Manjeshwar Govinda Pai (1883–1963), also known as Rastrakavi Govinda Pai, was a Kannada poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

. He was awarded the Rashtrakavi title by the Madras Government (Kasaragod district was part of South Kanara district of Madras state prior to the States reorganisation on 1 November 1956 ). Govinda Pai was the one who put Manjeshwar

Manjeshwar

Manjeshwara is the northern tip of Kerala, bordering Karnataka. It is a small coastal village in Kasaragod district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is 21 km from Mangalore town...

 on the literary maps of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Early life

Govinda Pai was born on 23 March 1883 in his maternal grandfather's house in Manjeshwar

Manjeshwar

Manjeshwara is the northern tip of Kerala, bordering Karnataka. It is a small coastal village in Kasaragod district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is 21 km from Mangalore town...

. He was the first son of Mangalore

Mangalore

Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...

 Savakar Thimma Pai and Devaki Amma. Govinda Pai went to school in Mangalore. For college education, Pai went to Madras (Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

). Due to the sudden death of his father, he had to return back.

Career

Govinda Pai was also a prolific prose writer. His earliest composition in prose was Srikrishna Charita (1909) which provides for remarkable reading. His best works written in blank verse, viz., Golgotha (the last days of Christ, published in 1937), Vaisakhi (The last days of Budha, published in 1946) and Hebberaqlu (The Thumb, the story of Ekalavya retold, published in 1946) have won for Govinda Pai a lasting place in the gallery of the greatest poets of Kannada literature.

He was able to read and write fluently 25 languages including Tulu

Tulu language

The Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...

, Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, Telagu, Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

, Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

, Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

, Pali

Páli

- External links :* *...

, Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

, Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 apart from Kannada

Kannada language

Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...

, Konkani

Konkani language

KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. He translated several Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 works into Kannada.

Works

His poems are...

• Gilivindu (1930) (A fight of Parrots)

His first collection Gilivindu consists of 46 poems exhibits poets perspective towards life, his love for the country, his responsiveness to the nature around him and his love for Kannada.

• Nandadeepa (The enduring lamp)

His Nandadeepa consisting of 37 poems, a tribute of divotion to God.

• Hrudayaranga

His other works are...

• Hebberalu (On Ekalavya)
• Chitrabhanu (On Quit India movement)
• Vaishaki (About the last days f the Buddha)\
• Mannina Sogadu
• Taayi

In 1949, the then Madras Government conferred on him the "Rashtrakavi" Award. He was president of the Kannada Sahitya Sammelan at Mumbai in 1951.

On his 125th birth anniversary, a national award was instituted in his name and his old house at Manjeshwar is mooted to be a national monument.

In Udupi near to his native place, "ಗೋವಿಂದ ಪೈ ಸಂಶೋಧನ ಕೇಂದ್ರ" ( "Research Institute of Govind Pai") is established.

External links

• Kannada Writers - Rashtrakavi M. Govind Pai