Dr Vamana Nandavara - A Memory

  •   Mon, Apr 14 2025
  •   By Dr Yogitha Shetty

April 14, 2025

One fine day in the year 2009, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore had assigned the Tulu writer Bola Chittaranjan Das Shetty’s book Binnedi for a review for their Grants-in-Aid Project. This was my first encounter with a writer in my own language, Tulu, and I was quick enough to pick the phone number mentioned there, and meet the author during my next visit to Mangalore. While Bola Sir introduced and explained about all his books, he recommended me to meet another author, Dr Vamana Nandavara, who was also the former president of Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy. In what I don’t remember whether that or the consecutive visit, I met Dr Nandavara for the first time, having no idea that this scholar would become one of the most influential persons in my academic life to unfold in the coming years. 

 

 

 

 

It’s a Sunday today, and I have the luxurious window of a few hours to pen down my thoughts on this remarkable person. I was in the middle of an article with the deadline-dagger hanging over my head when I read about Dr Nandavara’s demise on March 15th 2025. My fingers stopped typing; I was numb for a few minutes. I searched for the first picture I took with Dr Nandavara outside his beautifully imagined home. The picture that is still in my eyes, but nowhere on my electronic brains.

Nandavara sir was one of those rare individuals around who had so much affection and knowledge to offer even during initial meetings with people. Sometime in 2008 or 2009, despite being a busy scholar and the Project Officer, he took me around in Pilikula Heritage village, explaining about each item with an enthusiasm unmatched. I had a tour of his home decorated with Worli art, with a special Drishya chavadi set up for academic discussions on the terrace, and the almost institution-like library he has accumulated over many decades. Sir gave access to his home, to all his books and to the enormous knowledge he had in his mind on Tulu history and culture. What more a young aspiring academician like me could have expected than the world of knowledge coming from a single spring like Dr Nandavara.

With umpteen number of books and writing, Nandavara sir had his magnum opus work on Koti-Chennaya published already when I met him. Through his vivid descriptions, I heard about the way his doctoral research unfolded, how a workshop on book printing influenced in the almost-unprecedented designing of his Koti Chennaya, the hurdles he faced when he had to publish the book, and many more. Amidst all these, I was growing more and more as an ambitious scholar, determined to pursue my doctoral research in the field of Tulu Studies. Sir was extremely happy when I joined the University of Hyderabad for my research in 2011, and both of us had no clue that I would end up working on the same Koti Chennaya for my doctoral dissertation too.

Nurtured from and branching off from Nandavara sir’s work, I started researching on the mnemohistory and public memory of Koti-Chennaya delving theoretically in detail on the concepts sir had touched upon in his thesis. With so much reading in the field in more than a decade now, I believe, Nandavara sir’s Koti Chennaya: Folkloristic Study (2001)is one of the most prominent contributions to Tulu Studies, expanding the contours of folkloristic understanding in ways unimagined during those days. The meticulousness with which Nandavara sir both designed and organized this book – as his home – is a testimony to the diligence with which he read, thought and wrote about Tulu history and culture.

A substantial part of my fieldwork was conducted in the year 2014, and the maximum number of my visits to Nandavara sir’s always-welcoming home was also in the same year. From sharing every small detail from his fieldwork 2-3 decades earlier to providing me those rarest resources he accumulated both during and after his research on Koti Chennaya, Nandavara sir contributed to the best of his abilities to my research as well. The knowledge and corpus he shared became the foundational resources from which my thesis benefitted tremendously. He didn’t think twice before sharing his books, his rare manuscript collection, the letters he shared about the publication of his book and many more. Some of these resources have remained with me, making me both return to them for reference every now and then and also keep the memory of Dr Nandavara as fresh as yesterday. During these visits, I, along with Dr Saigeetha Hegde and others, joined in sir’s ambitious task of cataloguing his vast collection, amidst which, sir also got us some sumptuous fish meal at a small lane in the city somewhere. While I cherished every moment spent in his library, I was longing to have the collection of books like his someday. I also still remember how sir offered us water in a tumbler along with ole bella (palm jaggery), explaining its significance in Tulu culture.  

With a regular job, family, child and some research writing, I haven’t been able to visit the coast as often as I long. I don’t remember exactly when I met sir and Chandrakala madam last. All that I remember is a plethora of knowledge, memories and warm support Nandavara sir has left behind. All that I possess is the books, interview pics and videos and other handwritten resources that sir shared with me so generously. I always imagined meeting him, returning these materials and sharing with him all my new research writing and publications...

So many things remain unsaid and undone in life.

But Nandavara sir remains,
As the brightest star in the Tulu sky.   

 

 

   

 

 

 
By Dr Yogitha Shetty
Dr Yogitha Shetty is assistant professor of English in Government First Grade College, Saragur, Karnataka. She holds a PhD from the University of Hyderabad. Areas of her academic focus include Tulu culture, mnemohistorical studies and marginal narratives. She could be reached at yshetty1@gmail.com.
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Comment on this article

  • Rita, Germany

    Tue, Apr 15 2025

    Thank you dear Dr Nandavara for bringing out memories of Tulu scholar.May be it is known only in karnataka .(South)I never heard of him till now even am from south.Hope to hear more of such articles.

  • Steven, Kalasa

    Mon, Apr 14 2025

    Nice article from you Dr Yogitha Shetty and thanks for writing about Dr Vamana Nandavara, Tulu language has a rich Tradition, I wish more people come out to help preserve and Promote it,


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