Category Archives: Education

A Grand-Daughter’s Tribute To Her Thatha On Teachers’ Day

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Remembering an extraordinary teacher of Kodagu, Devanira K. Appayya.

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” — Henry Brooks Adams, Historian.

In 1909, under the Imperialist Empire of Edward VII, an illustrious son was born in Napoklu, Kodagu, who would later be known for his colossal contribution to education. Little did Dr. Devanira Kunjappa know that this son, Devanira K. Appayya would one day be the recipient of India’s highest medal of honour bestowed on a citizen for teaching excellence.

By the age of 20, in 1929, Devanira Appayya or Appayya Master, as he was lovingly called, put himself through various schools in Kodagu and then went on to graduate from the prestigious Madras Presidency College, an almost unheard of feat at that time.

Presidency College was one of the oldest and the most prestigious institutions in India, boasting of an envious line of alumna including a Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman, freedom fighter C. Rajagopalachari and philosopher Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, who later became the President of India.

Granny would regale us with stories of how Thatha, as we grand kids called him, got to Madras, now Chennai. “He walked, rode bullock carts, took multiple buses and then a train,” she said. It had apparently taken him weeks to travel from Coorg to Chennai, a distance covered in a few hours today.

Financial constraints prevented him from pursuing a higher education, at which point, he returned and joined the Secondary Grade Teachers Training College in Bangalore. This was the start of his memorable teaching career.

Thatha was a born teacher and taught with a sense of compassion and empathy. He held the Head Master’s job at Ammathi Middle School for over 22 years. Known for his impeccable British sense of style, sans the stiff upper lip, one would never find him in soiled clothes (from having spent his evenings picking coffee in his estate) or unpolished shoes.

He stood tall, towering over his colleagues, at 6’0”, but Thatha was modest at heart. It was said that he was a treat to watch as an eloquent speaker. He was also the only Head Master from the State to be selected as a member of the State Prescription Textbook Committee.

In 1962, Government of India presented Devanira Appayya, aged 53, with the prestigious National President’s Award for Teaching Excellence. An honour bestowed by the then President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, also a fellow alumnus of Madras Presidency College.

Never had a Kodava walked the history-laden, post-British Raj corridors of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, dressed in the traditional Kodava attire of Kupya (black collarless, short-sleeved, knee length coat) with the ceremonial Mande Thuni (head gear) and Chale (maroon gold-embroidered silk waist belt), striking quite the intellectual, handsome figure.

Devanira K. Appayya with wife Dharani.

To be awarded this highest recognition was a matter of huge prestige, not just for him, but for the then small State of Kodagu and even smaller community of Kodavas. We were no longer tucked away in a silo of the Western Ghat. He had thus put the tiny State of Kodagu on the National stage.

The State of Mysore, considering his accomplishment as a teacher, extended his retirement by three years. “We pray to God to spare you for a full span of Vedic life and let God Almighty be with you and your family to enjoy your well-earned rest at Ammathi,” wrote the Siddapur Teachers’ Association on the day of his retirement on May 18, 1967.

Thatha died eleven years later at the age of 70. For his family, he was and is a larger-than-life figure, a trailblazer, a legend who touched the hearts of many and left a legacy which gets talked about even to this day.

Appayya Master was known for his unwavering dedication to his family and his craft serving as an inspiration. His ability to impart knowledge while being  compassionate will be remembered for generations to come.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / by Pallavi Joyappa, USA / September 05th, 2023

Two students from Kodagu selected for NCSC

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Two students from Kodagu selected for NCSC

Two young scientists from Kodagu have been selected for the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC).

National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) and Rajya Vijnana Parishat had organised the 28th National Children’s Science Convention.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the convention was organised on virtual mode.

The selected students are C S Raghuvamshi and K K Mahin from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Kodagu Vidyalaya, said convention district coordinator G Sriharsha.

In the state-level junior-level competition held under the theme ‘science for sustainable living’, C S Raghuvamshi and team member N R Samanyu had presented a scientific paper on Shola forest in Kodagu. They prepared their study under the guidance of teacher M S Shruthi.

In the senior category, K K Mahin and team member Purab Ponnappa had prepared a scientific paper on ‘chemical insecticide is boon or bane’ under the guidance of teacher M Lohith Changappa.

Accordingly, Raghuvamshi and Mohin have been selected for the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC), said Vijnana Parishat programme organiser T G Premkumar.

