‘Halakatti’s efforts have helped preserve Vachana literature for posterity’

Dignitaries lighting the ceremonial lamp to inaugurate the Vachana Literature Conservation Day programme organised to mark the birth anniversary of Vachana Pitamaha F.G. Halakatti at Hongirana Hall in Ballari on Thursday.

| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Rich tributes were paid to Fakirappa Gurubasappa (F.G.) Halakatti, revered as the Vachana Pitamaha, at functions organised across Ballari and Koppal on Thursday to mark his birth anniversary and Vachana Sahitya Samrakshana Dinacharane (Vachana Literature Conservation Day).Speakers hailed his lifelong efforts in collecting, preserving and publishing Vachana literature ensuring that one of Karnataka’s greatest literary and spiritual treasures survive for future generations.Addressing a commemorative programme at Hongirana Auditorium in the Cultural Complex in Ballari, president of the District Sharana Sahitya Parishat Siddarama Kalmath said that Halakatti rescued Vachana literature from oblivion after the 12th-century Kalyana Revolution scattered the writings of Basavanna and other Sharanas.He said that while only a handful of Vachanas by about 25 Vachanakaras were known in the early 20th century, Halakatti painstakingly travelled across the region to collect nearly 22,000 Vachanas making them accessible to the Kannada-speaking public through systematic editing and publication.