Tuluva History of Gururaja Bhat

I have some rare volumes on Indian History and Culture in the drawing room cabinet of my Bangalore residence. Pride of place goes to (late) Dr. P. Gururaja Bhat's volume of "Studies in Tuluva History and Culture (1975). The large size book with 452 pages and 448 plates and 20 pages of line drawings as also appendices on Iconography and Inconometry besides 80 of pages of list of illustrations and glossary provides specimen of long toiling hours of Prof. Gururaja Bhat for more than 16 years.

In the days when even minimum facilities of bus transportation to remote villages was a dream, and a flash bulb and tele-lense had not made appearance on Indian scene, Dr. Bhat toured every village of Tulunadu (Comprising present South Kanara, Udupi and part of North Kanara district) on bicycle and foot with a camera and notebook. He saw and recorded 2,000 monuments, examined 15,000 inscriptions and scrutinized equal number of icons.

The book covers all sacred places of Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist relics besides those of Bhuta cult, for which the place is very rich famous. His observations on origin and development of Tulu language and literature are original and important. This field since has developed into independent field of research.

Earlier Dr. Bhat had written hundreds of articles on Tulu history and culture. Temples of Udupi, Subramanya and antiquities of the region earned him the title of "Father of Tuluva Archaeology". He was the first scholar to interpret place names and Toponymy scientifically. It has developed into important section in the study of subaltern history now.

Dr. Padur Gururaja Bhat was born in 1924 at Padur village in Udupi taluq in a very poor family. With great difficulty he could finish schooling in Karkal and took to teaching. Later he graduated from Madras University and did M.A. from Banaras Hindu University. He taught history and archeology in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College at Udupi and later became Principal of Milagres College of Kallianpur (Udupi). He was involved in research and teaching till his tragic end in 1978.

His book "Studies in Tuluva History and Culture" is an all-time great, bearing witness to endless effort of human mind, in spite of meager sources and resources at disposal and lack of institutional support. Besides being an important source for the study of an important section in South Indian History, it forms a model for researchers in complete study of a region.