Bachamada Ḍevaiah Gaṇapati Writer, Scholar & Journalist

Bachamada Ḍevaiah Gaṇapati was born in Besagoor village in Coorg in 1920, he was a noted writer, scholar, and journalist writing in English, Kannada and Kodava Takk, covering religion, anthropology and philosophy. He is noted for his coverage of the Kodagu and the Kodava ethnolinguistic group, He was a journalist for a newspaper in Karnataka state and author of several books on Kodavas and other subjects.

Career

During the Indian Independence Movement, he was the sub-editor of the Kodagu, a pro-Independence weekly Kannada newspaper founded by his father-in-law, in 1942 the British India authorities restricted the publication of the Kodagu weekly and had B. D. Ganapathy imprisoned along with his father-in-law.

Notable Works

• Ganapathy’s most noted works are his 1967 Kodavas, their customs and culture published by the Kodagu Ltd. also called the Coorg Company, which owned the Kodagu weekly.
•  The Eternal Quest (1970),
• Naṅga Koḍava (1973 in Kodava takk),
• Kodavas (1980) and
• Kanni Kaveri (1990 in Kodava Takk).
• Among his works two books are in the Kodava Language: Nanga Kodava and Kuttambolicha.
• His Kannada book on Kodava culture Kodagu Mattu Kodavaru has won him the State Academy Award.
• He wrote 11 works in 16 publications and in three languages.

Awards

• He won the State Academy Award for a book on Kodava culture Kodagu Mattu Kodava.

Recently, efforts are being made to foster Kodava literature and for the same purpose, the Kodava Thak Parishat was established in 1978. The first conference was presided over by B. D. Ganapathi. A book has been written about him in 2002.