Swan Song
₹320.00
Author: T R Subba Rao| Translator: Pramod Mutalik
Swan Song is the poignant tale of Venkatasubbiah, a legendary musician from 18th century Chitradurga. Written by renowned Kannada author Late Shri T R Subba Rao (TaRaSu) and translated into English by Prof Pramod Mutalik, the novel explores the extraordinary journey of an artist whose unwavering dedication to his craft defines his life.
The author weaves together perspectives from people of varied backgrounds to reconstruct Venkatasubbiah’s story, revealing his innate musical genius and determination. It narrates the tale of a musician’s steadfast devotion to art against all odds.
The narrative takes a dramatic turn when Venkatasubbiah defies Tippu Sultan’s order to perform in his palace. To protect the dignity of his art, he sacrifices his ability to sing by cutting off his tongue. Undeterred, he continues to produce swaras through his nose, earning him the metaphorical title of the swan. His life ends while performing, leaving an unforgettable legacy of self-respect and artistic integrity.
Category: | Indian Literature in Translation |
---|
Author | |
---|---|
Format |
Related products
-
Pot of Butter and other short stories
Author: Sunanda Belgaumkar Translator: Sa Usha, Vaijayanti Suryanarayana
Pot of Butter and other Short Stories is a collection of nine short stories, originally composed by Sunanda Belgaumkar in Kannada, handpicked and translated from her collections – Kajjaya and Koduvudenu Kombudenu. The bulk of her literary work including the stories in this book are inspired by the experiences in her early life, in the rustic and robust atmosphere of Dharwad. Her stories are predominantly semiautobiographical, laced with a liberal dose of artistic freedom.
This collection weaves together her writings on the underprivileged and marginalized as seen from the comfort of her palatial home, but rendered with compassion and empathy. Often, we find her narrative infused with self-directed questions such as, “What if I was in her shoes? ” or “Could that have been me? ” These stories are reflections on human nature, suffering, and destiny. There is hope, there is despair. There is love, there is longing. There is defeat, and there is triumph. In her stories, an oft-recurring metaphor for picking up one’s life after loss is a scorching summer followed by a torrential downpour and subsequently a plant springing to life.
As a translation, this book attempts to introduce Sunanda Belgaumkar’s literary and artistic creations to the non-Kannada reader, retaining as much of the indigenous elements of the original writings as possible. In doing so, it seeks to preserve the cultural climate of North Karnataka as it was around fifty years ago.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
-
Mahammaayi
Author: Chandrasekhara Kambara, Translator: Kathyayini Kunjibettu
Mahāmmāyi is the story of the legend of Shatavithaayi – the Goddess of death, and her adopted son Sambhashiva. Out of affection for her son, Goddess Shatavithaayi blesses him with the “power of life”. The blessing was that death will evade the people who are treated by Sambashiva. But a certain condition set by Shatavithaayi forbade him from healing every ill man. The condition was that, if Shatavithaayi stood on the right side of the patient, Sambhashiva could treat that person and he would live; but, if she stood on the left side of the patient, he should not treat that person as his death was inevitable. Through a distinct method of story-telling, the story follows the life of Sambhashiva as he begins to question the ideas of fate and destiny. Thus, the conflict between fate and human efforts to change that fate is vividly described in this play. -
Two Plays – The Sahyadri Saga and The World of Swayamvara
Author: Akshara K V Translator: Jayanth Kodkani
These two plays negotiate with the real problems of contemporary India. If Sahyadri Kanda is about the ripples caused in the life of the people in a village on the Western Coast which will soon have a nuclear plant, Swayamvaraloka, is an allegorical narrative set in a small village that extends to include the larger contemporary world. Both the plays dwell on the seeming binaries of village-city, success-failure, modern-traditional while examining the nature of human relationships in the changing world. These plays also reflect an ambition to elevate the real experience to a mythical level. While most playwrights attempt to echo contemporary concerns by reinterpreting history and mythology, for these plays, the epics, their grandeur, the struggle, the wars are not episodes that happen in kingdoms and palaces and battlefields, they are also that which takes place in the microworld of one’s consciousness. Each character in these plays find their own dharma, yet it offers no model for the reader, and remains only a pointer to the complex process of finding it.
Also available on
eBook available on
-
Anurakte
Author: Vyasaraya Ballal Translator: Poornima Hebbar
There are many rags-to-riches stories around the city of Mumbai. However, here is a story of transformation of a woman and her true self in the city of dreams. Set in Mangalore and Mumbai of the late 1940s, Anurakte- The Enamoured is an elegantly written story of a woman and her changing worldview over a period of time. Sumithra, a young woman with ordinary dreams and aspirations, comes to the then Bombay in search of livelihood. Little did she know that her experiences in the city and her zest for an independent life would transform her into a different person. She breaks the shell and resolves not to look back. The book is a poignant tale of love, loss, betrayal, family, relationships and traditions. The culturescape of Mumbai beautifully intertwines with her dreams. It is as much a story of the vibrancy of Mumbai as it is about Sumithra’s journey towards freedom.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
-
BAKA – Collection of Two Plays
Author: M S Keshava Prabhu, Translator: L V Shantakumari
Baka dramatizes the episode of Bakasura, from the Indian epic, Mahabharata. Baka is a cannibal demon that terrorizes a village with its horrifying attacks. The king of the village strikes an agreement with the demon, putting its people in peril. They live in constant fear for years until the sudden arrival of a hero changes everything.
