Nadageethe composer deserves a clean memorial

MYSORE: That the memorial dedicated to the person behind the ‘Naadageethe’, which, during the British era was sung before the national anthem during official functions, and is rendered even today in most temples, Vidwan Basavappa Shastry (1843-1891), is in a shambles, can’t but move one’s heart.Weeds have grown all over the place at the memorial, which is located next to the LIC office in Bannimantap near the Mysore-Bangalore state highway. Cement slabs lie strewn all over the place; the name of the memorial painted on one such slab - Sri Abhinava Kalidasa Basavappa Shastrigala Smaraka Bhavana - is one such slab. What is depressing is that the place has become the haunt of gamblers and drunkards, thereby nullifying the sanctity of the place.A flashbackIt is was during the reign of the Mysore Wadiyars, by Sri Chamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, that the ‘Nadageethe’ was made the anthem of the state. One stanza of the song was sung at every public function, followed by two lines of the British national anthem.The anthem, which essentially is a hymn on Goddess Gowri, was composed by Shastry, who was a renowned litterateur and a palace scholar. So impressed was Wadiyar by the composition that he set it to music himself with the help of bandmaster Bartlus and the then court musician, Veene Sheshanna. Soon, the ‘Nadageethe’ became an integral part of daily prayers for Kannadigas, so much that school children used to sing it in school before the commencement of their classes.The place is in dire need of cleanliness and needs to be covered with green lawns, worthy of a monument to be cherished by the generations to come.Citizen’s concernSpeaking to Express, Hema, a resident of Bannimantap, said, “The city corporation that plans to protect historical monuments has failed to protect that of the great scholar. The officials should at least ensure that the place is cleaned before Dasara.”