H. L. Nage Gowda

Who was H. L. Nage Gowda?

H.L. Nage Gowda was a prominent Kannada folklorist and author. He received a number of awards in his lifetime, both for his writing and for his work in conserving and propagating folk traditions.

Nage Gowda was born in Heraganahalli village in Mandya district in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. He studied science and law, before becoming a civil servant. He was made an officer of the Indian Administrative Service in 1960. Starting from the 1970s, Nage Gowda wrote a number of literary works in Kannada. Doddamane won critical acclaim for its portrayal of the culture of rural southern Karnataka, and was one of the works that won him the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award. He also wrote several other novels, two collections of poetry, collections of short stories and essays, and a travelogue.

In 1979, Nage Gowda founded the Karnataka Janapada Parishat, an academy devoted to the study and propagation of traditional folk arts in Karnataka. In 1986, he started work Janapada Loka, a museum of the folk arts located in Ramnagaram, around 53 kilometres from Bangalore, which opened to the public in 1994. He also wrote a number of books documenting folk traditions and artforms, and organised festivals, seminars and workshops to promote them.