Dr. D.V. Gundappa, popularly known by his pen-name ‘D.V.G.’, was born on 17th March 1887 at Mulbagal, Kolar district, Karnataka.

DVG in his lifetime played different roles to the outer world as journalist, editor, biographer, poet, intellectual, litterateur and many more but deep within he was a humbleness personified man with utmost integrity which is a gold-standard for any era and time.

Formal education ended at Secondary School level, but he acquainted himself with the Vedas, the classics in Kannada, Sanskrit, Telugu and English, music and dance, and the speeches of Swami Vivekananda[F1] and the Presidents of the Congress. He was devoted to G.K. Gokhale[F2] and his thought.

• In 1907 he began contributing articles to newspapers and journals. He helped to compile ‘The Press Gag’, reactions against the Mysore Newspapers Regulation (1907).
• He started ‘The Karnataka ‘, a bi-weekly, ‘The Indian Review of Reviews’, ‘Public Affairs’, the journal of the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs. He stabilized the running of the ‘Karnataka Jana Jivana Mattu Arthasadhaka Patrike’ and the house journal of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat[F3].
• Acquainted with Sir M. Visvesvaraya he was nominated a member of the Bangalore Municipal Council (1912).
• Concerned about the problems of the Native States, he published many tracts on the subject. He was a member of the Committee on Constitutional Reforms in Mysore (1939) and of the Mysore Legislative Council (1926-1940).
• He was associated with the administration of Mysore since 1913, and with those who started the Congress in Mysore.

An outstanding Kannada litterateur, his works included lyrics like ‘Antahpura Gite’[F4], philosophical poems like ‘MankuThimmana Kagga‘[F5], biographies, and translations of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and Tennyson’s ‘The Cup’, essays on politics, culture and religion.

He has authored more than 50 books and accounts for 8000+ pages to his name.

• His phenomenal work ‘MankuThimmana Kagga’ is celebrated on daily basis even today and it is destined to live forever and this wouldn’t be an understatement.
• His lecture on the ‘Bhagvadgita'[F6] compiled as ‘Gita Tatparya’ or ‘Jivanadharma Yoga’ [F7] received the Sahitya Akademi Award[F8] in 1967.
• He was one of the editors of ‘Pampa Bharata’, an epic Kannada poem and of the English Kannada dictionary. He was also a Sanskrit scholar.
• Associated in 1915 with the founding of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat he was later its Vice President, extending its activities and enhancing its prestige.
• He also started the Gokhale Service League, The Mysore State Journalists Association, the Shorthand Writers Association, the Self Protection League and the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) [F9].

The University of Mysore conferred the Hon. D. Litton[F10] him in 1961. He received the Padma Bhushan[F11] in 1974 from the Government of India.

DVG in his entire life didn’t take any personal favours from the dignitaries he was associated with, he never once encashed on the services he rendered, he donated Rs. 1,00,000 collected to GIPA, his academy award cash to GIPA and has provided copyrights of most of his works to GIPA.

In October 1975 ‘D.V.G.’, journalist, political thinker, man of letters, founder and organizer of the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs and other institutions, passed away.

Intention of this article is just to capture the outline of what DVG is and what are his works in brief.We encourage you all to read more about DVG and we are sure he or his works will inspire you in one or the other way.

Footnotes / References

[F1] Swami Vivekananda was an Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna.He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century

[F2] G.K. Gokhale (Gopal Krishna Gokhale) was one of the political leaders and a social reformer during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India.

[F3] Kannada Sahitya Parishat is an Indian non-profit organisation that promotes the Kannada language. Its headquarters is in the city of Bengaluru in the state of Karnataka, India. It strives to promote Kannada language through publishing books, organising literary seminars and promoting research projects

[F4] Antahpura Gite are 60 Kannada poems penned by DVG  in 1950 after being mesmerised by the dexterous chisel of the stone sculptures at Belur,Karnataka

[F5] MankuThimmana Kagga is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Kannada literature

[F6] Bhagvadgita often referred to as the Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

[F7] ‘Gita Tatparya’ or ‘Jivanadharma Yoga’ is a modern exposition of the meaning and significance of the Bhagavadgita 

[F8] Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages

[F9] The Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs is an independent, non-party and non communal organization endeavoring to serve as a center for the education of the public for democratic citizenship. It seeks to Co-operate with, and seeks Co-operation from the Government and all public institutions in the country.

[F10] Hon. D. Litton to be considered as Honorary Doctorate

[F11] Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri.

Main Source of the article is from Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India and footnotes/references are majorly sourced from Wiki