Famous personalities of karnataka state

Famous personalities of karnataka state

Basavanna

Basava was an Indian philosopher, statesman and a social reformer from what is now Karnataka. Basava fought against the practice of the caste system, which discriminated against people based on their birth, and other rituals in Hinduism. He spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas. Basavanna used Ishtalinga, an image of the Siva Linga, to eradicate untouchability, to establish equality among all human beings and as a means to attain spiritual enlightenment. These were rational and progressive social thoughts in the twelfth century.

Akka Mahadevi

Akka Mahadevi was a prominent figure of the Veerashaiva Bhakti movement of the 12th century Karnataka. Akkamahadevi Vachanas in kannada, a form of didactic poetry, are considered her most notable contribution to Kannada Bhakti literature. In all she wrote about 430 Vachanas which is relatively fewer than that compared to some other saints of her time. Yet the term ‘Akka’ (elder Sister), which is an honorific given to her by great Veerashaiva saints like Basavanna, Chenna Basavanna, Kinnari Bommayya, Siddharama, Allamaprabhu and Dasimayya, speaks volumes of her contribution to the movement that was underway. She is in hindsight seen as a great and inspirational woman for Kannada literature and the history of Karnataka. She is said to have accepted the god Shiva (‘Chenna Mallikarjuna’) as her husband, traditionally understood as the ‘madhura bhava’ or ‘madhurya’ form of devotion (similar to how 8th century Andal declared herself marriable only to lord Vishnu or as centuries later Meera, a 16th-century saint, considered herself married to Krishna).

Sarvajna

Sarvajna was a Kannada poet, pragmatist and philosopher. He is famous for his pithy three-lined poems which are called tripadis, “with three padas[disambiguation needed], three-liners”, a form of Vachanas. He is also referred as Sarvagna in modern translation.

Madhvacharya

Madhvacharya also known as Purna Prajna and Ananda Tirtha, was the chief proponent of Tattvavada “philosophy of reality”, popularly known as the Dvaita (dualism) school of Hindu philosophy. It is one of the three most influential Vedanta philosophies. Madhvacarya was one of the important philosophers during the Bhakti movement. He was a pioneer in many ways, going against standard conventions and norms. According to tradition, Madhvacarya is believed to be the third incarnation of Vayu (Mukhyaprana) and first two being Hanuman and Bhima.

Purandara Dasa

Purandara Dasa is one of the most prominent composers of Carnatic music and is widely regarded as the “Grandfather of Carnatic Music”. Purandara Dasa addressed social issues in addition to worship in his compositions, a practice emulated by his younger contemporary, Kanakadasa. Purandara Dasa’s Carnatic music compositions are mostly in Kannada; some are in Sanskrit. He signed his compositions with the mudra (pen name), “Purandara Vittala” (Vittala is one of the incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu).

Kanaka Dasa

Kanaka Dasaru (1509-1609) was a poet, philosopher, musician and composer from modern Karnataka. He is known for his Kirtanes and Ugabhoga compositions in the Kannada language for Carnatic music. Like some other Dasas, he often used colloquial language for his compositions. He was a disciple of Vyasathirtha and a follower of Dwaita philosophy propounded by Madhvacharya.

Bahubali

Bahubali also called Gomateshwa was an Arihant. According to Jainism, he was the second of the hundred sons of the first Tirthankara, Rishabha and king of Podanpur. The Adipurana, a 10th-century Kannada text by poet Adikavi Pampa (fl. 941 CE), written in Champu style, a mix of prose and verse and spread over in sixteen cantos, deals with the ten lives of the first tirthankara, Rishabha and his two sons, Bharata and Bahubali. According to the Digambaras he was the first human in this half time cycle to attain liberation.

V. Raman

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist whose ground breaking work in the field of light scattering earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered that, when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect. In 1954, he was honoured with the highest civilian award in India, the Bharat Ratna.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya

Sir Mokshagundam Vishveshwariah KCIE, (popularly known as Sir MV; 15 September 1860 – 14 April 1962) was a notable Indian engineer, scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918. He was a recipient of the Indian Republic’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by King George V for his contributions to the public good. Every year, 15 September is celebrated as Engineer’s Day in India in his memory. He is held in high regard as a pre-eminent engineer of India. He was the chief designer of the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad, now capital city of Andhra Pradesh, as well as the chief engineer responsible for the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mandya.

Field Marshall K.M. Cariappa

Field Marshal Kodandera “Kipper” Madappa Cariappa OBE (28 January 1899 – 15 May 1993) was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief,of the Indian Army and led the Indian forces on the Western Front during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947.

Gangubai Hangal

Gangubai Hangal (5 March 1913 – 21 July 2009) was an Indian singer of the khyal genre of Hindustani classical music, who was known for her deep and powerful voice. Hangal belonged to the Kirana gharana.

Girish Karnad

Girish Raghunath Karnad (born 19 May 1938) is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language. His rise as a playwright in 1960s, marked the coming of age of Modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He is a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.

M.S. Satyu

Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu (born 6 July 1930 in Mysore, Karnataka) is a leading film director, stage designer and art director from India. His film Garam Hawa is based on the partition of India. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1975.

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