The state-level competition was held at Vijnana Bhavan in Bengaluru. Senior scientist Dr V K Athre Adamya and Adamya Chetana managing trustee Tejaswini Ananth Kumar felicitated the young scientists.

C S Raghuvamshi is the son of civil engineer C R Shivashankar and teacher P Sandhya while K K Mahin is the son of businessman Krishna Mohan and Sridevi.

Team members Samanyu is the son of artists Ram Gautham and Aruna, while Purab Ponnappa is the son of Mathanda Bab Devaiah and Ponnamma.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the competition was held on virtual mode. For the state-level contest, 10 junior scientists were selected from Kodagu.

The science Congress is organised to instil scientific temperament and develop creativity in children.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> India> Karnataka / by DHNS / August 23rd, 2021

Coorg Public School Excels In Various Competitions

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, Women/Girls (wef. Sept 03rd, 2022)

Mysore/Mysuru:

The students of Coorg Public School (COPS), Gonikoppal, Kodagu, have emerged winners in various competitions held during the first week of August.

Vedika Bojamma, a  Grade 1 student of COPS, participated in the All-Karnataka Poetry Recitation Competition conducted by KISA (Karnataka Icse Schools Association) and stood 1st in the State.

The following students of COPS have won prizes in various competitions organised by Lions High School, Gonikoppal, on account of Independence Day celebrations:

Patriotic Song: Gyana U. Kalkur (X std.) – 1st place; Anika Nandish (I PUC) – 1st; L. Tanushree (II PUC) – 3rd; C.P. Ayaan Devaiah (II std.) – 3rd.

English Elocution: B.I. Samarth Ponnappa (IV std.) – 2nd; M. Niyati Kalaiah (IX std.) – 2nd; K. Gayatri Kaveriappa (II PUC) – 2nd; Mathanda Lia Chengappa (III std.) – 3rd; Amrutha Poovamma (I PUC) – 3rd; Trisha Somaiah (VIII std.) – Consolation Prize.

Kannada Elocution: K.B. Dechakka (X std.) – 2nd; Pranjal Somanna Ajjamada (I PUC) – 2nd; N.P. Pradhyoth Kiran (III std.) – 3rd.

Students who bagged prizes in the Taluk-Level Inter School Elocution and Debate Competition held in memory of late Kakamada N. Nanaiah at Appachakavi Vidyalaya on Aug. 8 are as follows:

Kannada Elocution: B.M. Aaradhya Shetty (V std.) – 2nd.

English Debate: Aanchal Pooja (X std.) – 2nd.

Kannada Debate: K.K. Adya (IX std.) – 2nd; T.C. Shringa (X std.)  – 3rd.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / August 27th, 2023

Pandanda Cheethamma Block Inaugurated At Kodagu Model School

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Mysore/Mysuru:

Sri Kavery Kodava Association, Mysore East and Kodagu Model School had organised a function at the school premises in Vidyashanakar Nagar, here this morning to inaugurate the newly-constructed second floor named as ‘Pandanda Cheethamma Block’.

Star of Mysore Founder-Editor K.B. Ganapathy, who is also the Special Advisor of the Association, delivered the inaugural speech after the school block donated by Pandanda Kariappa Family, Kolkata, was inaugurated. 

The event began with Ganapathy homa and Saraswathi puja.

Students presented invocation dance. Association President P.S. Devaiah welcomed.

Association Secretary K.M. Belliappa introduced the guests, who were also felicitated.

Chairperson of Building Committee P.U. Jayakumar addressed the gathering.

Smt. and Dr. Kayapanda M. Mandanna, Kolkata and Smt. and Sri Pandanda K. Madappa, Kolkata, shared their thoughts.

Mary Anitha, Head Mistress of Kodagu Model School, briefed the gathering about                            academics.

Seethamma, Chairperson of the Academic Committee, proposed a vote of thanks.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / August 19th, 2023

Appointed As Visiting Fellow At National Institute Of Health

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Dr. Cheranda Koushik Ponnanna has been appointed as a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Phoenix, Arizona.

He will be conducting his Post Doctoral Resarch on the Genetic Basis of Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity. He holds a Ph.D in Genetics from University of Mysore. He is the son of Cheranda Ravi Thimmaiah and Usha from B. Shettigeri, Kodagu.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> In Briefs / August 14th, 2023

Kodagu native secures sixth rank in LLB

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Kodagu native secures sixth rank in LLB

Mysuru: 

Nithish PV, a native of Kodagu, has bagged sixth rank in the five-year LLB course (Kannada medium) in the state.

