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Kuvempu! The very name evokes before the eyes of those who have seen him, pictures of lofty dignity as well as all-round respect; and he was conscious of it as one could gather from his composed dignified looks.

I first set my eye on him as Professor of Kannada in Maharaja's College in 1950, when I became Professor of English. We occupied adjacent rooms but without ever visiting each other. He came from behind the college, got into his room to meet his Honours class and left like a flash of lighting when the bell rang.

I only had a close look at him at the College Council meetings, himself presiding as Principal. The meetings were business-like.

My tiff with Kuvempu:
The next I met him was again at meetings of the University Council, what today goes by the name Syndicate, he was Vice - Chancellor, I was Principal of Maharaja's College. I can't forget my tiff with him when it came to awarding 'grace marks' to border cases in compulsory English. What with a large number of failures, there used to be a general demand for grace marks and I took a stiff stand against it.

The Vice - Chancellor ruled me out, ready to go ahead with the award, leaving me a lone opponent. I raised my voice to say I would send a note of dissent, at which he tuned on the word "you always dissent, never assent!" He had a sense of humour (he could laugh heartily on occasions, which were few, though) and a good command of the English language, which was at its best, when he grew rather passionate at discussions.

The Registrar, who was well versed in procedural details, brought to our notice that the results could not be passed even if there was a single dissent. When Kuvempu warned me that I would be held responsible, I replied that I would take the sole responsibility.

CM - Kuvempu's critic:
K. Hanumanthaiah, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, visited the Maharaja's College for a Lecture to a large assembly of students and teachers at the legendary Quadrangle with Kuvempu as Vice - Chancellor, presiding over the lecture. The Chief Minister gently prefaced his observation that the poet should not take offence over it - he was referring to Kuvempu's Sri Ramayana Darshanam. He conceded its prestige, because of Sri Rama's unique popularity, but if literature should depict the age in which we live, the poet should have written Gandhi Darshana, what with Gandhi's spectacular achievement in our time, fighting against a great empire. I don't remember at this distance of time, how Kuvempu reacted to it.

Bad teachers:
Going down the memory lane, I recall another instance of a student going on hunger strike, announcing that he would fast unto death if he was not permitted to take the examination. The situation assumed gravity involving the entire college. Students marched in procession to the Vice - Chancellor's house in Vontikoppal. He briskly arrived at the University office, called an emergency meeting of Principals of colleges to pronounce his decision. He opined that only incompetent teachers insisted attendance on, students gladly volunteered to listen to a good teacher; they wouldn't miss a class. Which was true, but the decision left the University vulnerable.

Doni Sagali:
So far, I have dwelt on the official side of Kuvempu's life, while his supreme contribution lay in the world of letters. He wrote great poetry, first-rate fiction, excellent drama and some significant criticism. I remember I was a home sick when in England for two years. A little verse of Kuvempu, which on the face of it sounds simple but fraught with profound underlying meaning. I used to catch myself humming his simple lyric.

Doni Sagali, munde hogali, dooratheerava serali
Let the boat move on,
Move forward
And reach its destined end.

English and Kuvempu:
Which reminds one of Arabindo's remarks on rhythm as coming from the distant home of Truth. Kuvempu had read Arabindo's Savithri and one day remarked in the course of conversation that Arabindo could not have written Savithri in any other language than English.

It was music to my ears, as most of us thought he was prejudiced against English. The very opening verse of his Ramayana acknowledges his debt to the epic poets of the past, regardless of place and time; Homer, Dante and Milton, mainly. He might well have read them. He knew his Shakespeare well as we gather from his Raktakshi.

Writing for the readers:
But what I am interested in is his single-page foreword to his novel "Kanooru Heggadati". While most writers use the "Foreword" to talk about what it meant to bring their book to light, here is Kuvempu with his sole concern on how the reader should go about the book. As one intimately involved in determining the discriminating reader's response to the work in front of him, all my adult life as teacher and critic, I was amazed to read Kuvempu's packed foreword with a pinch of poetry on Reader Response.

Rasanubhava:
He observed, "Novel is a veritable stage, a little theatre in the palm of your hand; like the spectator in theatre, the reader too, has to be watchful, alert and awake and every fibre of his being; let alone his falling asleep, he can't afford to be even drowsy, because it interferes with his experience (anubhava is his word) of the complexities of the action - the rasagati. He should visualize before his mind's eye every situation in the novel, acquaint himself with the characters, register the nuances of their conversation including the changing modulations of their voices - the voice can't tell a lie - this before he might have had any acquaintance with sophisticated critics like Lionel Trilling who was one of the few critics in the West, who insisted on the importance of voice in a work of art. He found it so seminal.

Kuvempu goes on to say that the reader must recreate (Anukriti, not remember) in his imagination, the work he had read, noting all its intricacies even as the author did in creating it. Without it, a lovely garden will be an arid desert, he observes. He concludes by adding: experiencing (Rasanubhava) is not transferring it from the writer to the reader as one carries an idol from one room to another - the reader must till the land, sow the seed, fertilize it and keep watering it regularly till it gives forth the bud which blossoms into a fragrant flower - Anu vyavasaya.

That's the way the reader gets his reward. And that's the way the writer finds his fulfillment, too. If it is true the writer is his own critic, how true of Kuvempu! It is a rare instance of a creative writer who plays the role of the critic, being truly alive.

Prof. C.D. Narasimhaiah
Courtesy: Star of Mysore