Unlock secrets of folklore at the click of a mouse

Hubli: In  a marriage of the modern and traditional,  the Karnataka State Folklore University is preparing to give you a peep into the history, geography and  mythologies attached to  all 59,000 villages, including tandas and  hamlets of the state at the click of a mouse.

The university which has set up base in  Gotagodi village of Haveri district, is already halfway through the project, ‘Karnataka Grama Charitra Kosha’, that it embarked on last year.

The three-year project, the first of its kind in the country, will create separate volumes for each of the 30 districts of the state and upload them on the university’s official website.

Details of all 705 villages of Haveri district have already been collected  on a pilot basis and around 1000 pages of the first volume are likely to be published soon, complete with information on population, literacy rate, communities, costumes , traditions, lakes, mountains, and folk arts, besides monuments, sculptures, historic temples and basic amenities of the villages.

Two local experts have been appointed in over 200 taluks  and a local historian or littérateur will act as editor at the district level to scrutinise the information gathered by them.

“We have collected the relevant information about all villages in Haveri district under  a pilot project. We have also completed 80 per cent of the work in 10 other districts.

“The attempt to reconstruct the history of each village will help future generations understand them better,” says executive editor of the project,  K T Chikkanna,  who is  a former joint director of the Kannada and culture department.

Karnataka Folklore University vice-chancellor, Ambalike Hi­riyanna reveals the state government has already released Rs 1 crore for the ambitious project and the rural development and panchayat raj ministry has promised more funds for it.