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NEW BOOK ‘NANJAMMA CHINNAPPA: CHRONICLER OF COORG CULTURE’ LAUNCHED

Author and journalist P.T. Bopanna’s new book ‘Nanjamma Chinnappa: Chronicler of Coorg Culture’ was launched in Bengaluru on January 6.

Renowned Kodagu researcher and author Boverianda Nanjamma Chinnappa, passed away in March, 2024. Bopanna’s new book is a tribute to Nanjamma Chinnappa.

Nanjamma, a statistician of international repute, and her husband, Chinnappa, an engineer, left for Cambridge, England, in 1974 where Nanjamma was a Visiting Fellow of Cambridge University. In 1975, they went to Canada to continue their careers and returned to India in 1995.

Nanjamma and her late husband, Chinnappa, worked as a team in their various projects. The Chinnappas were closely associated with Bopanna’s book and website projects for over 15 years.

The first project of the Chinnappas after returning from Canada was to translate into English “Pattole Palame”, a book on Kodava culture, folk songs and traditions, written by their common grandfather, Nadikerianda Chinnappa in the Kodava language and first published in 1924.

“Pattole Palame”, literally meaning silken lore, was compiled by Nadikerianda Chinnappa, a police officer in the early 1920s. The book is known to be one of the earliest and most extensive collections of folklore of a community in any Indian language.  He started translating the folklore book into English, but died in 1931 before he could complete it. 

It took Nanjamma and her husband nearly eight years to complete the translation of the book into English which runs into 700-plus pages and was published in 2003. 

The couple will be remembered mainly for their monumental book ‘Ainmanes of Kodagu’, on the traditional dwelling places of the original inhabitants of Kodagu in Karnataka. The Chinnappas believed that “Ainmanes and their surroundings were sacred heritage sites that need to be preserved for future generations.”

The Chinnappas visited close to 700 traditional and functional ainmanes belonging to all communities in Kodagu, and had taken around 1,500 photographs during their field-work which lasted for five years. The book was published in 2014.

The highlight of Bopanna’s tenth book is the interview of Nanjamma by Dr Nervanda Veena Poonacha, eminent sociologist and women’s studies scholar. Veena had spoken to Nanjamma on the latter’s life journey.

The foreword for the book has been penned by Dr Sowmya Dechamma CC, Professor, Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad. She was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship for 2019-20.

The book has a chapter on introduction to Kodagu and Kodavas penned by the Chinnappas. There is also a chapter on introduction to Coorg cuisine by Nanjamma Chinnappa.

The cover has been designed by Bhakti Saraswat-Devaiah. The book, priced at Rs 195, has been published by Prism Books Pvt Ltd., Bengaluru.

Follow the link below to buy paperback copy of the book:

https://prismbooks.com/sku/info/nanjamma-chinnappa–chronicler-of-coorg-culture