Kuvempu University has brought out a lexicon, Kuvempu Sahitya Pada Vivarana Kosha, on the literary works of poet laureate Kuvempu.
The eight-volume lexicon provides meaning and interpretation of 40,000 nonce and compound words used in Kuvempu’s works such as epics, novels, short stories, plays, literary criticism, autobiography, and essays. The meaning of rare words used by the poet in his speeches can be found here.
The first four volumes were released in January 2014, and the remaining will be released in a programme on the university campus on March 18.
C.S. Shivakumaraswamy, a Kannada professor with Kuvempu University who has edited the lexicon, told The Hindu that to mark the classical language status accorded to Kannada in 2008, the State government released Rs. 1 crore to the university for research. The varsity had decided to bring out a lexicon with the fund, he said.
As many as 13 experts, including literary critic Rajendra Chenni and the late Lingadevaru Halemane, worked on the dictionary. Mr. Shivakumaraswamy said Kuvempu was the first Kannada writer on whom a lexicon has been brought out. His works are socio-cultural documentaries of the rural Malnad, which explain in detail activities like transplantation of paddy, fishing, hunting wild boars, and plucking wild berries. Owing to the socio-economic transformation the Malnad region witnessed in recent times, many words in Kuvempu’s works are no longer used.
Page 43 in his celebrated novel Malegalalli Madumagalu has a line : ‘Tirthahalli mele hogiya husharu, Agumbe kadeyinda hogu... Koppada hattira Aalegadde ide’. Mr. Shivakumaraswamy said ‘Aalegadde’ is a place where jaggery is made from a bullock-driven sugarcane crusher. In the past, after harvesting, the word came up often in villages, he said.
Similarly in Malenadina Chitragalu , a compilation of short stories, the word ‘preetha queue’ is used to describe the long queue before a fair price shop. The word is the Kannada variant of the English expression ‘serpentine queue’. In the novel Kanuru Heggadathi , there is a reference to ‘Sarda Bill’. The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, was popularly known as Sarda Bill, named after Harbilas Sarda, the lawmaker who introduced the Bill in the then Central Legislative Assembly. The literary explanation of the words and the socio-cultural context in which they evolved are discussed in the lexicon, enabling readers to have a comprehensive understanding of Kuvempu’s works, Mr. Shivakumaraswamy said.
