Kodagina Gowramma

Mrs. B. T. Gopal Krishna (1912 – 1939), better known as Kodagina Gowramma, was an Indian writer who wrote in Kannada and lived in Kodagu. She was also a feminist and a supporter of the Indian Freedom Movement.^[1]

Life

Gowramma was born in 1912 in Madikeri^[2] and married to B. T. Gopal Krishna of Gundugutti village of Somwarpet taluk in Kodagu, then known as Coorg, a province in British India. She had studied in a convent, played tennis and indulged in swimming even after her wedding, learnt Hindi in a remote town, corresponded with the important writers of her times, women as well as men, and she was deeply influenced by the independence movement.^[3] She invited Mahatma Gandhi to her family house, during his campaign in Coorg, and donated all her gold ornaments towards the Harijan (Dalit) Welfare Fund.^[4][5] She died young, while drowning in a whirlpool, aged 27, on April 13, 1939.^[6]

Works

Gowramma wrote in Kannada and on the feminist ideology using the pen name 'Kodagina Gowramma'.^[1] The stories that she wrote, such as “Aparaadhi Yaaru” (Who is the criminal), “Vaaniya Samasye”, “Aahuthi” and “Manuvina Raani”, were modern and progressive and numbered 21. It was her short story ”Manuvina Rani” that made her famous. Gowramma, has two collections of short stories to her credit, Kambani (Tears) and Chiguru (shoot), both of which were published posthumously. A volume of her best known stories, entitled Gowramma Kathegalu, were also issued from Madikeri.^[3][6]

Influence

Decades later, her works inspired Triveni, another woman writer in Kannada. A volume of Gowramma's stories were published as Mareyalagada Kathegalu and prefaced by yet another Kannada woman writer Vaidehi.^[3]

References