature that were written or spoken 900 years ago.
A portrait of P.G. Halakatti at the P.G. Halakatti research centre, in BLDEA in Vijayapura. | Photo Credit: Rajendra Singh Hajeri
Early life
P.G. Halakatti (1880-1986), writer, advocate, archivist, publisher, vachana scholar and journalist, was born in Dharwad where he completed his schooling. He went to Mumbai to study BA and LLB from St. Xavier’s College. By the turn of the century, he landed up in Vijayapura (then Bijapur), to join the Bar and practice law. In 1910, he founded the Bijapur Lingayat District Education Association. BLDE has now grown to be a huge institution that runs medical, engineering and other colleges, schools and hospitals. Halakatti lived in Vijayapura till his death. His resting place and a memorial are on the campus of the BLDE campus in Vijayapura.
His tryst with vachanas is an interesting story in itself, which began with a chance finding of a palm leaf manuscript in the house of an acquaintance Shivalingappa Manchale, which made him think of conserving and preserving them.
“He saw that people kept such manuscripts along with idols of deities and performed pooja. He felt that that was not the purpose. Vachana literature was to be read, understood and practised. He asked his friends and acquaintances to lend the palm leaves so that they could be read, written down and printed. Thus began a momentous chapter in the cultural history of Karnataka,’‘ says Krishna Kolhar Kulkarni, director of the P.G. Halakatti Research Centre in BLDE education society in Vijayapura.
Krishna Kohlar Kulkarni, director of the P.G. Halakatti research centre. | Photo Credit: Rajendra Singh Hajeri
Conservation effort
The first book in this effort, Vachana Shastra Sara, was published in the Basel Mission printing press in Mangalore in 1920. He got some school teachers and others to write the vachanas after reading manuscripts. There was another team to proof read them. This went on for years. Halakatti also got some vachanas translated into English and got them published in Indian Antiquary magazine. He got some local youth to sing some vachanas and got them recorded in Mumbai. For this reasons, he is fondly called Vachana Pitamaha, the grand father of vachana conservation, said Dr. Kulkarni.
“Halakatti pledged or sold all he had to set up the Hita Chintaka printing press. He had to get a mortgage loan on his house. Sri Shivacharya Swami of Taralubalu math helped him out of his financial difficulties. He went cycling to far off villages and towns and requested owners of manuscripts to lend them. He brought out Shivanubhava, the first magazine dedicated to vachana literature. He also edited Nava Karnataka, a current affairs magazine,’‘ M.S. Madabhavi, secretary of the Centre, said. “It is due to Halakatti’s efforts that around 200 Sharanas whose works were lost, could be brought to limelight,” said Dr. Madabhavi.
The books Halakatti wrote or edited include Sri Basaveshvarana Vachanagalu (1926), Mahadeviayakkana Vachanagalu (1927), Prabhudevara Vachanagalu (1931), Devara Dasimayyana Vachanagalu (1939), Sakalesha Madarasana Vachanagalu (1929), Shunya Sampadane (1930), Siddarameshvarana Vachanagalu (1932), Seven volumes of Hariharana Ragalegalu (1933- 40) and Adayyana Vachanagalu (1930), among others.
Replicas of Adilshahi-era paintings are at the P.G. Halakatti research centre in BLDEA in Vijayapura. | Photo Credit: Rajendra Singh Hajeri
Halakatti research centre
BLDEA president and presently Industries Minister M.B. Patil established the centre in Vijayapura in 2003. It republished the entire works of Halakatti in 15 volumes, running into around 12,500 pages. With assistance from the department of Kannada and culture, the centre translated Adil Shahi’s literature in Dakhani Urdu into Kannada in 2013. A committee comprising the late M. M. Kalaburagi and Dr. Kulkarni gathered scholars, writers and translators from around the State. The centre completed the project to publish 21 books in 18 volumes. Hampi Kannada University recognised the centre as a research institute in 2005. Several students are pursuing doctorate and other research at the centre. It has also conducted national conferences and seminars on preservation of manuscripts, vachana literature and library science.
