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.
| Author | |
|---|---|
| Format |
Related products
-
Pot of Butter and other short stories
₹250.00Author: 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.
Also available on
-
Kempu Kanagile and Chitra
₹160.00Author: Rabindranath Tagore, Translator: Sudha Adukkala
ಕೆಂಪು ಕಣಗಿಲೆ: ಅದೆಂಥ ಗಾಢಾಂಧಕಾರವೇ ಇರಲಿ, ಪುಟ್ಟ ಹಣತೆಯೊಂದು ಅದನ್ನು ತೊಡೆಯಬಲ್ಲುದೆಂಬುದು ಸಾರ್ವಕಾಲಿಕ ಸತ್ಯ. ಅಂಥದೊAದು ಸಂಘರ್ಷದ ಕಥನವನ್ನು ಗುರುದೇವ ರವೀಂದ್ರರು ತಮ್ಮ ಈ ನಾಟಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ‘ಕೆಂಪು ಕಣಗಿಲೆ’ ತೆರೆದಿಡುವ ಕೌರ್ಯದ ಜಗತ್ತು ಇಂದು ಈ ಕಾಲಘಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಂತು ಬರೆದರೇನೋ ಎಂಬಷ್ಟು ತಾಜಾ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಇಲ್ಲಿಯ ರಂಜನ ಕೇವಲ ಒಂದು ಪಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲ; ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ತುಂಬಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕಾದ ಜೀವನ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ವಿವಿಧ ಆಯಾಮಗಳ ಪ್ರತಿನಿಧಿ. ಇಲ್ಲಿಯ ನಂದಿನಿ ಇಂದು ಜಗವ ಸಂತೈಸಬೇಕಾದ ತಾಯಿಹೃದಯದ ಪ್ರತೀಕವಾಗಿದ್ದಾಳೆ.
ಚಿತ್ರಾ: ಪೌರಾಣಿಕ ಕಥಾನಕವೊಂದರ ಪುನರ್ಲೇಖನದ ಈ ನಾಟಕವು ಹೆಣ್ಣು ಮತ್ತು ರಾಷ್ಟçವನ್ನು ಒಂದು ಸಂಕಥನವನ್ನಾಗಿ ಚರ್ಚಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೆಣ್ಣು-ಗಂಡಿನ ಘನತೆಯ ಬದುಕನ್ನು ಕನಸುವ ನಿರೂಪಣೆ ನಾವು ಕಟ್ಟಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವ ರಾಷ್ಟçದ ರೂಪುರೇಷೆಗಳನ್ನೂ ತನ್ನೊಳಗೆ ಆಡಕ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಿದೆ. ನಮ್ಮ ಅನನ್ಯತೆಯನ್ನು ಉಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಸಹಬಾಳ್ವೆಯನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವ ಬಗೆಯನ್ನು ಮಂಡಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ತಾನು ಆರೋಪಿಸಿಕೊಂಡ ಕೃತಕ ತೆರೆಯನ್ನು ಸರಿಸುವ ಚಿತ್ರಾ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗಿನ ಅರಿವಿಗೆ ತೊಡಕಾಗಿರುವ ಸಂಕುಚಿತತೆಯ ಪರದೆಯನ್ನೂ ಸರಿಸುತ್ತಾಳೆ.
