How K Chinnappa Gowda and B Surendra Rao translated the oral language Tulu for the world
Many feel that Tulu has not been given the recognition it deserves in Karnataka, where Kannada is seen in a hegemonic role.
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When K Chinnappa Gowda and the late B Surendra Rao conceived of their ambitious project to translate works of literature from the Tulu language to English, their chief intention was to build an architecture for “Tulu-ness” or the “Tuluva” world for non-Tulu speakers. They went on to translate and publish seven books in translation within three years, including the first novel in the language (Sati Kamale by SU Paniyadi), one contemporary novel (Mittabail Yamunakka: A Tale of a Landlord’s Household by DK Chowta), one early modern Tulu story (Tale of Narayana The Impostor by Polali Sheenappa Hegde), and anthologies of folk tales (The Rainboy: Tulu Folk Tales), poems (Ladle in a Golden Bowl: Translation of Tulu Poems), work and dance songs (When Moonlight is Very Hot), and short stories (Heartbeats).
An urgent need
Gowda told me that it was a very conscious decision to translate representative works from each genre of literature, and that they wanted to give readers in English a flavour of the vibrancy that the Tulu literary world contained in both its written tradition of over a century and its oral history going back far longer. The reasons the scholars – Gowda is a former Vice Chancellor of Karnataka Folklore University, a prominent researcher, folklorist and retired Professor of Kannada, Mangalore University, while...
