10th century poet Ranna brought alive through JNU show

Hubballi: Ranna was one of the earliest poets of the Old Kannada language. He was from a bangle-seller’s family of Mudhol in Bagalkot district in the 10th century and believed to have authored five major works. However, only two — ‘Saahasabhima Vijaya’, also known as ‘Gadayuddha’, and ‘Ajitha Puraana’ — are available fully.
Thanks to the efforts of the Centre of Indian Languages, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, this North Karnataka poet is a topic of discussion and influences students of classical texts of various universities worldwide.
Purushothama Bilimale, professor of Kannada, JNU, who organised a programme of unveiling the English work titled ‘Ranna: Gadayuddha, The Duel of the Maces’, said the whole exercise was aimed at proving that classical texts is never restricted to the era of composition. And they can be transformed, recreated and sustained forever. “The Kannada Language Chair has done this remarkable job with ‘Gadayuddha’. Though it was a 10th century text, it was presented in various forms like Gamaka by Krishna Kolhar Kulkarni of Vijayapura, Tekkekere Subrahmanya of Bengaluru, in Harikathe by Lakshmana Dasa and team of Tumakuru and in Yakshagana by Sri Idagunji Mahaganapati Yakshagana Mandali Keremane,” he said.
While the programme was held a month ago at JNU, Delhi, videos uploaded on YouTube are now catching the attention of scholars of universities of different countries. “We edited the videos and uploaded them in last week of February. While the number of viewers may be small, we’re satisfied that seven hours of videos have reached the right persons across the world,” he said.
According to him, scholars and students of Kannada, Tamil, Sanskrit, Odia, Marathi and other Indian languages witnessed this one-day programme, said to be first of its kind as it was based on a single text which was over 10 centuries old.
The book ‘Ranna: Gadayuddha, The Duel of the Maces’ is translated by Prof RVS Sundaram of University of Mysore and Ammel Sharon, researcher at Pennsylvania University, USA.
Kanakaraju, a Tamil classics student, JNU, said his synopsis changed after seeing ‘Gadayuddha’ in Gamaka, Harikathe and Yakshagana. “It was the first programme at JNU which ignited a debate among classics study scholars and students,” he said.
Ali Ahsan, an MPhil student at Ambedkar University Delhi, said he changed his perception about classical studies after seeing this presentation.