Kayyara Kinhanna Rai technically lived in a state that mostly speaks Malayalam, but was a writer primarily in Kannada, even as he spoke Tulu at home.
This presence in three linguistic worlds at once, was possibly something that guided Rai’s life until he died on Sunday in his village in Perdala, near Badiyadka in Kasargod district. His family told The Hindu that Rai had given an interview to a Malayalam newspaper in the morning. They suspect that he suffered a heart attack.
In Rai’s case, a long life – he was 100 years old when he died – was a productive one. As a young man, he fought in the freedom struggle.
After independence though, he was part of the Karnataka Ekikarana movement – the Karnataka unification movement – that wanted all Kannada speaking areas to be brought within a single state. And while the linguistice re-organization achieved this in large part – his own village was brought under the state of Kerala.
The part of Kerala that Rai lived in, is in Kasargod district, that border Karnataka, Kasargod is divided almost into two equal parts by river Chandragiri and the land to the north of the river has often been considered the cultural border between the Tulu-speaking lands in Karnataka and the Malayalam-speaking parts of Kerala.
Rai always wanted this part too, to be included within the state of Karnataka, and had even formed the Kasargod Vilineekarana Kriya Samiti – a committee to merge the northern half of Kasargod with Karnataka. The Mahajan Commission of 1968 had recommended that the region north of the Chandragiri river be merged with Karnataka.
A prolific writer, Rai has written in Kannada, and has also translated numerous works from the Malayalam into Kannada, and include his autobiography Duditave Nanna Devaru. He has also worked as a journalist in Mangaluru.
One of his works is Koraga, a book on the Koraga community of coastal Karnataka. His other works include a translation of the Upanishads called Panchami, anthologies of poems called Punarnava, Shreemukha, Samgaana, and Chetana, a short story collection titled Anna Devaru Mathu Itara Kathegalu.
He has also been given various prestigious awards including Karnataka Ekikarana Award in 2007, the Sahitya Academy Award, the Nadoja Award and others.
He is survived by his wife, six sons and two daughters.
On Facebook, a number of people, including journalists, spoke of their meeting with the writer, or shared memories of him. A page of the Bunt community, into which the writer was born, also put up a post condoling his death.