Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Great Kurubas 3 - P.R.Thippeswamy

P.R. Thippeswamy was a great artist and folklorist of Karnataka. He was popularly known as PRT. He was instrumental in establishment of the "Folklore Museum" in Mysore in 1968. He was also the first curator of the museum along with another scholar K.R.Krishnaswamy. The folklore museum contains Representative collection of arts and crafts from all over Karnataka. P.R.Thippeswamy brought material from all over Karnataka to increase the collection. One of the fascinating displays in the museum is the "Ink" prepared locally by the great grandfather of the late P.R.Thippeswamy at Dodderi village of Chitradurga District 200 years ago.

He was also an artist, he carved a niche for himself with is mastery of watercolours. Being an artist,  Mr Thippeswamy had a clear vision about how and where to search for the most important and significant representations of the world of folk art to be displayed in the museum. He travelled throughout Karnataka to collect them for the museum. He was also responsible for setting up "Manjusha Museum" in Dharmasthala. His watercolours of  'Gagan Mahal' and 'Krishna Deva Raya's  are displayed prominently in the museum in Dharmasthala.

Mr P.R. Thippeswamy was also a poet and Indologist. He was also served as chairman of "Lalitha Kala Academy" and won the Kannada Rajyotsava and K.Venkatappa award in 1999. He passed away on April 7th 2000. A commemorative volume on his life and achievements called "Harathi Jyothji" was released in 2007 by former education minister of Karnataka Mr H.Vishwanath. He hailed from Harthikote village of Hiriyur taluk in Chitradurga district.

Some of his notable works include "Shilpi Sankula", "Kalakosha", "Kalavida Kanda France", "Horatgara Kenchappa", "Beledu Banda Bharatiya Chitrakale" etc. Because of his multiple talents he was known as " Chaturmukha Brahma"(four faced brahma).

He has many followers and admirers of his works, especially the paintings. Many associations and fan clunks regularly organise seminars and exhibitions of his paintings. There has been a demand to build a memorial in Bengaluru in recognition of his works. he was also instrumental in introducing new artists to the field.

Even I did not know about this great man, I recently read a news cutting and also some exhibition being held in Bengaluru about P R Thippeswamy and was plesantly surprised to find that he belonged to the Kuruba Gowda community. I did see some of his paintings in Flickr website and the are really amazing. I will give the link below and suggest people reading this blog go through some of his paintings.

Its sad that such a great mans efforts and achievements has not been recognised by the government of Karnataka, I remember reading a lesson about one Krishna Hebbar while I was in school, probably 8th standard, I am now wondering why P R Thippeswamy has not been recognaised as Mr Hebbar, is it the caste the reason? readers decide.

Link -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9699411@N07/page5/

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