Bio-data

31/1/1896	Born at Dharwar, Karnataka, India.
1913	Passed Matriculation and joined Ferguson College, Poona, for higher education.
1916-1918	Wrote earlier poems, like Thuthuri, Kogile etc. Recited poems at the Fourth Karnataka Literary Conference. Joined as teacher at Victoria High School, Dharwar.
1919	Married Laxmibai at Hubli
1920-1922	Published first poem collection Krishnakumari. Conceived Geleyara Gumpu (a group of friends interested in Literature).
1926	Launched a new cultural movement - the celebration of Nada Habba (festival of land)
1922-1944	Kshemendra, Rama, Bhaskar, Panduranga, Lalita, Vaman, Prema, Mangala, Ananda were born. Of these only the two sons Panduranga and Vaman and daughter Mangala are surviving1. Edited Swadharma, Jaya Karnataka.
1930	Presided over the Mysore writer's conference
1932	First edition of Gari; Sentenced to imprisonment for writing Nara Bali (Human Sacrifice), branding it as seditious.
1935	Passed M.A. examination. Presided over the poets meet at Bombay.
1936-1944	A span of unemployment and tribulations. Edited Jeevana, a leading Kannada journal.
26/12/1943	Presided over the prestigious 27th Kannada Literary Conference at Shimoga. Read the paper Sahitya Virata Swaroopa.
1944-1956	Worked as Professor of Kannada at the D.A.V. College, Sholapur
1946	Public felicitation at Dharwar on completion of 50th year
1956	Appointed advisor, All India Radio, Dharwar station. 60th birthday celebrations at Sholapur, Poona, Dharwar. Felicitations at Bangalore under the auspices of the Kannada Sahitya Parishad
1958	Aralu Maralu, a collection of poems awarded Sahitya Academy (New Delhi) prize.
1964	Felicitation at Mysore during Dasara festivities. Naku Tanti first published.
1965	Samvada a book in Marathi gets Kelkar prize.
1966	70th year celebrations at Shirahatti.
1968	Padmashree awarded; D. Litt. conferred by the Karnataka University.
1969	Honoured with the fellowship of the Sahitya Academy.
1972	Conferred the title Karnataka Kula Thilaka by Udupi Adimaru. production of a documentary produced by the Govt. of Karnataka.
7/4/1974	Declared the Jnanapith award winner.
8/11/1974	Presented the Jnanapith award at a special function held in Delhi.
26/10/1981	Passed away at the Harkishandas Hospital in Bombay.

¹As of 1974.
Taken from Four Strings (selected translations from Naku Tanti ).

The Trinity

Bendre believed in the value of an integrated personality but loved to project himself as a threefold being: Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, the biological self, the dehi; Professor Bendre, the thinking self; and Ambikatanayadatta, the creative self. The three selves were conceived as mutually supporting selves, as the imagery Bendre used to concretise this idea clearly suggests. He spoke of Ambikatanayadatta and Professor Bendre as closely related to each other as the banks of a river or the belly and the back. One could not exist without the other.
(From G.S. Amur's book).

With rare exception, Bendre signed his poems using the pen-name "Ambikatanayadatta". Of course, it was the poet, the creative self that was finally responsible for the form of the poem though his intellectual/academic self may have had a large part in the creation.

Influences

This section contains links to those who had a great influence on Bendre's life and poetry.

Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran (pronounced Jibran) was a Lebanese poet of the early 20th century. His work "The Prophet" is a veritable masterpiece ... and it's on the web in it's entirety !!

AE

AE is the pseudonym of the Irish poet George William Russell, once considered to be the equal of Yeats. You can find one of his poems here.

Rabindranath Tagore

No need for any introduction here. In addition to the Indian page linked above here's a Bangladeshi page. You can also find the full text of his Nobel Prize winning work "Gitanjali" on the web.

Sri Aurobindo

The Bengali poet and philosopher who was intially involved in the Indian freedom movement and later on dedicated his life to his spiritual quest at his Ashram in Pondicherry.

Poetry

Bendre has been hailed as the father figure of modern Kannada poetry. His poems are linked to the Kannada poetic tradition through their use of folklore, the vachanas and the kirthanas. Apart from native prosodic forms, Bendre has also employed native imagery, folk beliefs, references to Indian mythology and the language spoken by common people. Nada Lila (The Play of Sounds) is perhaps the most remarkable of his poetry collections.. All the features of Navodaya poetry like the feeling of patriotism, the reformatory zeal, critical attitude Indian culture, consolidation of traditional strength, mystical faith and assertion of a poet's individuality can be found in this collection.
(From the Discover India pages.)

Numbers

Towards the end of his life Bendre was deeply absorbed in numbers. This was not a new interest for him but now it became a central concern. When Dom Moraes visited him during his exploration of Karnataka in 1976, he found him totally immersed in numbers. He was still a Garudiga but the Garudi had been replaced by a calculator. `Only great poets', Moraes concluded, `have such interests and ideas as Dr. Bendre'. In his Vishvadharanasutra and A Theory of Immortality he made ambitious attempts to intuit all knowledge into numbers, but these are beyond the reach of the ordinary reader and await the scrutiny of experts. Appropriately enough his last message before he died in the Harkishandas Hospital in Bombay on 26th October 1981 was: `881+441. This is my mahakavya'. 881 symbolised Hridaya and 441 symbolised Viveka.

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