Karnataka State Law University, Hubballi, has announced the tentative list of rank holders.

A student of Vidyavardhaka Law College, Nithish wrote exams in Kannada language and scored 51.28 % marks.

He hails from Abbur Katte village in Somwarpet taluk.

He is the son of farmer couple PD Vijay and MS Shobha, said senior advocate S Lokesh, under whom Nithish is currently receiving hands-on training in Mysuru.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Mysuru News / July 27th, 2023

State-Level Inter-Collegiate Sports Week Concludes At MICA

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MICA College, Mysuru, had organised a State- level Inter-Collegiate Hockey, Cricket, Basketball and Football  tournaments in their campus from June 16 to 27.

 Sporting teams from Kodagu, Mandya, Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Mysuru fought for the coveted MI trophies and cash prizes.

In the Hockey MI3s tournament, 29 teams participated and Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa (FMKMC) College, Madikeri, defeated St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru to win the trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 15,000. Runners-up were awarded a trophy and cash prize of Rs. 7,000. 

In MI Crick, 32 teams participated.  In the finals, SBRR Mahajana PG Centre defeated MIT Tandavapura and won a cash prize of Rs. 10,000 with a trophy.  Runners-up were awarded cash prize of Rs. 5,000 and a trophy. 

A total of 14 teams participated in the MI3s Basketball tournament.  In Boys category SJCE, Mysuru defeated MICA Mysuru and won Rs. 10,000 cash prize and a trophy. Runners-up were awarded cash prize of Rs. 5000 and a trophy.  In Girls category, NIE Mysuru defeated Sapient College, Mysuru in the finals. 

In the flood light MI7s Football tournament, 32 teams participated. Sacred Heart Mangalore defeated FMKMC College, Madikeri to clinch the trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 20,000.  Runners-up were awarded cash prize of Rs. 10,000 and a trophy, according to a  press release from MICA Principal.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports / July 10th, 2023

Uproar over selection of Kodagu athletes

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Madikeri :

The decision to cancel the exclusive selection process for Kodagu athletes for state-level teams has irked sports persons in the Kodagu district. As many as 18 students, including three girls, selected at the district-level selection process have been removed.

Kodagu district has players at the state and national level and they have also participated in the Olympics events. An exclusive selection of Kodagu students has been going on for the past 23 years in Ponnampet. 

Arun Machaiah, a former MLC, accused senior officials behind the decision to cancel the selection.

A state-level sports school is being run at Kudige and the athletes to play at the state level are selected from there. 

While the national-level sports persons are selected from Sai Sports Residential School, Madikeri.

Machaiah said when the selection processes for national and state-level events come together the opportunities for the athletes of Kodagu are likely to decrease. 

Zilla panchayat had taken resolution for an exclusive selection of Kodagu students for state teams in Ponnampet School. It was approved by the Karnataka government in 2001.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Mysuru News / by G Rajendra / May 28th, 2023

Kodagu Model School And BVB Secure 100% Results

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Mysore/Mysuru:

Kodagu Model School, promoted by Sri Kavery Kodava Association – Mysuru East, Vidyashankara Layout, has secured hundred percent results in the SSLC Exams for the academic year 2022-23.

Muhammed S. Shiraazuddin has topped Kodagu Model School with 598  marks out of 625 (95.68%).

Other students are: M.P. Nivedha – 594 (95.04%); Bhavish K. Gowda – 538 (86.08%); P. Prem Sagar – 533 (85.28%); S. Lohith Raje Urs – 530 (84.8%); H.U. Thejas Gowda – 525 (84%); R. Preethika – 519 (83.04%); N. Sanjana – 508 (81.28%); S. Preetham Raj – 507 (81.12%); R. Bindu – 501 (80.16%);   N.S. Nandish – 493 (78.88%); M.U. Anirudh – 488 (78.08%); D. Adithya – 478 (76.48%); H. Kiran – 462 (73.92%); S. Purushotham – 447 (71.52%); D.M. Nithish Gowda – 438 (70.08%); M. Tejas – 396 (63.36%); M. Harshavardhan – 375 (60%); P. Yadunandan –  362 (57.92%).

