M. Govinda Pai

In 1949, the then Madras Government conferred on him the Rashtrakavi award. He was the president of Kannada Sahitya Sammelana at Bombay in 1951. On his 125th birth anniversary, a national award was instituted in his name and his old house at Manjeshwar is mooted to be a national monument. In Udupi near his native place, the Govind Pai Research Institute is established near MGM College of Dr. T.M.A Pai Foundation of Manipal institutions. Other centres in the vicinity are Yakshagana & Janapada Samshodhana Kendra, Kanakadasa Peetha and Tulu lexicon project. Govind Pai was also acknowledged by the government of Kerala. The Govind Pai Memorial College is a part of Kannur University in Manjeswar is a testimonial for this. • Illustration — M Govinda Pai Regional Research Centre Udupi Govind Pai attended the Intermediate Course at Government College, Mangalore. It was here that he had Panje Mangesh Rao as one of his teachers. Panje was another pioneer of the Modern Kannada literary renaissance. Govind Pai had once asked Panje for the text of two songs which Panje used to recite. Panje used to borrow literary journals from Govind Pai, who, even as a lad of 13, had developed a taste for books and had started subscribing to literary journals. On the occasion of Govind Pai's 125th birthday celebration at Manjeshwar, the foundation stone for the 'Gilivindu Project' was laid. The Union government and state governments of Kerala and Karnataka jointly took the initiative to build a memorial by planning a project called 'Gilivindu' at an estimated cost of Rs 20 million, which will consist of an open amphitheater, venue for staging plays, art exhibitions, Yakshagana, library section, preservation of manuscripts, research, comparative studies, archives, guest house for scholars etc. The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) foundation would meet the expenses to renovate the Govinda Pai memorial building into a museum, library and an auditorium. The initiative was part of the ‘Gulivindu’ project, launched by the Kerala and Karnataka governments, to develop the poet's ancestral house here into a national level centre of literature, culture, and research. Though Govind Pai today exists for us in the form of his poems, plays essays and such other literary and non-literary works, his life was so full of events and his personality so impressive and his accomplishments were so various that they have been recorded by many writers who were captivated by them and these records also recreate his life for us. Govind pai's circle of friends and readers was so large that in the commemoration volume brought out in Kundapur in the year 1965 no fewer than 70 writers, all eminent and distinguished writers in their own merit, sketched the remarkable qualities of the genius that Govind pai was. Govind pai's rich personality, reflected in his works, gets further focus in these reminiscences. Poetic composition in Kannada was largely conventional around the turn of the century. On the prescription of all poets invariably used to maintain the initial rhyme in versification. Govind Pai too adhered to this practice in the early stages of his career. His first poem "Suvasini" was published in the journal of the same name The first poems to be published in "Swadeshabhimani" were "Subhadra Vilapa" and "Kaliya Mardana". These poems had the initial rhyme. These rhymed poems were published in the journal Swadeshabhimani from 1903 to 1910. But slowly Govind Pai began to ask whether initial rhyme was so essential to poetry. Sanskrit poetry and English poetry did not have this element but that did not detract from their merit. Once Govind Pai made bold to ask Panje Mangesh Rao about his opinion on giving up rhyme. He seemed to imply that writing without rhyme meant a lack of poetic skill. Govind Pai was not satisfied with the response. But he still hesitated to deviate from the trodden path. Some poems which he wrote without rhyme he destroyed. But when he was in Baroda in 1911 he finally made up his mind to renounce rhyme. But today Govind Pai's route of deviation has become the royal path.