Interested overseas readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.Also available on
-
Tapaalu Mani
₹140.00Author: Rabhindranath Tagore, Translator: Mounesh Badiger
ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರಕವಿ ರವೀಂದ್ರನಾಥ ಠಾಕೂರರ ‘ಡಾಕ್ ಘರ್’ ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ನಾಟಕ. ಮಗುವಿನ ಮನೋದೈಹಿಕ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲೆಯ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮಕಣ್ಣಿನಿಂದ ನೋಡುವ ಎರಡಂಕದ ಪುಟ್ಟ ನಾಟಕವಿದು. ಇದು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸುವ ಮಾಯಾವಾಸ್ತವ ಬಹಳ ಅಪರೂಪವಾದದ್ದು. ಇದರ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಪಾತ್ರ ಮಗುವೇ ಆಗಿದ್ದರೂ ಇದರ ವಸ್ತು ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗಳಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ದೊಡ್ಡವರಿಗೇ ಅನ್ವಯವಾಗುವಂತಿದೆ. ಮೌನೇಶ ಬಡಿಗೇರರು ಇದನ್ನು ಉತ್ತರಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಭಾಷೆಗೆ ತಂದು ಕನ್ನಡದ ನಾಟಕವೇ ಎನ್ನುವಷ್ಟು ರೂಪಾಂತರಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇದರ ಪ್ರಯೋಗದ ಹೊಸ ಹೊಸ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕನ್ನಡ ರಂಗಭೂಮಿ ಇನ್ನೂ ಶೋಧಿಸಬೇಕಿದೆ.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
Tunes of a Single String
₹200.00Author:
Dive into the enchanting poetry of Dr Kathyayini Kunjibettu through Tunes of a Single String, a captivating translation of her anthology Ekthari Sanchari. Kathyayini’s verses defy convention with unrhymed lines and free verse, reflecting a profound liberation of spirit and language. Each poem brings rural landscapes and Indian mythological scenes to life with remarkable freshness and emotional depth.
This collection invites readers to explore why Kathyayini’s works align with Renaissance Poems of a Modernist Tradition. Her poetic voice resonates with freshness and depth, deftly blending familiar themes into uniquely unconventional settings. Tunes of a Single String invites readers to delve into the vibrant world of modern Kannada poetry through Kathyayini’s fearless exploration of life, culture, and language.
Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
Swapna Saraswatha
₹530.00Author: Gopalakrishna Pai Translator: Sumathi Shenoy, M R Rakshith, Savita Sastri
Swapna Saraswatha is the saga of migration of a community called Saraswaths in the west coast of India, extending from Goa to the south of Mangalore. It captures the dominance of a colonial power over the region that began with the entry of the Portuguese about four hundred years ago. The novel is a graphic description of the displacement of this strongly-rooted community which saw its resurrection in a new area. In the course of its narrative, the novel traces the gradual changes in the structure of the family that moved from a closely knit joint family of the bygone era to the nuclear family. It also deals with the factors that are responsible for the change in value systems of individuals in the wake of such paradigm shifts. With its vast canvas, it remarkably weaves fiction with myth and history, peppered with cultural details and linguistic nuances. The narration in Swapna Saraswatha progresses in the form of an epic detailing the story of nine generations spread over a period of two hundred and fifty years from 1510 to about 1760. It encompasses more than a hundred and fifty characters which include Hindus, Muslims, Christians, chieftains, traders, farmers, priests and black magicians, and covers a range of themes spread across folk tales, legends, armies, myths and a sprinkling of history.
-
A Handful of Sesame
₹310.00Author: Srinivas B Vaidya, Translator: Maithreyi Karnoor
With a captivating start, A Handful of Sesame plunges us into the heart of the dying years of the 1857 mutiny. But the mutiny is largely a backdrop to the novel. When Kamalanabh of Kashi is manipulated by an impoverished Brahmin of Navalgund into marrying his daughter, the novel becomes basically the story of an internal migration. This is rare, and it remains one of the strengths of the novel. We are so used to speaking of migration across the postcolonial bridge and accredited national borders that we forget that India is a country of endless internal migrations – in the past and the present.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
Sati Kamale
₹240.00Author: S U Paniyadi Translators: B Surendra Rao, K Chinnappa Gowda
This eponymous novel is centred on Kamale, who is an embodiment of wifely virtue. For fifteen long years Kamale lives the life of a widow to the outside world, nurturing the hopes of reuniting with the husband one day. Alone in the room, each night she wears her marks of a married woman with the dagger gifted by Umesha next to her. It could be seen as an exposition on the then existing indigenous discourse in India in the 19th century and early 20th century. Kamale, in her rigorous commitment and in retrieving her husband from ‘death’, is fashioned after Savithri in an intertextual reference to Mahabharata’s episode of “Satyavan and Savithri”. The novel might look conservative for the present-day reader, but it is a representative literary work of the time when Paniyadi, among many others, wanted to regain the independent status of the Tulu language which had somehow slipped out of its pedestal.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
Unheard Sounds Flow On
₹315.00Author: 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