BVB School

The students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB) School in Vijayanagar, Mysuru, too have excelled in SSLC and the School has secured 100 percent results.

Out of the 161 students who had appeared, 124 have passed with distinction and the rest 37 in first class.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / May 08th, 2023

Kodava over the years: Letters and sounds

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Bacharaniyanda Appanna teaching I M Muthanna’s script at the Kodava Sahitya Academy in Madikeri.

Featuring unique words and vowels not found elsewhere, the Kodava language, spoken in Kodagu, is an independent Dravidian language. According to the most recent data from the Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy, there were 21 castes living in Kodagu who spoke the Kodava language: the Kodavas, Amma Kodavas, Kodagu Heggades, Kembattis, Airis, Koyuvas, Boonepattas and the Gollas (Eimbokalas), to name a few.

Kodagu was an independent principality in South India between 1633 and 1834. After the British annexed Kodagu in 1834, it was called Coorg and became a province of British India. After Independence, Coorg was retained as a state and placed under a chief commissioner. In 1956, when the states of the Indian Union were reorganised, Coorg became a district of Karnataka state. 

Kannada was the official language in Kodagu for much of its existence. The Kodava language generally uses the Kannada script. 

The earliest inscriptions found in Kodagu date back to the 9th and 10th centuries and are in Kannada. But there were two peculiar 14th-century inscriptions of Kodagu, dated around 1370-1371 AD found in the Bhagandeshwara temple of Bhagamandala and the Mahalingeshwara temple of Palur. Many have dismissed the inscriptions as a mixture of scripts and languages. In 2021, my work involved isolating letters used in both. I labelled the script used ‘thirke’ (meaning ‘temple’).

Several scripts

There have been a number of scripts invented for the Kodava language in the last 150 years or so. Koravanda Appayya, a doctor in the erstwhile Mysore State, had invented one with around 50 letters in 1887. 

Kodagu scholar Iychettira M Muthanna invented another alphabet for the language in 1970. Appaneravanda Kiran Subbaiah, a sculptor in Mysuru, invented one in 1980. In 1983, he introduced a variant of the Kannada script to accommodate the Kodava language. Often, Kannada or Roman characters (the script used for English) were adapted, sometimes with additional changes.

Ponjanda S Appaiah, a professor, used the Roman script with his own transliteration system in 2003 to write in the Kodava language. In his Kodava-English dictionary, Appaiah used combinations of English letters for the Kodava language. He authored the entire book in the Roman script.

On the other hand, the ‘Kodava Arivole’ (Kodava dictionary) by Boverianda Uthaiah is in the Kannada script and makes use of 35 of the 49 Kannada letters.

In 2005, German linguist Gregg Cox introduced the Coorg-Cox script. Three years later, Charles Henry Kumar, a teacher from Mandya brought out another script to write the Kodava language. 

Extra sounds

Boverianda Nanjamma and Chinnappa say that in addition to the five rounded Kannada vowels (with both long and short forms), the Kodava language has four unrounded vowels in their short and long forms and a nasal sound which accompanies some of the consonants. They have used five diacritical marks (symbols added above letters to indicate accent, tone and stress) in their works to accommodate these extra sounds. 

In February 2022, under the presidentship of Ammatanda Parvathi Appaiah, the Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy discussed the various scripts used for the Kodava language. Bacharaniyanda Appanna, a former president of the academy, taught those assembled the script invented by I M Muthanna. 

Upon comparison, it was declared that Muthanna’s script was the easiest to learn. The Kodava Sahitya Academy then recommended the Muthanna script to the Central Institute of Indian Languages to be made official.

Muthanna was of the opinion that his script was to be taught to children below the age of 15-16 years, says Appanna. “They will learn with passion and help promote the script when they write in it and inspire others,” he adds.

On why a script is important, Appanna says: “A script adds strength to a language, like how pillars strengthen a house. Yet, there are many prominent languages which do not have their own script. English uses Roman, Hindi uses Devanagari.” Having a native script is also important as it accommodates native sounds otherwise not found in other scripts.

Nerpanda Prathik Ponnanna, a language activist, has been popularising the Muthanna Kodava script by creating awareness about it through social media videos. He has also been getting signboards in the script for various shops, ancestral houses, and hockey tournament family teams.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Spectrum / by Mookonda Kushalappa / May 10th, 2023