Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa , popularly known by his pen name Kuvempu, was an Indian novelist, poet, playwright, critic and thinker. He is widely regarded as the greatest Kannada poet of the 20th century. He is the first among Kannada writers to be by decorated with the Jnanpith Award.Kuvempu studied at Mysuru University in the 1920s, taught there for nearly three decades and served as its vice-chancellor from 1956 to 1960. He initiated education in Kannada as the language medium. For his contributions to Kannada Literature, the Government of Karnataka decorated him with the honorific Rashtrakavi in 1958 and Karnataka Ratna in 1992. His epic narrative Sri Ramayana Darshanam, a modern rendition of the Indian Hindu epicRamayana is regarded as the revival of the era of Mahakavya in contemporary form and charm. His writings and his contribution to "Universal Humanism" gives him a unique place in modern Indian literature. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 1988. He penned the Karnataka State Anthem Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate.
“When I hear Kannada, my heart leaps up and I am all ears.”
Quoted in A Few inches of Ivory, 24 November 2013, Jstor Organization http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/23001425?uid=3738256&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102981873241,
He stated when he deviated from the Valmiki Ramayana epic story and was criticized for the changes made. Quoted in [Mandakranta Bose Director of the Center for India and South Asia Research and the Institute of Asian Research University of British Columbia, The Ramayana Revisited, http://books.google.com/books?id=F_vuoXvAUfQC&pg=PA140, 1 September 2004, Oxford University Press, 978-0-19-803763-7, 140–]
“In me is the sky, in me lies the earth.”
A couplet he wrote in Kannada, before writing his first full poem in the language.
Poet, nature lover and humanist (2004)
From Kuvempu’s writings in English on the historical subject of Timoor’s invasion of India. Quoted here. Poet, nature lover and humanist, 24 November 2013, Archive Organization http://web.archive.org/web/20060318053230/http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr252004/sh1.asp,
The first is a poem on flowers translated from a Kannada poem, 'Poovu', and the second is linked mythological story and both are quoted in Poet, nature lover and humanist, 24 November 2013, Archive Organization http://web.archive.org/web/20060318053230/http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr252004/sh1.asp,
"The Flower", a translation of his first Kannada poem "Poovu".
/ Poet, nature lover and humanist (2004)
