Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sirigannadam Gelge, Sirigannadam Baalge

Wondering what the title is? People from Karnataka and who admire Kannada would actually get goose bumps reading this!

What does it mean? I searched on the internet to see if some scholar had already put up the meaning of this shout. But couldn't find one. But many people seemed to use it out of patriotism towards the region/state/language.

I will make an attempt to translate what this means. Be warned that I'm no scholar in Kannada. All I know is what I learnt through my schooling.

The phrase is a combination of the following words. The words belong to Kannada as spoken in ancient days.

Siri - Rich
Gannadam - Kannada
Gelge - Win
Baalge - Live

Roughly, the title phrase translates to:

The richness of Kannada will triumph, 
The richness of Kannada will live on!

And what a wonderful day to blog about this. Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the Republic of India recognizing all Kannada speaking regions in South India as Karnataka. It is what we call the "Karnataka Rajyotsava" (Festival of the [Formation of the] State of Karnataka), celebrated on the 1st of November every year.

Thanks to Seby, for giving this wonderful idea about blogging about Kannada on this day. He suggested that I teach one word a day, through my blog, to people who are interested to learn Kannada.

The journey thus begins!

9 comments:

  1. Thank you Mr. Vishwanath Y R, for writing this article.

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  2. yaaru sir, ee kareyannu kottiddu ... kannadadalli.....swalpa tilisteera. Nanage nenapiruva mattige idu Dr.Kuvempu avara baraha....

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    Replies
    1. Houdu, Kuvempu avru bardiddu antha naanu ankondidde. Aadre avru adanna janapriya maadiddu ashte. Modlu idanna bardiddu Rawa bahaddur deshpande avru antha illi odide. http://www.kamat.com/econtent/kannada_blog/blog.php?BlogID=551

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  3. Thanks Vishu, for the short, but impactful blog on the richness of our land and language.
    While we welcome everyone to Karnataka, we should not lose our identity. We should in fact encourage that those who have chosen to live in Karnataka appreciate the richness as well.

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  4. Hi Vishwanath Y R,

    Thanks You So Much for writing this so beautifully.

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  5. Sirigannadam gelge hirigannadam balge balge is from B M Srikanthaiah

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  6. "Sirigannadam gelge" ( Long live Kannada!) is a very common avocation in public assemblies in Karnataka. However, few are in the know that this pithy and richly meaningful phrase was coined by Rao Bahadur R.H. Deshapande more than a hundred years ago.

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  7. I actually think that Bramhi script is actually Paley Gannadam script, used by other languages. Many sanskrit words are now being traced to be of Kannada origin
    Hull (Plough) -> Kannada Tooth. earlier boar tooth or elephant tooth was used for ploughing
    Chandra -> Chanda (Round/Ball)
    Soochi -> Sooji (Needle)
    Meen -> Meena (Fish)
    Neer -> Neera (Water)
    Pur -> Oor -> Ooru (U or Bu in old Kannada is water, eer/eeru = stay/settle, settlement near water or cities)

    In Riggveda there are some old tribes mentioned, e.g.:
    Yadhu = Yadava (Yadava dynasty was Kannada dynasty)
    Yadus had culture of marrying maternal niece/uncle
    Arjuna was married to Subhadra
    The Ganga dynasty were Ikshavakus and they were Kannadigas
    So Kannadigas were key players in Ramayana and Mahabharatha
    It is probably possible that These tales were re-written in Sanskrit for which we are mistaken that they were of Sanskrit in origin
    Just like today everything is being written in English

    According to Jain muni Kumanendhu, Kannada is a Vedic era language

    All major rulers in India are of Kannada rulers
    Chalukyas
    Rashtrakootas
    Kadambas
    Hoyssalas
    Yadavas
    Seunas
    Senas
    Mallas
    Gangas
    Vijayanagara Samrajya
    Chutus
    Ratthas
    Nayakas
    Wodeyar
    Alluppas
    There is Kannada blood in every indian

    Sirigannadam Gelge
    Sirigannadam Belge

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