“Halakatti’s contribution is significant because of multiple reasons,’‘ says scholar O.L. Nagabhushana Swami. By compiling and publishing vachanas over a century ago, he documented not only the literary history of Kannada, but also the social, cultural and political dimensions of the 12th century and later periods. “We need to continue his efforts and conduct further research. Halakatti called his publication ‘Vachana Shastra Sara’, or an extract of the spiritual heritage of the country. In later periods, writers considered them holy religious scriptures, literary masterpieces and common man’s statements about a socio cultural revolution or a class struggle.”
He said that the Vachana literature is a treasure trove waiting to be utilised by serious researchers. “They need to look at them from various dimensions. We need structural study of the language used, the metaphors, the literary qualities, the lives of the kings and commoners that the Vachanas reveal, the geography and economy of the period, and so on,” Prof. Swami said.
The centre in the BLDEA campus in Vijayapura | Photo Credit: Rajendra Kumar Hajeri
Vijay Kumar Boratti, Mysuru-based professor, argues that recent research has revealed that there were some efforts at publishing vachanas even before Halakatti’s work. “Some isolated efforts were made at publishing Vachanas before him. But it was Halakatti who took up a comprehensive study of the vachanas. He travelled across Karnataka and neighbouring states, collected and preserved palm leaves, compiled and published them. That is a milestone not only in Kannada, but in Indian literature,” he said.
The first publication was that of Bala Sangaya’s Shikharatna Prakasha (1883), Siddheshvara Vachana (1885), Nihkalara Vachana (1885), Madiwala Machaya’s Vachana, Nuli Chandaiya’s Sarada (1886) Tonta’s Siddhalingesvara, Akhandesvara, Maunesvara (all 1887), Basavanna (1887 and 1889), and Ambigara Chaudaiya (second edition 1905), Ganabhasya Ratnamale (1909), Veerashaiva Siddhanta Vachana Narrated by God Ghanalingi (1907), Muktyangana Kanthamale and Jyotirmaya Shambhavi (around 1907) and Ambigar Choudaiya’s Vachana Sastra (1914), Prof. Boratti said.
The priting press used by P.G. Halakatti to publish Vachanas in 1920s preserved in the P.G. Halakatti research centre in in Vijayapura. | Photo Credit: Rajendra Kumar Hajeri
Recognition for his work
Halakatti’s work was recognised by his peers to a large extent. But its cultural and literary significance is being increasingly recognised these days. He served as the secretary of the district Congress committee and a member of the State Legislative Council. He received the Doctor of Letters from Karnataka University, and was chosen as the president of the Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Ballari in 1926.
Several organisations have given him posthumous awards, some have instituted awards in his name, some like BLDEA have set up research and study centres while some organise memorial lectures and vachana competitions.
The P.G. Halakatti Trust and Sri Vijaya Mahantesh Mutt of Ilkal Chittaragvi have instituted awards in his name. Sri Panditaradhya Shivacharya Swami, Prabhakar Kore and Tejaswini Ananthkumar won the award from the trust this time. Writer Nagarathna Bavikatti of Hungund won the award by the Mutt.
Books of Vachanas and Adilshahi era literature at the P.G. Halakatti research centre. | Photo Credit: Rajendra Singh Hajeri
Recent efforts
Some voluntary groups are contributing to the task of digitising Vachanas. A movement to create free and open access to public knowledge and to preserve and document rare books, manuscripts and other media is led by Servants of Knowledge and Sanchi Trust in Bengaluru and other places. Volunteers from these groups are engaged in scanning, cleaning and uploading to the internet- books, palm leaf writings, paintings, photographs and audio and videos, in English and Indian languages. A team led by H.L. Omshivaprakash is coordinating with digital archivists and public domain enthusiasts across states who are working in this direction. They are supported by Carl Malamud, U.S.A.-based technologist and public domain advocate.
The resting place of P.G. Halakatti in the BLDEA campus in Vijayapura. | Photo Credit: Rajendra Kumar Hajeri
Omshivaprakash and friends have created Vachana Sanchaya, an online tool aimed at helping researchers. Using optical reader technology, one is able to search for any word or phrase that has been used in the 21,000 Vachanas by over 250 Sharanas. The group has also digitised over a thousand books of vachana literature, which are all in public domain now. Another team led by Ashok Domlur is archiving palm leaves found in the various Veerashaiva Lingayat Mutts in the State. They are also training volunteers in preservation of palm leaf manuscripts and books.
