by Mysore Prabha

The doyen of Harikatha world, Sri Achyuta Das, is no more. In his passing away, he has left a void probably never to be filled.

Harikatha is one of our ancient, traditional art forms where philosophy and life values are taught to people in a musical form. My father K. Srikantiah, time and again says, “One can with effort become a singer, a dramatist, an orator, a scholar, a humorist, a linguist. But only a combination of all these qualifications added to excellent memory can make a person a Harikatha Vidwan.”

Such is the depth and merit of our Harikatha Art. This dying art was kept alive, thanks to a few scholars like Sri Achyuta Das. His Harikathas would have flashes of Karnatak music, Hindustani music, bhajans, humour, bhakti, satire, navarasas and worldly knowledge. No wonder it would reach out to a large number of people and attract a huge fan-following. Achyuta Das performed in various languages like Kannada, Marathi, Konkani, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Listening to three hours of his Harikatha would be equivalent to reading 300 hours of various books. That was the sort of knowledge that a listener would gain!

Achyuta Das was a very close friend to my father. His Harikatha performance was a regular fixture in our annual Sri Ramanavami Music Festival at Mysore for the past 40 years. He was a ‘Sadhu’ in the true sense of the word. Such was his affection for my father that he himself, would call us around December-January, give a date for his performance for our festival and then start off on his far-flung tours. And on the day of his programme, without any prior intimation, he would be at the venue of the programme in Mysore promptly at 6 pm, be it from Bangalore, Hassan, Maharashtra, Andhra, or even a place as remote as Chambal Valley! He used to tour all over India in his well-equipped caravan-like orange coloured van. He always had a kind word, a blessing, an encouragement to anyone and everyone who came to him.

Sri Achyuta Das has without doubt led a worthy life – touching a lot of lives with his discourses. It was our proud privilege to honour this saintly Vidwan during our silver jubilee Ramanavami Festival at Mysore in the year 1994. May his soul rest in peace.

Remembering Santa Bhadragiri Achyuta Das

by K. Vijay Kumar

With great sadness, I read about the demise of Harikatha Vidwan, exponent of this age old Katha Keerthana, Santa Bhadragiri Achyuta Das, only after reading Chiranjiv Singh’s fortnightly column in Vijaya Karnataka on Oct. 26, but not from any of a few prominent newspapers that I read daily.

I was so fond of listening to him, I would rarely miss any of his Harikathas from the days of his week-long programmes every year at Geetha Mandira in Halladakeri years ago.

Now I would like to recall how I had invited him to ATI somewhere in 1992 or so when Chiranjiv Singh was Director and I a Faculty Member, to address my Department’s (Information and Publicity) probationary officers who were undergoing a job course. I had suggested Achyuta Das to speak on effective communication and ethics in administration, as I had considered Achyuta Das himself a very effective communicator.

Our probationary officers were very apprehensive to listen to a Harikatha Vidwan. But, the Director Chiranjiv Singh himself sat through the session along with the officers.

It was a new experience to probationers to listen to him, who at the end wanted Das to come again to address them. After the session, Chiranjiv Singh took Achyuth Das to plant a sapling in the ATI, which is there even today as a remembrance of this great Harikatha Vidwan. May His Soul rest in peace.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / October 24th, 2013