A theatrical and evocative narration, this play satirically mirrors society’s greed and irresponsibility. It depicts power struggles through the conflict that arises between Baka the demon, the cowardly king, and the oppressed people.Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book. -
Nala Charitre: The Legend of Nala(A Short Epic)
This book presents the mythological narrative of Nala-Damayanti as an epic poem in English. Among the luminaries of sixteenth century Bhakti tradition, Kanakadasa’s literary and musical compositions (kirtanes) are imbued with philosophical meanings, which show immense formative influence on the cultural and literary scene of Karnataka. Also, Kanakadasa’s literary works such as Mohana Tarangini, Haribhaktisara, and the eminent allegorical masterpiece Ramadhanya Charitre incorporate metaphors taken from everyday life, which fascinate the commoners and offers them respite from mundane life-struggles. While such metaphorical expressions represent a remarkable trend in Bhakti poetry, in Kanakadasa?s depiction of Nala and Damayanti’s misfortunes, the toilsome life of common men and women stares forth. Hauled out of their palatial leisurely living, a curious turn of events compels them to survive amidst endless suffering. On one hand Nala Charitre is a poignant story of love, and on the other, it thematizes human existence, humandivine relationship and simplifies poetry to reach the audience beyond the limited circle of literates. As the Bhakti Literature assimilates the vernacular into devotional poetry, Kanakadasa?s epic poem interweaves mythological themes from Mahabharata with struggles of medieval Indian society, thus overcoming the binaries of human and divine.
-
Unheard Sounds Flow On
Author: K Mahalinga, Translator: T K Ravindran
In spite of being one of the oldest members of the Dravidian family of languages, Tulu, unfortunately, has not yet found the recognition that it richly deserves in the modern world. Since modernity privileges the written over the spoken, the Tulu language that is abundantly blessed with oral literature has been placed on the fringes of modern literary world. Ironically, Tulu is still engaged in a desperate fight for official status in a country that boasts of its cultural and linguistic diversity. The motives behind the translation of Nanajjer Sude Tirgayer, hailed as the first modern Tulu novel, into English refuse to remain apolitical in this context.
The novel, which has already been translated into Kannada, Konkani and Malayalam, beautifully captures the pulse of rusticity that characterizes the life of a village community that lived its life with its love-hate relationship with nature, more than 75 years ago in a Tulu speaking village in the south-western part of Karnataka. Besides bringing alive the socio-cultural practices that find their articulation through the natural linguistic plurality ingrained in the village psyche, the novel touches upon the duality of human nature that leaves man perennially condemned to an inner crisis.
Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
U-Turn
Author: Anand Mhasvekar, Translator: Neeta Inamdar
ಮರಾಠಿ ನಾಟಕ. ಯು-ಟರ್ನ್ ಮಹಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಮತ್ತು ಅದರಾಚೆಗೆ 585 ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಹೃದಯಗಳನ್ನು ಗೆದ್ದಿದೆ. ಗುಜರಾತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇದರ ಅನುವಾದವು 115 ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡಿದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹಿಂದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ 50 ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡಿದೆ. ಈ ಯಶಸ್ಸು ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ ಸವಿತಾ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿಯವರ ಬೆಂಬಲದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಕೃತಿಯನ್ನು ಅನುವಾದಿಸಲು ಪ್ರೊ.ನೀತಾ ಇನಾಮದಾರ್ ಅವರನ್ನು ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹಿಸಿತು. ನಾಟಕವು ಉದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ಕೇವಲ ಎರಡು ಪಾತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಇಡೀ ಅವಧಿಗೆ ವೇದಿಕೆಯ ಮೇಲಿರುವ ಇಬ್ಬರನ್ನು ಹೊರತುಪಡಿಸಿ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಧ್ವನಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. ನಾಟಕದ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯು ಆಧುನಿಕತೆಯನ್ನು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಲ್ಲಿನ ವ್ಯತ್ಯಾಸಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಎರಡು ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ತಲೆಮಾರುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ ಸಂಘರ್ಷಗಳು. ವಿಚ್ಛೇದಿತ ಸೇನೆಯ ಮೇಜರ್ ಮತ್ತು 50 ರ ದಶಕದ ಅಂತ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ವಿಧವೆಯ ನಡುವಿನ ಒಡನಾಟವನ್ನು ಅವರ ಮಕ್ಕಳು ವಿರೋಧಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅವರು ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು ತಾವು ಆಧುನಿಕತೆಯನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡರೂ ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ನೀತಾ ಇನಾಮದಾರ್ ಅವರು ಮಣಿಪಾಲ್ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾನಿಲಯದಲ್ಲಿ (MU) ಯುರೋಪಿಯನ್ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ವಿಭಾಗದ (DES) ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಮತ್ತು ಮಣಿಪಾಲ್ ಯೂನಿವರ್ಸಲ್ ಪ್ರೆಸ್ ನ (MUP) ಮುಖ್ಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಸಂಗೀತ ಮತ್ತು ರಂಗಭೂಮಿ ಅವರ ಆಸಕ್ತಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ ಸವಿತಾ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿ ಅವರ ನೆರವಿನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಈ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಕೈಗೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡಿತು. ಸವಿತಾ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿ ಅವರು ಮಣಿಪಾಲದ ಮಹಿಳಾ ಉದ್ಯಮಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಅವರು ಬಾಬಾ ಆಮ್ಟೆ ಅವರ ಆನಂದವನಕ್ಕೆ ಧನಸಹಾಯವನ್ನೂ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅವರು ಮರಾಠಿ, ಹಿಂದಿ ಮತ್ತು ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ನಾಟಕಗಳ ಓದುಗರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ, ಅವರು ಈ ಅನುವಾದ ಯೋಜನೆಗೆ ತಮ್ಮ ಬೆಂಬಲವನ್ನು ನೀಡಿದರು.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.