Highly-qualified is an inadequate description of Dr B N Raveesh, professor and head of department of Psychiatry, Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMC and RI), in Mysuru.
Besides his education, experience and research related to his speciality, Dr Raveesh is an expert in law, human rights, forensics and hospital administration, related to his medical profession and advocacy. Earlier, he also served as the director of Dharwad Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. His exact degrees, institutions and nations, where he, both, studied and worked, is a long list. Of late, he has donned the robes of a cultural activist and turned into a historian.
His first book should have been ideally on medicine or psychiatry, but ‘Ganga Samrata Sripurusha’, related to history, was released recently. It tries to trace and revive his ethnicity and the pride of Gangas, especially Sripurusha, whose memorial was traced and restored last year.
DH: As a medical doctor, who specialises in psychiatry, studying and researching psychiatry, psychology, human rights, forensic law, law and hospital administration would not have looked strange. What was the motivation to dig into history?
BNR: In 2019, the late T N Dasegowda of Talakad had organised a felicitation to achievers of T Narsipur taluk. In that function, a few persons ridiculed me, for not having chosen a foreign nation, to match my education, research and experience. Then, Dasegowda made me proud with his knowledge on history of Bannur, my birthplace. He said, Sripurusha, one of the great Ganga rulers, was from Bannur and most of the people in the region, including me, could be his ancestors. This evoked pride in me, about my birthplace and the Gangas.
You would have studied History up to 10th standard in school. After becoming a medical professional, you studied history again. Had history fascinated you during school days?
I studied up to seventh standard in Christ the King Convent, where we had a physical training teacher, who used to engage theory classes, whenever we could not play, due to rain or hot climate. He used to tell us history of the places in the neighbourhood. Besides, my maternal grandmother Sannamma used to narrate the legends about temples we used to visit. She explained how Kodandaramaswamy temple in Bannur turned into a fort, for defence purpose. When I changed school to Marimallappa’s, names of our groups were from history — Chalukya, Kadamba, Wadiyar and Ganga. Once I was in Ganga group and tried to trace their emblem, from a book. When we changed groups in rotation, we used to study about the dynasties, their noteworthy kings and their achievements.
How do you relate your childhood with your present fascination for history?
My maternal great-grandfather Musuvegowdara Kalegowda was a wrestler in the court of then maharaja Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar. My maternal grandfather K Kalegowda was a farmer, who owned two rice mills in Bannur. In memory of his father, he used to conduct wrestling championships. I used to watch the wrestling bouts and feel proud about my heredity. My father B M Nanjegowda, who retired as deputy chief engineer of Irrigation department, is from Bevinahalli, bordering Bannur. As we were put up in Mysuru, our visits to Bannur, Bevinahalli and neighbouring villages, with my mother K Pramila, was frequent. Thus, my connect with my native place and its neighbourhood is strong.
How did you go about the research on Gangas?
In the function, when I was felicitated in 2019, I was introduced to Talakad Chikkarangegowda, who has good knowledge on legends and places of T Narsipur taluk. Even though Gangas are contemporaries of Kadambas, with Dadiga or Kongunivarma founding the dynasty in AD 325, Kadambas get the credit as the first Kannada rulers. For some reasons, Gangas, who ruled the southern parts of the present Karnataka for over 700 years as kings and also for another 200 years as chieftains of Hoysalas and Vijayanagar empire, do not find a prominent place in history books.
Although, present Gangadikar Vokkaligas take pride in their ancestry of Gangas, Ganga rulers are not limited one faith or caste. Despite their first spiritual guide being a Jain Muni, they continued as Vaishnavas for a few generations. Then they became Jains. Again, they were back as Shaivas and also Vaishnavas for a couple of generations. They are the pioneers in farming, by cutting forests. Then they became warriors and returned to farming. The Halmidi inscription of Kadambas have some Sanskrit words, Gangas are the ones who gave the first Kannada inscription.
What are your plans now?
My book ‘Ganga Samrata Sripurusha’ is getting good, positive response. So far, I have referred 13 major books. There is a need for more research. Its English translation, with more inputs, will be released shortly. An enlarged and edited version in Kannada is in the pipeline. We formed Sripurusha Samskruthika Samudhaya in 2019 and conducted Sripurushothsava in 2020 and this year. We have identified the 1200-year-old memorial of Sripurusha at Mudukuthore near Talakad. It has to be conserved and developed. In 2020, we took out a motorbike rally from Bannur to Mudukuthore, to evoke the Ganga pride among the people of the villages on the route.
We plan to hold lectures on Gangas in schools, by eminent scholars like IRS officer Jayaram Raipura. We plan more books, plays, television serials and movies on Gangas.