Jaya Bhārata Jananiya Tanujāte, Jaya Hē Karnāṭaka Māte (; ) is a

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-language poem composed by

Kuvempu Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa (29 December 1904 – 11 November 1994), popularly known by his pen name Kuvempu, was an Indian poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He is widely regarded as the greatest Kannada poet of the 20th century. He wa ...

. The poem was officially declared the state anthem of the Indian state of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

in 2004. The Hindu – 11 January 2006 The poem envisages a Karnataka that recognises its position in the comity of Indian states, believes in peaceful co-existence with her sisters, but at the same time maintains her self-respect and dignity from a position of confidence and strength rather than insecurity and fear.

Background

The poem was written by

, and singer Mysore Ananthaswamy gave it a tune in the 1960s. Ananthaswamy also sang it in Kuvempu's presence in Maharaja's College,

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

, and noted in his diary that the latter had approved the tune. It was reported that the

government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as GoK or GoKA, formerly known as Government of Mysore (1956–1974), is a democratically elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka ...

proposed the poem to be made the anthem of Karnataka first in 2000. In December 2003, the state cabinet announced its decision again, to coincide with the birth centenary of Kuvempu. The government added that it would not be made mandatory for the schools to sing the anthem. The decision was finalized on 10 January 2004 when the government issued an order declaring it as state anthem (''naadageethe''). It directed that the song should be rendered daily before the commencement of classes in all schools and that it should also be sung at all events. It also added that those present at the time of rendering should stand up as a mark of respect to the State, and that school authorities and organisers of events had been informed that they could use a select portion of the song brought out in the annexure of the order. The anthem is a truncated version of the poem; 21 of the original 44 lines were excluded.

Lyrics

Styles

The poem is set to tune by a number of Kannada composers, among which two tunes set by C. Ashwath and Mysore Ananthaswamy are the most popular ones. Recently there were some confusions and differences in opinion as to which tune should be used in rendition. A committee led by poet G. S. Shivarudrappa was asked to suggest a befitting tune for the rendition of the anthem, had recommended that the music composed by Mysore Ananthaswamy was apt. Other poets and musicians were represented in the committee, and they had considered several tunes before arriving at the decision. On the 23rd of September 2022, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, on September 23, approved a proposal from the Kannada and Culture Department to officially adopt Ananthaswamy’s version as the tune of the state anthem based on the recommendation by the HR Leelavathi committee.

Controversy

A controversy started immediately after the poem's adoption as the Karnataka State anthem in January 2004. The government had adopted the 1994 version of the poem, which was published in a Kannada-language encyclopedia, which excluded names of saint Madhwacharya and poet Kumara Vyasa, as opposed to the 1977 version which featured them. One group, led by writers K. S. Bhagawan, S. Shivarajappa and M. B. Vishwanath argued against the government's decision, and speculated that perhaps Sir.Kuvempu might have expressed his objection to the introduction of these names when the poem was published in 1977, and hence the names were dropped in the next edition. They felt that the version in Kuvempu's ''KoLalu'' was the original and authentic, and that this version be adopted. They also feared that featuring these two names would lead to a demand for inclusion of names of other important figures by their followers, such as Manteswami and Kanakadasa among others. This argument was supported by the seer of the Tambihalli Madhava Theertha Math, who termed it "plagiarism" and stated: "... the government is acting against the Constitution and is creating unnecessary caste problems, filling people's hearts with hatred." However, another viewpoint was for the retention of the said names. Their argument was that the Kannada Sahitya Parishat had published this version of the poem when Kuvempu was alive, and had he any reservations regarding it, he would voiced it then. In the end, this version of the poem stayed, and Poornachandra Tejaswi, son of Kuvempu and holder of copyrights of Kuvempu's works, accepted the edited version.

References

External links