Remembering Da. Ra. Bendre’s ‘Inner Voice’

The father of modern Kannada literature, Da. Ra. Bendre is remembered for his profound works authored by his ‘inner voice’. He was born on January 31, 1896 in Dharwad, Karnataka.

Da. Ra. Bendre; Source: Wikipedia

The father of new-age Kannada literature, Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre or Da. Ra. Bendre, as he was fondly called, has more celebrated, published works against his name than one can count on their fingers (and perhaps their toes too). Born on January 31, 1896, Bendre belonged to a Marathi family living in Dharwad. Today, Dharwad is considered a part of Karnataka, but in the days of British India, it came under the jurisdiction of the Bombay Presidency.

Literature coursed through the veins of Bendre’s lineage – his grandfather was an accomplished Sanskrit scholar and so was his father. Da. Ra. Bendre too, pursued a degree in English and Sanskrit from Fergusson College, Poona.

He left Dharwad for his college days, but returned soon after, taking up the role of a teacher – fitting perfectly into the archetype of a John-Keating-type from a Kannada-version of the Dead Poets Society! He was lovingly known as ‘Bendre Maastra’ (master) by his students.

Following his love for poetry and the arts, Bendre Maastra formed a Kannada collective to encourage culture and literature studies. His literary career had a natural flow to it – he started with simplistic, romantic poetry that was written in colloquial language. With time, his work advanced to great depth, expanding over philosophical matters as well.

What stood out the most in Bendre’s work, was his insistence on the presence of a universal inner voice, which he channelled into the form of poetry. Usually, people would refer to this author’s alter ego as a pseudonym, but Bendre preferred to refer to his author’s aura as ‘Ambikatanayadatta’ which can be translated to ‘Datta, the son of Ambika’.

This label was an ode to his mother, Ambika, who had brought him up, along with three younger sons, after Dattatreya Bendre’s father had died when the young boy was just 12 years old. The respect he had for his mother often reflected in his poetic appreciation of feminine shakti (power).

Bendre faced his fair share of struggles even after the demise of his father. He was restricted by the colonial government’s house arrest in 1932 for writing a piece that the Britishers deemed seditious.

At the young age of 23, he was married, but unfortunately, only three of his children survived out of nine that his wife had birthed.

His works won the hearts of the people, and several accolades too – such as the Sahitya Akademi award and the Jnanpith award. Over the years, his work depicted excellent depth and nuanced complexity, but by his final years, the eccentric Dattatreya Bendre had left lyrics behind, and become unusually obsessed with mathematical figures. At the age of 85, Da Ra Bendre passed away, leaving the literature community with a legacy of irreplaceable creative thought and lyrical expression.