Biddanda Varun Devaiah

Biddanda Varun Devaiah hails from the shores of West Michigan and grew up speaking both Kodava-thakk and English at home. It was only during the final years of his high school career that he began to deeply appreciate the importance of his ancestral tongue. His undergraduate career at Cornell University reified this passion, instilling him with a profound interest in language in both literary and linguistic contexts. He currently resides in the Basque Country. 

Family

  Father

Biddanda Bopaiah

  Mother

Biddanda Kavitha (thaamane: Machangada)

   Brother

Dr Biddanda Arjun Appanna ( Phd )

In addition to learning about languages and the universes that they construct, Varun is an avid violist/violinist and writer. When he is not learning another language or cleaning up his latest disaster in the kitchen, he can be found going running before the sun rises.

Education:

Varun completed his undergraduate degree at Cornell University, where he double-majored in Biological Sciences and Spanish. He additionally holds minors in International Relations, Linguistics, and Latin American Studies. In the Fall of 2021, he will begin his Ph.D in Spanish Literature at Georgetown University.

An Elementary Guide to the Kodava Language: Having grown up outside of Kodagu, he realised that there was an urgent need for a much more thorough and accessible knowledge base of Kodava-thakk. As his sister-in-law did not speak the language, he decided to make an informal series of lessons to improve her fluency in the language. The project quietly evolved into a much more serious endeavour, eventually forming the rudiments of the first introductory guide with a pedagogical approach for the Kodava language.

Works

This ever-evolving initiative can be found here: https://kodavatakk.weebly.com/.

Actively involved in Kodava Koota &  Kodava Clan‘s  online teaching program ‘Kodava Thakk Padipo’.